1. jesseabigail

    jesseabigail New Member

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    Writing prompts for short story or flash fiction?

    Discussion in 'Word games' started by jesseabigail, Jan 6, 2013.

    If you have any good ones or favorites or just any at all, it'd be nice if you'd post some here! (^o^)
     
  2. BritInFrance

    BritInFrance Active Member

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  3. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    You need writing prompts? Turn on the TV, and find a news channel. Start asking yourself, "What if..." in regards to the various headlines.

    Channel surf through the entertainment channels, and when you find an appealing scene, turn it off after five minutes. Rewrite and complete the scene with your own characters and a few variations, and expand it into a story.

    Everything you see and hear is a potential writing prompt.
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ditto that!... was just going to write the same, but cog often does my posting for me [the check's in the mail, kid!]
     
  5. Jon Deavers

    Jon Deavers New Member

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    News stories provide lots of information. Pick a local news website (usually a TV channel) from a non-local place. For instance, I live in Virginia and will pick local news sites from Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and read through the local news. You can find a lot of inspiring intrigue in local government happenings and tons of bizarre murders, robberies, etc. Plus being away from your locale keeps you from restricting yourself in the setting. i.e. If I read a news story from my city and try to use that for inspiration I get mired in the actual details of the event instead of creating my own.
     
  6. shakespear57

    shakespear57 New Member

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    If i'm looking for inspiration for a short story, I turn my iPod to shuffle, write down the first line of the first song I hear, and that's my base line. Somehow a story comes out of that.
     
  7. Michipanda

    Michipanda Member

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    Odd, I do the same thing, or sometimes one liners from other novels and short fiction develops into an entirely new story. It's fascinating how the mind is able to create from some things.
     
  8. radnommandess

    radnommandess New Member

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    What a brilliant idea, I'm gonna try that.
     
  9. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    mary higgins clark became a bestselling author by using song lyrics/titles as the basis for her mystery series...
     
  10. spartan928

    spartan928 Member

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    Try mixing and mashing lyrics/song titles/movie titles/quotes whatever. Here's a random pick of songs from today's top 10.;
    I knew you were trouble
    Thrift Shop
    Locked out of Heaven
    Die Young

    Prompts:
    Died in a thrift shop
    I knew you'd die young
    Heaven is a Thrift Shop
    Locked in a thrift shop

    ...or take the opposites of specific words;

    Locked out of Hell
    Hell is a Thrift Shop
    Born in trouble
    Born in a thrift shop

    There's 8 prompts from a random google search. Want to go further? Take any word and plug it into a thesaurus to stretch your imagination and you have infinite possibilities just from today's top ten list. Grab something you like and off you go.

    Josh Parker's soul was so black even Satan locked him out of hell.

    Thanks Bruno Mars!
     

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