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Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

Tuesday prompts

Tuesday prompt: #30 2012

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Today you will describe something in detail.  Pick something on your desk or think back on a favorite toy, your first car, the dinner your ordered at a favorite restaurant or the worst pizza you had at a bowling alley in some hokey town you passed through late one night.  Get deep into describing it.  Work it over and over, removing, adding, choosing precise wording.  Don’t stop until you have covered everything.  Then determine the focus and cut to the most profound of your imagery.

Tuesday prompt: #29 2012

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For this writing prompt, make up a holiday. 

  1. Example:  Happy Hoop Skirt Day.  
  2. Now decide how it would be celebrated.  Clearly every girl would be wearing hoops under their skirts, and perhaps a few fellows would as well.  Maybe there is a special drink with tiny rings floating in it that rise and fall.  And there are ring toss challenge games all around town with a winner named at the end of the day.
  3. Now that you have all that figured out, add a few characters and write how the holiday went for them.

Tuesday prompt: #28 2012

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 Point of view should make use of a number of characterization features.  So in this prompt, imagine a creature, intelligent or otherwise.  Write what this creature sees, but include characterization.

  • One way to supply character through point of view is to include how the creature feels about what he sees.  This does not mean that you should write that he is looking forward to eating that rabbit.  Describe the rabbit in terms of potential lunch: scrawny; plump; practical ways to avoid getting too much of that soft, white fur in his mouth; and the smell of just dead meat.  
  • Also think of word choice; you may even make a few up that would seem appropriate to your creature.  His word for snack or lunch might be “the mid-day gnarle.”  
  • Other characterization would include what is important to him. A predator would not make note of the color of the sky unless it denotes a particular time of day or season or weather important to him.
  • Consider giving him a specific quality: speed, visual acuity or discernment (he might be able to see in infrared, for example), silent movement.  
  • Consider a flaw: he drools copious amounts or suffers from the shakes or an injured hip.

Write about a paragraph.  I look forward to seeing it, so post it in the comment box.

Tuesday prompt: #27 2012

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write behind the door

Sit somewhere unusual, i.e., under a table, behind a chair, in the part of your yard no one ever goes.  Get comfortable and make sure you have something to write on: paper, iPad, laptop, paper napkin, and something to write with, pencil, pen, fingers.  Close your eyes, clear your mind, then write whatever slips in.

Tuesday prompt: #26 2012

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First grab a book off a shelf, any book.  Then close your eyes, flip it open and plant your finger on the page. You are welcome to swirl your finger about if you wish first.  Where it lands is the first line of what one character says to another.  Start your story there.

Sample: “used to ride a horse, which had feet that were almost human, the hoofs being cleft like toes.”  (Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould, p. 177)

     “I say,” Judson said, “he used to ride a horse, which had feet that were almost human, the hoofs being cleft like toes.”
     “Are you daft?” I said.
     “Really. It’s part of history,” Judson sputtered.  “I read it just this morning.  Caesar rode such a horse.”
     I sat back on my heals and tried to look at the new born colt in this different light. The feet were not human, but there were in fact three toes on each hoof where there should have only been one solid toe.

   

Tuesday prompt: #25 2012

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This prompt is a bit different.  In fact, there are five prompts.  Start with the first and each day add to your written idea letting the day’s prompt add a new twist to the situation.

Day 1:  an argument (internal or external)
Day 2:  blue skies
Day 3:  the sound of time passing
Day 4:  something breaks
Day 5:  no forgiveness

Use the next two days to add, rework or set aside.  Let cool, prod until warm again, let cool.  Decide what to do with it.