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Writing Prompts – Week of Monday, February 23rd. to Sunday March 1st., 2015.

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Writing Prompts:

  1. You die, only to find that heaven is only hell.
  2. What do you see on the other side of the door when you look through a peephole?
  3. A druid finds an ill elf in the crook of a tree.
  4. Force a relationship between two seemingly different things. For example: How is friendship like a baseball game?
  5. A dire warning about the end of the world appears on a computer screen during your Internet search for Nostradamus.
  6. “You need three hats for a one-day outing, why?!”
  7. Write a short dialogue between two political candidates about an issue you care absolutely nothing about.
  8. If we get to the garage first…
  9. Write about a world where 1+1 does not equal 2.
  10. While climbing a mountain in the Himalayas, one climber falls into a ravine and dies, and the rest of the group…
  11. Your dream job becomes a nightmare.
  12. She/he climbed the tree to get a better view, but what she/he saw frightened her/him even more.
  13. “Pick a card, any card!” The magician held the deck out. Cautiously, a member of the audience began to pull a card…
  14. You are elected the mayor of a town you are visiting, but you don’t know the language spoken there.
  15. An old friend finds you on a social networking site.

~Sara

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here and from Writing.com. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.


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Writing Prompts: July 24th – August 3rd, 2014.

Writing Prompts

 

  1. While visiting Cuba, a strange event occurs…
  2. Bread, milk, eggs and a hammer…
  3. Pick a marketing slogan and use the individual words from the slogan in a poem.
  4. Every time the nurse at the doctors office sticks you with a needle, you get a huge red spot on the injection site but this time an infection results.
  5. Write about three things that really make you happy.
  6. Write about three things that really make you sad.
  7. A long time ago, in the days before mobile phones, we used to use…
  8. In the future, we won’t use mobile phones to communicate, we’ll use…
  9. A tidal wave hits the beach.
  10. A photographer travels to New Mexico to photograph wild horses but ends up capturing something much more…
  11. Write a letter of protest to the government about something completely absurd.
  12. Write a poem or story using the following words: generations, trouble, tender, and vibrant.
  13. You wake up to find yourself in a deserted Supermarket parking lot, crumpled up in a shopping cart at 4am. You have a bottle in your hand with no recollection of your life or who you even are…
  14. While on a vacation in Banff, Alberta you go on a hike with a group of fellow travellers. While on the hike, the tour guide slips and falls into a ravine and dies. The rest of the group must…
  15. While writing in a dark forest, cowering behind a tall pine tree…

 
~Sara @LunaElektraSMC
 
Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.


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Writing Prompts: July 10th – July 21st, 2014.

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Writing Prompts:

July 10th – July 21st, 2014.

 

  1. You found a winning lottery ticket in a bus station.
  2. You can’t decide between a vacation in the mountains or at the beach, so you …
  3. Your utilities are suddenly shut off in your home.
  4. The copier wasn’t working again and I was on my last nerve when suddenly…
  5. The car’s battery suddenly died on the way to the awards ceremony and she/he was expecting to win the top award….
  6. She/he was so glad that she/he made the mistake of doing…
  7. A couple searching for a new town to raise their baby in, thought they had asked all the right questions… Unfortunately, they forgot to ask the most important one…
  8. The person you’re most compatible with turns out to be an artificially intelligent (AI) computer.
  9. Write about spending a day with your personal hero (living or dead).
  10. A movie rental isn’t the movie on the cover, it’s a local politician in a very delicate position…
  11. The new pool was installed and the invitations were sent. But would anyone show up for the party?
  12. The mountain looked intimidating but her/his life depended on getting to the bottom.
  13. … And *poof* he/she/they was/were gone.
  14. Someone tries to kill you for possessing a figurine that an old friend had sent you as a gift.
  15. You are being driven around by the worst driver ever.

~Sara

Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.


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Writing Prompts: June 29th – July 6th, 2014.

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  1. It was the mean-spirited nature behind it that really bothered him/her. He/she didn’t mind not making the team. What ticked him/her off about it was…
  2. For some reason the ______ aren’t happy today.
  3. Write a mock editorial about something quite serious.
  4. The subject was learning faster than they expected. It was time to up the ante…
  5. Your friend discovers an alternative fuel that could potentially alter earth forever…
  6. Write a story or poem that begins with: “There was only one way out, so I chose to do…”
  7. The ink blobbed on the small white card reminded him/her of…
  8. “I can’t believe you cheated on him/her. He’s/she’s so HOT!”
  9. Thank goodness _______ insisted we take all those _______.
  10. You had given up hope ever finding your dog. But while driving through your neighbourhood, you see your dog on a leash leading a blind person across a very busy street… What do you say or do?
  11. Write a story about two sisters/brothers/friends vacationing in a Southeast Asian country, on a shoestring budget.
  12. What does a person mean when they say they need space?
  13. Jot down twenty words about your life; use them to create a poem or story about something other than your life…
  14. Write a recipe for successful recipe writing.
  15. You thought you’d enrolled in a class about _______. During the first session, you find it’s something else instead…
  16. He/she crouched behind the sofa in terror as a hand came through the window.
  17. Write about the color ______.
  18. Write about something that irks you or brings you joy.
  19. Write a short poem about the first thing you remember thinking about today.
  20. An unknown person from Egypt sends you a box containing a rock etched with peculiar hieroglyphics.

~Sara
 
Prompts from: Apple Apps Store, Writing Prompts by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. Download with iTunes here. With grammar and typos of prompts corrected, copy-edited and tweaked for relevance.


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Supernatural and Sci-Fi Writing Prompts

Supernatural - Sci-Fi Writing Prompts

Supernatural and Sci-Fi Writing Prompts

Week of December 1st – 8th, 2013.

  1. Write a creative nonfiction story about the first time you met your invisible childhood friend. Didn’t have an invisible childhood friend? Write a fictional account or write about someone else who did have one.
  2. Yellow and blue make green so that must mean that in an alternate reality red and blue make…
  3. While at WonderCon in Anaheim, California, you see a man, dressed as Jessica Alba’s character Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman) from the move Fantastic Four running full speed towards a brick wall yelling, “But I’m invisible!” in a high-pitched squeaky voice…What happens next?
  4. Seven of Nine was late, again. She was always late. As the door opened, she walked out of her cortical node from recharging and…
  5. An intergalactic detective and his dog communicate telepathically while trying to stop the criminals from taking over cyber pet food industry.
  6. A teenager looking through his telescope discovers a new comet – but this time it is even bigger than Comet ISON and it doesn’t miss the sun, oh no! What happens next?
  7. Pick a random location on a star map (or pick a planet in the Milky Way Galaxy or the Andromeda Galaxy) and write about it. Imagine what life is like on this other planet or star.
  8. William Shatner (or Gene Roddenberry) is more important than Carl Sagan because…
  9. A Klingon, A Vulcan and a Human walk onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise when Captain Kirk says, “Beam me up, Scotty“…
  10. A love triangle between an alien, a scientist and a human changes the world, as we know it…
  11. Turn on the local weather forecast and imagine the current conditions taken to supernatural extreme. Write a short story or poem about it.
  12. Go to Google News. Pick the worst or the most shocking news headline available. Read the article to become familiar with the issue(s) presented. Rewrite the bad news (or shocking headline) from a positive perspective and make it quite fantastical…
  13. While on vacation in Edinburgh, Scotland, you decide to take a tour of the mansion previously owned by children’s author J.K. Rowling in Merchiston. While on the tour, you open a closet door in the front foyer and magically you are transported to the village of Hogsmeade from her Harry Potter novels! Write a story about your adventure.
  14. Include the following word-terms in a story: the duck test; a rubber duck; a skein of yarn; a flock of geese; quackery. But include characters from the television series, the Fringe.
  15. You wake up one morning to find you can only walk sideways, like a crab.
  16. You are invited to appear as a guest on the Montel Williams Show – You suspect it has something to do with your recently acquired abilities to forecast the future like his psychic guru Sylvia Browne…
  17. In the cosmetic research labs at L’Oreal Paris in Aulnay, France, scientists and chemists formulate the perfect formula to finally…
  18. Write a love poem from the perspective of a space pirate ship captain writing to the woman he loves back on earth.
  19. Inside No Frills grocery store, you watch people mysteriously disappear into a freezer that contains Captain High Liner Frozen Fish Sticks…
  20. A streetcar full of people vanishes right before your eyes on a crowded downtown street in Toronto.
  21. You work at an online tabloid magazine. One morning when you check your email, you find you have received a very strange email from an anonymous source with a short video attached. The video is of a prominent, local politician consumed by a plume of smoke while discussing earth’s imminent takeover by an alien invasion…
  22. After you miss answering a call on your cell phone, you see that you have received a voice mail message. When you play it back, you hear a very agitated, eerie and disembodied voice mixed in with white noise yelling out the 80’s billboard slogan (created by artist Keith Harring), “Crack is whack!” repeatedly…
  23. A couple takes a helicopter ride to a remote island in the south pacific for a romantic dinner but end up being trapped on the island in the midst of an oncoming supernatural Typhoon…
  24. A teenager discovers a virus lurking on a computer in a high school that could destroy the Internet, as we know it!
  25. “Happy New Year!” he (or she) screamed. “2022 is going to be a great year… with your help, of course!”
  26. In Vulcan, Alberta, a hostile stranger with pointy ears stops you on main street demanding directions to the nearest spaceship-landing zone?! What do you do or say to them?

~Sara


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Sara’s Writing Prompts

S Writing Prompt Graphic - Adobe01Hello!  So have you been busy writing this past week or have you been too busy getting the kids ready for the first day back to school?  Do you need some inspiration or a prompt to get  your creativity flowing?  Yes?  Good!  I have a whole list of writing prompts just for you.  Take a few minutes, consider where these prompts will lead you then write on!

 

Prompts:

Week of August 26th to September 1st, 2013.

  1. Little did John know the panther was just yards away, watching his every move.
  2. A straight line and a curved line argue which one is more useful.
  3. An unknown person from Egypt sends you a box containing a rock etched with hieroglyphics.
  4. One day, your dog starts talking to you.
  5. Right before she dies, your mother tells you you’re adopted.
  6. He raised his goblet: “Cheers! Here’s to Love!” Then she quipped back, “Define Love.”
  7. Write about the smallest insect you’ve ever seen.
  8. A frozen pond in the middle of the desert catches the attention of scientists from around the world.
  9. You’re in a log cabin deep in the woods. No utilities. Lake plentiful with fish and a prehistoric animal…
  10. You just discovered the reason your adopted son is so disruptive of every aspect of family life: Attachment Disorder. What now?
  11. “Your name will be in lights, kiddo!” said D. W. Griffith to Mary Pickford.
  12. A day after you submit your thesis, you get a call from the Director of the CIA or CSIS/CSEC.
  13. Write about the life of a box of Lime Jello.
  14. Now you know the reason your neighbor has been sitting in his yard, looking at his shed and brooding.
  15. If you could get a job in any occupation, what would you do for a living?
  16. Add a dab of this, a dribble of that and stir. Within seconds, you’ll have…
  17. The commercials said the shampoo would make my hair grow strong. I didn’t expect…
  18. I don’t usually read the end of a book first, but this time I just had to know!
  19. A for-hire corporate spy has stolen a flash-drive with sensitive information on it. He must transfer it to his employer within the next week because…
  20. A ring is found with an intriguing inscription inside.
  21. Pick a marketing slogan and use it in a poem or short-story.
  22. You are being driven around by the worst driver ever.
  23. The calendar says March 10th, but the last day you remember is March 1st.
  24. A stop at the pub on the way home changed his destiny.
  25. A circle, a square and a triangle…
  26. When her cell phone rings, they think nothing of it. But when his rings too…
  27. “Couldn’t you hear me knocking?” she asked. “Uh, no… I was… “
  28. The cup tipped over, spilling its contents onto her mobile phone, which was the only remaining connection to the outside world.
  29. If life is a TV channel, I’m currently on…

Prompts gathered from Writing.com.


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Sara’s Writing Prompts: Film and Media Edition!

Hooray for Hollywood! There's no business like show business.

Hooray for Hollywood! There’s no business like show business.

 

Hello there! Did you get all your pieces handed in for the BWC Anthology? Yes?! Great!  I know I dillydallied getting around to handing mine in on time too.  So this week for writing prompts I thought we could take a look at story telling from the perspective of Media and Communications.  We need a break from all that frenzied typing and formatting we did to get our submissions in on time!

Let’s have some fun and write something about what we watch, hear and consume from media daily.  Whether it’s from those annoying Sham-WOW commercials with Vince the Sham-WOW-Guy to Movie Blockbusters and Classic Silver Screen Gems, or even to the dishy tell-all books we read about our favorite celebrities.   We’ll use these examples as inspiration to create our own narrative spin on some of Hollywood’s most popular stories along with ideas from the music industry as well.  Grab your pencils or flex those fingers over your keyboard, and let’s begin!

 

Writing Prompts:

  • List ten things you do when you procrastinate then turn them into a television advertisement for ADHD medication and/or products.  Use this as your tagline: I never finish what I… 😛
  • Retell the Nativity Story in modern or urban/ghetto diatribe-language. Feel free to channel the West Coast Hip-Hop style of Tupac Shakur or if you want to be grittier, go East Coast style with Jay-Z.  😉
  • Write about what you’d say to an unexpected guest use the film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn or for Generation X-Y (Millennials) use the rebooted version, “Guess Who” with Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher and Zoë Saldaña.  What happens next? Tell us!
  • Write an excuse for not working today or missing school. Think “Office Space” with Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston and the curious case of employee redundancy with the character Milton. Or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” with Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara and perhaps elaborate further upon Ben Stein’s characters’ infamous monotone teaching soliloquy.
  • Imagine your life is now a book sitting on a store shelf.  A book, you didn’t authorize!  – What does the blurb on the inside of the book cover reveal? Think “Oprah: A Biography” by Kitty Kelley or “Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography” by Andrew Morton. Make it under 500 words and all of it complete fiction!
  •  Create a story, script, play or poem inspired by a line in a Margret Atwood novel, film, story or poem.

Movie Plot Remixes:

  • A Hippie or Hipster (for Gen. X-Y) bride and groom have a way-out-there New Age wedding!  Tell us what transpires…Think “Betsy’s Wedding” with Alan Alda and Molly Ringwald or the original film version of “The In-Laws” with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin.
  •  A handsome college graduate student who’s working as a pizza delivery boy gets a very special tip…Think “The Graduate “ with Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft or “Loverboy” with Patrick Dempsey, Kirstie Alley and Carrie Fisher.
  •  A river rafting trip leads to new friends and enemies…Think “Deliverance” with Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds for a darker perspective or for Gen. X-Y try a tamer reboot of “Without a Paddle” starring Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard.
  •  A good friend becomes a leader of a cult or high priest in a coven of witches…Think “Sound of My Voice” with Brit Marling, “Rosemary’s Baby” with Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon and Ralph Bellamy or for Gen. X-Y:  “The Craft” with Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell.

***If you’re feeling especially brave, mix a few of these plots and characters together and write a farcical type of story!***

Have fun with these gone Hollywood prompts and Write On!

~Sara

References and prompt ideas from:
“Creative Writing Prompts a Reader’s Digest Magazine”, Creative Writing Prompts Online.
Creative Writing Prompts Online, n.d. Web. 1 August 2013.
http://creativewritingprompts.com/
“Hatch’s Plot Bank”, Creative Writing Prompts Online.
Hatch’s Plot Bank Online, n.d. Web. 1 August 2013.
http://www.angelfire.com/nc/tcrpress/plotbank.html


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Canadian Version of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ Looking for Stories

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From one of the editors of a new Chicken Soup for the Soul books:

EXCITING NEWS! 
Because you are receiving this you are in my e-mail address book as someone I’ve had contact with over the years – perhaps through Chicken Soup for the Soul, or from any one of a number of different ventures.
Regardless of how I know you, I’m very excited to announce that I’ve just been invited to co-author a brand new Canadian title, Chicken Soup for the Soul O Canada The Wonders of Winter!
The reason for my message today? We’re looking for stories from people just like you, who might enjoy being published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. We want true stories, 1200 words or less, about how you embraced and made the most of challenging or amusing winter situations. Here are some examples of topics, but we know you can think of many more:
  •  Hockey
  •  The support of family during the long cold months
  •  Friendships created out of the cold days and long nights
  •  Driving in the winter
  •  Dressing for the weather
  •  The back-yard skating rink!
  •  Winter sports: Hockey, curling, ice fishing, skiing, tobogganing, skating etc.
  •  Best winter foods and events
  •  Shovelling the driveway; de-icing the car, travelling in the winter.
  •  Christmas and holiday traditions
  •  Hockey 
      Because this book will be released in time for Christmas 2013, the deadline for stories is July 10. For writers guidelines and how to submit your story visit www.canadiansoul.com. I wish you great success with your writing, and I really hope to hear from you!
 Love to you,
Janet Matthews
Co-author of
Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul 
This would be a great way to get some exposure and earn yourself some money!


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Sara’s Writing Prompts

writing-prompt-wednesday

From BWC member Sara Cadman:

Hi folks! I thought I’d leave some of the writing prompts I came across from writing.com with their automated prompter thingy hehe :) What about one of these prompts to work on for next week? Here goes:

Prompts:

~The biopsy of a swollen gland reveals an extraordinary medical diagnosis.

~Write a mystery story using a ferret as a key witness or an important component in the plot.

~A woman travels from galaxy to galaxy to find a planet where males have never dominated females.

~You accidentally step into a territory where a cult is awaiting the return of an alien species, and they think you are…

~The washing machine said it wanted to be a mobile phone.

~A computer hacker falls in love with one of his victims, a company head who is a young, beautiful heiress.

~A person addicted to failure starts another seemingly doomed project, but this time…

~An SOS note on a Tim Horton’s [original: Dunkin’ Donuts] napkin makes a detective visit several doughnut stores to solve a possible crime.

~Pick any classic novel. Take any of the least seen/used characters in the book and expand the story from their point of view.

~Space pirates kidnap the ruling bodies of every nation on earth.

~All you wanted was a bottle of water, but instead you’re witnessing a holdup.

~A dire warning about the end of the world appears on a computer screen during your Internet search for Nostradamus.

~You find yourself in a parallel universe and on earth where the Roman Empire, with all its power, has made it to the 21st century.

Last but not least an interesting prompt to re-imagine and re-fabricate this well-known internet-meme story, this prompt based on an actual ad:

~You answer an ad that reads: “Wanted someone to travel back in time with me. Must have own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. Call…”

***Originally this ad was posted in the September/October 1997 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine by one of the magazines editors. It was written as a joke and to fill space in the magazine’s classified section. The original ad as it appeared was:

WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me.
This is not a joke. P.O. Box 322, Oakview, CA 93022.
You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own
weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this
once before.

This spawned the 2012 American comedy film, “Safety Not Guaranteed”, that starred: Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Kristen Bell.

John Silveira, “The time-ravel ad.” John Silveira, 2010.
September/October 2010.

Good luck and write on! :)

Hopefully, there is something here for everyone. Thanks Sara!