There is only one 'first kiss', and there is a last time for everything. List ten things you have done for the last time. Then, write a story that begins with 'first kiss' and ends again and again, until the last time.
Month: November 2014
truth to fiction
Translating life into fiction can be a way to externalize our inner apocalypse... photo: Jon Sullivan ...and reading our fiction can lead us to an understanding of what we have locked away. Write about a Thanksgiving that became a turning point in your life, locate it in an exaggerated world of your creation, and animate it with people who enact … Continue reading truth to fiction
the password games
Password was the name of a television game show which first aired in the 1960's. Non-celebrity contestants, teamed with celebrity partners,tried to guess passwords based on clues given by their partners. The game was timed, and if the clue-giver broke the rules by saying part of the password, they lost that round. Winners received cash … Continue reading the password games
next?
Who are these three? What are they waiting for? People this space with sudden activity - a mob - what's just happened? photo: by Leon Brooks Begin with: There's something I have to tell you...
art from shackles
What happens to you when you see this prompt on your screen? Creating a password can be as agonizing and fraught with drama as beginning or ending a relationship. How much do you reveal, how much can you hide? What secret code will unlock this other's heart? Will the secret code elude you in the moments … Continue reading art from shackles
thanksgiving in orbit
Speculative Fiction is at its best when based on enough factual details that it feels not only possible, but likely. So imagine, instead of 'over the river and through the woods',living in a world in which traveling to grandmother's house meant leaving from a spaceport to attend Thanksgiving dinner in orbit. Read Ted Talks about … Continue reading thanksgiving in orbit
table manners
Some say you can know a great deal about a person by observing their table manners. Here is the children's table, imagine the larger table for adults in the next room. Bring us to a Thanksgiving dinner in which table manners dominate the conversation - and the subtext is driven by one character's belief that Thanksgiving is a time when … Continue reading table manners
scat
"Scat, interjection used to drive away a cat. First Known Use: 1838" also "Scat, jazz singing with nonsense syllables First Known Use: 1929" Merriam-Webster Dictionary Writing Prompt: Write what's happening in the next room.
Underwood no. 3
William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac all used Underwood typewriters. Writing Prompt: Take a paragraph you've written and translate it into the style of a writer you admire. This helps to identify and experience how fluent writers harness the power of words. The point here is not to write 'like' someone else, but to … Continue reading Underwood no. 3
arrested decay
Bodie, California was a booming gold-mining town in the late 19th century. Today, the once thriving Bodie is preserved in a state of “arrested decay”. What’s left of the town remains as it was, it’s deserted buildings stocked with goods. Designated a National Historic Site, Bodie became a State Historic Park in 1962. This Smith Premier Typewriter … Continue reading arrested decay
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