mbarker: (ISeeYou2)
[personal profile] mbarker
 Original posting Dec. 30, 2018

Start!

The funeral really started when they played Pop Goes The Weasel and the coffin lid swung back...

There you go. Take that line, and write that scene! Who is at the funeral, who is in the coffin, and just what did happen when the music played?
mbarker: (Fireworks Delight)
[personal profile] mbarker
 Original Posting Nov. 26, 2018

Not sure what prompted this, but I was thinking this morning about...

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into my hotel room, and the little three-eyed alien stuck its head out of the closet and whimpered.

Who is this wandering stranger? Why are they in a hotel? And who is the little three-eyed alien whimpering in the closet? What happens next?

Go for it. Write that scene! You can use this to start a piece, and continue from there. Or you can simply write it into your story at an appropriate point. Or even trash it, but include the spirit of it in your story?

The key, of course, is to...
WRITE!
mbarker: (Burp)
[personal profile] mbarker
Original Posting March 3, 2017

This morning, walking in to work, something dropped this line into my brain:

Under the morning sun, burning through the fog, it was just a rusty bench on a beach where a prince sat, staring out at the waves, his flippers curled underneath him.

There you go! Feel free to use, abuse, or even transform this line, and tell us about this prince and his flippers. Merman? Someone looking for that littlest mermaid? Well, you think about it, and then...
WRITE!
tink


[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original Posting Dec. 27, 2016

One fine morning recently, I woke up with this line running through the little grey cells...

The steeplechase that day killed three of them, and...

Go ahead. Finish the line, or perhaps just use the line as is? Beginning of a tale, or perhaps embedded in it? Heck, even just a seed for you to think about, and then write your own tale.

Just write, okay?
tink
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original Posting May 25, 2016

Pull gently on the rope, and...

Roll your dice and pick one of the following:

1. Policeman
2. Priest
3. Psychologist
4. Ship's captain
5. Homeless vagabond
6. Pick your own role

Then add that person to the following starting line:

The (insert role here) asked, "Why did you drown your robots?"

Now, what does the other character answer? And then what happens?

Go ahead. Why did your character drown his or her robots? What do they answer when asked? And how does it play out?

Write that scene!

[This exercise suggested by a scrap of dialogue in Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary today, for those who wonder.]

Hear the motors cranking up and starting to rumble?

Now write!
tink
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original Posting Jan. 17, 2016

Mitsuko took me out for a walk around one of the local malls this afternoon, since it was chilly. Wandering around, watching the crowds, wondering what they were all doing there, my eye was caught by the blue glitter around the wrist of a young girl, maybe six or seven years old. Then I realized it was handcuffs! One fastened on her wrist, the chain dangling down, and the other fastened on the wrist of a plump brown teddy bear, jiggling and dancing along beside his young friend. The handcuffs were a bright metallic blue, like a beetle or perhaps peacock feather?

Anyway, as I was pondering on just what led to this juxtaposition, I realized there might be a writing prompt there. So...

They had handcuffed us together.

There. That's your starting line. Who got handcuffed together, why, and what are they trying to do as the odd couple who are literally chained together? You decide. The old escapees, one from each group that can't stand each other, but now they need to work together to get away? Or maybe something more modern, like my young friend and her teddy bear? Pick your two characters, get the cuffs on them, and... Tell us what happens!

Write!
tink
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original posting 3 April 2009

Hum? Over here http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/2009/04/writing-exercise.html Louise Marley passes along Kay Kenyon's suggestion about a good writers' workshop exercise. I'm not quite sure how we can transform this for the online world, but maybe we can come up with a way to do it.

First step apparently is to have everyone in the group toss in a starting line. Just one line! Come on, we can do that (Who collects them? Have a Master of the Exercise, aka ME?)

Then I think they are saying everyone pulls one line from the bowl? Hum, that's kind of hard to do online? Maybe have the ME send out one line and we'll all work against that? Anyway, this step is to write from that starting line for five minutes. Five minutes? Heck, you can do that. And share the results (read out loud looks a lot like post to the list, right?).

Next, they suggest pulling another line from the bowl. I guess the ME posts another line? And write again, but this time for 10 minutes. Quick, quick, just let the words run. And share again.

Final stage. One more line from the ME. And write once more, but this time for 20 minutes. And share once more.

Hum -- they suggest that in an hour (20 + 10 + 5 is about 35, plus sharing time?) you can write some surprising and interesting stuff. Something to warm up the old writing musculature. In our case, it would probably take... 4 days? One day for suggesting lines, one day for each timed writing spree and responses? Plus another day for talking about how it went, which makes a nice week of running rampant?

Oh, and for bonus points, maybe the ME could post the extra lines sometime for those of us who might like to just use them for starting points? Yeah, sounds like a plan.

Could be interesting? What do you think? Anybody want to be the ME?

Skyrockets in flight, quick writing delight?

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