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365 Prompt Challenge
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by
Carls
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Dec 05, 2013 11:37PM
Hey guys! I am a young writer putting together a writing club at my school and I came up with the idea for a Creative Writing 365 Challenge. It's a lot like a photo challenge or whatever but instead everyday you write to a prompt. I hope to start this project on New Years, so I need prompts. If you could give me some suggestions as to where to find prompts or if you have some ideas for prompts I would love to hear them. Thanks so much! Feel free to comment away or inbox me your ideas.
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Carls wrote: "Hey guys! I am a young writer putting together a writing club at my school and I came up with the idea for a Creative Writing 365 Challenge. It's a lot like a photo challenge or whatever but instea..."Newspapers, television crime story programmes of unsolved/solved crimes, music, people watching and of course something my dad called 'tab-hanging' which roughly translates to eavesdropping on peoples conversations on buses, trains, at cafe's. My favourite is the supermarket queues, and I do it in two languages, English and French, it's hilarious at times because I speak French fluently, the English people who don't speak much French assume I am French and ask me questions in pigeon French, the look on their faces when I reply in perfect English is priceless!
Thanks. I will look into those. I find it interesting that you use real life things to inspire you. What do you do to get your creative writing ideas?
Carls wrote: "Thanks. I will look into those. I find it interesting that you use real life things to inspire you. What do you do to get your creative writing ideas?"I usually sit down and think of all the stupid/dangerous/ridiculous episodes I have managed to cram into my life and take it from there!
I have certain phobias, some normal, some weird. Like I am terrified of being buried alive, I can't watch a film where someone is buried alive without hyperventilating. I feel their distress, so much so I have to switch channels until the section is over.
I am frightened of snakes, so I avoid them like the plague, no trekking through the long grass for me unless I am wearing thick trousers and high laced leather boots! Apart from the fact I am allergic to just about everything, that can, and does want me on their menu!
A childhood fear that persists is that of being attacked in or around my home by a wild animal. Thanks go to James Patterson for his newish book 'Zoo'...I know I should have resisted but I want to see if it is still a problem for me. If it is, I can write about it and scare both myself and the general public!
Then there is my phobia of heights. My dad always said I got dizzy standing on tiptoes! I had to be coaxed down a ladder by a lighthouse keeper with him right behind me talking me down. It was only 8 to 10 feet from the ground!
And last, but by no means least, Carls, there is my fear of spiral staircases, they terrify me, I cling on to the rail (if I am put in a position where I have to use one that is) for grim death.
All that remains is to find a good title and a good quotation to use and I'm away with any of the above!
Hmmm. Very interesting. I never thought about using my phobias as inspiration. Thanks so much.
You could check out my book '52 Dates for Writers' - perhaps for a weekend boost? It's based on the idea of finding inspiration away from the desk so has lots of different kinds of prompts and writing challenges - things that could be fun to take part in as a group, too. You can view a sample at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00D9NRF8U / http://amzn.com/B00D9NRF8U Thanks! Claire
Carls wrote: "Hmmm. Very interesting. I never thought about using my phobias as inspiration. Thanks so much."Lol. I just looked at Le Figaro online and one of the lead stories has great possibilities. One of Costco's employees stuck price tickets marked 'fiction' on the Bible, someone posted a photograph of the same on twitter and all hell broke loose, if you'll pardon the pun... Serial killer stuff that, enraged psychopathic Pastor goes on a killing spree targeting costco's bookstore employees. The vengance of the Lord is nigh!
It's stuff like this that leads to best sellers, all it takes is an over active imagination and a small matter of 100k words, perfect grammar and spelling,little or no passive sentences and absolutely no cliches and remember to use your sense of taste in description of food and a knock em dead cover design! One for later and copyright belongs to Sarah Royce Weldon on this idea!
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Ingrid, I appreciate that and I have already looked into that, however this is for a high school club. Many of these topics were too childish it seemed. Once again I thank you for the suggestion. If you have any other ideas please let me know.
Hmm... I like the prompts where you give 5 words that must be included. I also like (actually these are hard) prompts where you have a limit on how many words you can write.
That's interesting. I am sort of looking for some story starters. Like one line sentences to start out your story with or to base it upon.
Oh, okay. :) Maybe you could use something like, "Think of your favorite mystery book and its antagonist (the criminal). Write a story from that person's point of view. Make the reader understand the reasons behind the crime (real or imagined) without focusing on the crime specifically."This isn't really a story-starter, but I think it's an interesting way to get people thinking outside the box. Have each person write for about two minutes. Then everyone takes their paper and passes it, with everyone adding on to the story once they get a paper. You can continue it for as long as you like. Personally, I like to wait until everyone gets their own paper back to stop, but based on the size of your club you might want to have more rotations or stop it mid-way. :)
Hopefully that helps. :)
:) Sure. For the criminal's POV one, you don't have to use a mystery novel, but I like it best because of the suspense. :) I also love doing mash-ups of different novels/movies. For instance, I can take Nancy Drew and Dori from finding Nemo and find a way to put them together. Perhaps Nancy becomes a fish or Dori becomes a psycho-maniac Olympic swimmer who comes to Nancy with a mystery to solve. Just an example. :)
Carls wrote: "That's interesting. I am sort of looking for some story starters. Like one line sentences to start out your story with or to base it upon."Try using famous quotations or bible passages, I used one from Exodus to open the prologue on The Menorah Murders, it worked brilliantly. Go take a look for yourself on http://www.comingsoontosarahswall.wee...
