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Science Fiction & Fantasy author

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Writing prompt

Tuesday Prompt: 2012 #11

March 13, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

Open a thesaurus or dictionary and look for really great words. Then just start writing until you find a place for each word.  Here are a few to consider:

sibilance
raucity
scrounge
hushcloth
tenebrosity

Filed Under: Tuesday prompts Tagged With: Writing prompt

Tuesday Prompt: 2012 #10

March 6, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

Write with a strong image in mind.  Let it stay prominent so that it keeps reappearing in different forms, offering new meaning.  Use water or paper or a jumble of wires.

So for example, I’ll use sky.

She lay on her back counting stars as they appeared, searching out the steady light of planets, waiting for a new day that would need the night to mature.  The lights of her neighbor’s back porch forced her to shield one eye which cut off one side of the horizon, but it left her the inky blackness right up to the fence line, just one more limitation on her future.  Yet the stars still offered her clear skies with just a hint of confusion in a drift of Milky Way, so she imagined a boat load of friends could come by way of the Pleiades, and how could one argue with that.  She sighed and closed her eyes a moment to clear the jangle of thoughts that wanted to crowd out her contemplation of possibilities, and when she opened them, the neighbor’s porch light went out.  Before her a vastness spread, and the clean night presented stunning promise in abundance.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Writing prompt

Taking in the view at Missed Connections

March 2, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

I just wandered around Blogspot and landed at this blog, Missed Connections, with wonderful e-versions of posters.  Each one told a story, and I thought what a great set of visual prompts.  One had a woman in a tribal print dress on a street corner.  The caption stated that the woman and another person, strangers to each other, started talking about the weather, awkwardly.  That moment could easily become the beginning of a story, poem, or prose essay.  So if you are stumped for something to write about, go to this blog and look at the pictures.  One, if not all, will get your creative juices going.  Of course, you are likely to look at all of them just for the joy of it.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Books and blogs, Writing, Writing prompt

Tuesday Prompt: 2012 #9

February 28, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

Write a mythology.  
Possible idea: Why do giraffes have long necks and no voice, and what are those funny horn bobs for?
Possible idea #2: Why do mother cats carry their young by the neck?
Possible idea #3:  Why do male sea horses carry the eggs to maturity and not the females?

There are scientific explanations for all of these.  Come up with a mythological reason for your choice of biological mystery.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Writing prompt

Tuesday prompt: 2012 #8

February 21, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

In the past I have often given my students a famous quote to think about and then write using the idea they drew from the quote.  So here is one from Helen Keller:
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

Give it some thought and see where it takes your muse.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Writing prompt

Tuesday prompt: 2012 #7

February 14, 2012 by L. Darby Gibbs

In Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Mr. Lorry holds an imaginary conversation with Dr. Manette, who is newly released from prison. The imaginary conversation is tied around the question, “How long have you been buried?” It takes numerous twists and turns as Lorry considers all the variety of ways that Manette could reply, keeping in mind that the man may be suffering from madness after his long confinement and unable to maintain a coherent conversation.

exerpt:

“Buried how long?”
The answer was always the same: “Almost eighteen years.”
“You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?”
“They tell me so.”
“I hope you care to live?”
“I can’t say.”
“Shall I show her to you?  Will you come and see her?”

The answers to this question were various and contradictory.  Sometimes the broken reply was, “Wait! It would kill me if I saw her too soon.” Sometimes, it was given in a tender rain of tears, and then it was, “Take me to her.”  Sometimes it was staring and bewildered, and then it was, “I don’t know her.  I don’t understand.”

So for this prompt, have one character ask a question that is open to metaphorical interpretation. The response to the question should be an imagined response, and like Lorry’s conversation in A Tale of Two Cities repeated with slight variations so that the conflict is slowly developed.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Writing prompt

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