Bettina's Books: Two Prompts for the Price of One

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Two Prompts for the Price of One

I've finally made the leap into Twitter. It looks like a phenomenal time-waster, but might also be great for finding fellow writers and getting advice from literary agents. There is a writing prompt posted there right now, under my name ( ‏@PartTimeAuthor).

Don't worry; I'll still post prompts here... and they'll be different from the ones on Twitter. That means you'll get 2 prompts whenever I post, rather than just seeing the same material recycled on each site.

My Twitter Prompt was about the weather, so this one should be about something less mundane. Let's try... sea monsters!

One good thing that came from posting on Twitter was my new idea that people could request a personalized writing prompt. Want to get started on that steamy romance novel, but don't know what your character should look like? Need a hint about how to begin a fantasy story? Email me at assumeavirtue@sbcglobal.net, or find me on Twitter, and I'll respond ASAP.

Okay, enough stalling... on to the prompt!

Salty Depths Prompt: The ship swayed gently underfoot, and the half-full form of the moon lit up the surrounding waters like a searchlight across a rolling prairie. He strolled easily across the deck to the port side rail, his feet finding the wooden boards without difficulty despite their ever-changing positions. Across the moonlight-speckled waters, he saw something break the surface, something unlike any marine life that should be in this region. The only way to describe it was...

Have fun, and keep writing!

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Writing Prompts: Traditional and Bookends

This section contains traditional prompts--those that inspire writers to start a short story or novel. It also contains a type of prompt that I created: the Bookend Prompts.

For the Traditional Prompts, take my suggestions and start writing! Feel free to tweak, alter, or completely reinvent the prompts to suit whatever story you want to write.

Traditional Prompt:
"I always knew that jumping jacks were dangerous. Now, I had proof..."

Bookend Prompts: Use the pair of prompts listed below as the beginning and end of your writing. A bit more challenging, but I know you can do it!

Bookend Prompts

1a. Why me?

1b. When he heard the sizzling of meat on the grill, he knew he was home.

For more writing prompts, check back regularly in the main blog (center column). I'll post more as I think of them!

Fanfiction Links

Even with a solid grasp of writing basics, it can still be intimidating to create an entire world of your own in which to write. Has this setting been done before? Are the plot twists too predictable? Are the characters no more than stock cut-outs, or are they so original that a reader won't know how to empathize with them?

To avoid those pitfalls, I suggest starting with fanfiction. You can't make money off of it, because the characters and settings have already been taken by established writers, but you can practice emulating writing styles, character descriptions, and plot twists until you're confident enough to use these elements in your own writing.

There are sites online that will host your fanfiction, but be sure to add a disclaimer at the beginning of these stories, so that it's apparent you aren't trying to horn in on another author or screenwriter's meal ticket. At these links you will find several (okay, so it's a few dozen) of my fanfiction attempts. These are Supernatural and Magnificent Seven fictions, sometimes crossed with other shows or characters, such as Highlander, The Pretender, and Boondock Saints.

Standard disclaimer for stories in this section: These characters aren't mine, and I'm writing for fun, not profit. No copyright infringement intended.