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
Speculative 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
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
collateral damage
Imagine a world where owning a luxury condo, in a missile silo buried 174 feet underground, is a sign of affluence. Imagine a world where 1,820-square-foot condos sturdy enough to withstand a nuclear attack are selling faster than they can be built. What happens when Sci Fi and Cli Fi stop being fiction? That's a lot … Continue reading collateral damage
Frackquakes
It isn't difficult to imagine apocalyptic outcomes for our world. Story lines and character motivations are revealed every day - rich with plots and subplots, political trickery and ecological treachery. Writing prompt: Read: North Texans to Texas Railroad Commission: Stop the 'Frackquakes' and: Leaked Transcript Gives Oil Lobbyist Taste of His Own Medicine Write this into fiction. Change … Continue reading Frackquakes
wolf cries
Dystopias are realizations of exaggerated worst-case scenarios. They can be manifested from abuse of power,and they wreak havoc - impacting - even obliterating - the delicate balance of social, scientific, economic and natural ecologies. Enter the world depicted here - map the route, track the cries of 'wolf' that were true, but discredited, predictions. Werewolf79 … Continue reading wolf cries
twitter recap
For those of you who don't follow me @ebszabo on Twitter, here's what you missed: #RulesOnWriting #BreakTheRules be consistent and create your own #CreativeWriting #Innovation #WriteNow #FreeConsult @MargaretAtwood “forces us to see in such sharp relief that we feel compelled to share her worries and thus to act on them.” #DrewFaust #Read to write & … Continue reading twitter recap
it’s me
Begin here: photo: Orion Nebula Space Galaxy Write a scene involving two people in orbit, each believing they have been sent away together for entirely different reasons. Begin with "I'm the one they've been waiting for..." Incorporate at least three of the five senses.
open here
Consumer reports can help with more than product research, comparison, and ratings. Open a story with one of these lines from How To Clean Practically Anything “It is usually recommended that you leave the scanner flat and lock the…” Or “Failure to properly care for an answering machine may invalidate the…” Draw the story from … Continue reading open here
twitter recap
For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter @ebszabo here's what you missed. Enjoy: #6WordStory Plot in six! “Failed SAT. Lost Scholarship. Invented Rocket.” #WilliamShatner @WilliamShatner #SaveSciFi #CliFi #CreativeWriting #SixWordStory Plot in six! “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” #ErnestHemingway #ShortShortFiction #FlashFiction #CreativeWriting #Fiction #6WordStory Plot in six! “Longed for him. Got him. … Continue reading twitter recap
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