Author Topic: Writing Prompts!  (Read 46920 times)

chuck

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #135 on: January 21, 2011, 07:04:15 PM »
This is my first time posting here. Actually, it's my first time posting anything like this anywhere. I enjoyed the exercise and welcome feedback (of all types).


Writing Excuses 5.20: More Dialog Exercises

"Gimme a boost!"

"A what? Do I look like a stool?"

"Well, you're about the right height..."

"Hey, now!"

"...and your head's sorta flat so, yeah. Stool. C'mere."

"Why should I?"

"I'll share with you when we get it down. Promise."

"You think there's anything in there?"

"Worth looking, don't you think?"

"Maybe. I hate being short."

"It's what we are. Short."

"And broad. Don't forget broad. That's what all the old scrolls say."

"Which scrolls?"

"The old ones."

"I didn't think you could read."

"Doesn't sound much like you want that boost."

"Don't go all 'elf' on me and shave your beard. I was joking. Get over here before it comes back."

"You think it's coming back soon? We should just go. We got what we came for."

"It's got to come back eventually. Those halfs don't run so fast and once it catches them..."

"Moradin! And we're still HERE!?!"

"We wouldn't be if you'd given me that boost when I asked for it. I'm not leaving till I check that chest."

"What if it comes back?"

"We run."

"We aren't gonna outrun that thing. Even if it's not fully grown."

"I don't think I'll have much problem. It's young so its wings haven't matured and..."

"That doesn't make it slow. Those things can run!"

"So can I."

"Not faster than it!"

"Last I checked I could run faster than YOU. And you're a little more ... 'broad' than me. Makes you more appetizing."

"I don't know why I put up with this."

"Cause I got the map."
« Last Edit: January 21, 2011, 11:43:01 PM by chuck »

RavenstarRHJF

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #136 on: March 08, 2011, 04:25:24 AM »
Most of the time I don't do the writing prompts featured on the WE podcast, but this one just kinda popped into my head while listening, so I gave it a shot.  I apologize in advance to the Steve Pollaskis of the world. :)

Writing Excuses Prompt, Episode 5.27


“He should have been killed at birth.  I say that, and I used to be pro-life.  Now, of course, there’s no longer any choice at all.

But seriously- he should have been killed at birth.  Why? Are you kidding me? 

He only doomed us all!

Who?  Who?!  Oh, for.. Steve Pollaski, that’s who!  He was only on the NY Times best-sellers list for three months!  Don’t you read?  Anything?

Look, the stupid idiot wrote a standard science fiction alien invasion book.  Ok, not a big deal right?  There are hundreds of them, millions even!  There’re a dozen different iterations, a thousand subversions, and half a million cross-overs in that subgenre alone! 

Ah, but this one, this one is the one that went viral.  Idiot!

As if it weren’t enough that information-age brats put up snarky websites detailing-detailing, I say- the best ways in which to become supreme overlords!  No!  Of course not!  This idiot, this maggot, feeding off the excrement of popular media, had to go and put his damn book out and doom. us. all!

Oh, I see.  You think I’m overreacting.

HAVE YOU TAKEN A LOOK AROUND LATELY?!

Can you not SEE the GIANT ALIEN SPACESHIP taking up 80% of the sky?!  God, I am surrounded by morons!  Can you do something about that?  Please?!!

Oh don’t give me that look- who believes in aliens, I ask you?  And yet, there they are.  Right there.  With their pointy disintegration… thingies.  And their buzzy flappy things that shoot lightning…  You’re seriously gonna stand there and tell me God doesn’t exist after seeing things like that?  Well to each his own, but at this point?  I’m willing to give belief a shot.  By all accounts, God’s better than our new masters anyway.

Ah.  Right.  They haven’t hurt us.  No, you’re right, I suppose… if you discount all the people they’ve murdered subduing the rest of us!  Not to mention the imminent prospect of total enslavement. 

So what did he… oh, right, I was forgetting that you don’t actually read.

Well, see, Pollaski made his aliens smart.  They didn’t show up naked.  They attacked, not the city centers, but the military installations.  They sunk every navy in the world.  They systematically destroyed every single flying thing- artificial or organic- in the first half hour.  Their ships are designed to move faster than molasses in our atmosphere.  They used the moon as a base of operations, and they brought backup.

So?  So?!  What the hell do you think these aliens did?!  ONLY EXACTLY WHAT POLLASKI TOLD THEM TO DO!

NO, I will not ‘shut up’!  Steve Pollaski has to answer for his crimes!  I want justice!  I want…!

Don’t you point that thing at me!  Do you think I’m scared of you?  Well, DO…”
A crown does not a King make, nor the lack of one a commoner.

dhalagirl

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #137 on: March 29, 2011, 04:14:54 AM »
It was too irresistible.  I just had to do this one.

Writing prompt 5:30

Write a fight scene that can be titled "Flaming Slapfest"



   Daniella jumped in her seat as the dressing room door flew open and slammed against the wall.  She heard pieces of the smoke stained plaster crack and fall to the floor.

“All right, where is it?”  Martinique stood in the doorway and tapped her foot in impatience.

“What did you misplace this time?  Your soul?”  Daniella asked.  A few of the other girls snickered.

“Ha ha.”  Martinique said sarcastically as she sashayed in.  Her pink Chinese silk robe gaped at the thigh as she walked revealing the sickeningly gorgeous legs that got her the star spot in the drag show.  “I’m talking about my new kabuki brush.  One of you bitches stole it and I want it back!”

Bella stopped applying her eyeliner and turned to Martinique.  “No need to be callin’ names, sugar.”  She said sweetly in her thick southern accent.  “Just because a bitch is all you see in the mirror doesn’t mean that we’re one too.”

Without any warning Martinique launched herself at Bella.  Her claws came out and Bella returned each slap and scratch in kind.  Makeup was scattered about as they crashed into the dressing table.  A bottle of some dollar store perfume knockoff shattered on the floor and made the air in the room unbearable.

Daniella and the others watched as the pair fought like cats.  No one dared intervene.  This fight had been brewing for months.  Besides, there were few things as entertaining as watching to half dressed queens having a tear at each other.
Fabric ripped and sponge rubber padding flew about.  Their nylons were full of snags and wigs hung limply on their heads.  One of Martinique’s eyelashes dangled and threatened to fall off completely.  It was a beautiful titillating train wreck.

“What in the name of Gaga is going on here?”

All action ceased.  Gaysha, the club owner, stood just inside the room with a look that would melt steel on her face.  She wore a sexy peach and lavender kimono that barely covered her ass.  Her jet black wig was decorated with rhinestone hair pins that had been artfully arranged to form a crown.  The lavender platform pumps she wore made her legs look like a work of art.

Martinique started to harangue Gaysha with a long list of complaints against each of them but Gaysha silenced her with a snap of her fingers.  “I don’t care who started what.  Both of you are going to clean up this mess right now.”

Martinique sniffed and raised her chin.  “I can’t.  I have to be on stage soon.”

“No, you’re not.  Neither of you are performing until this room is clean.”  Both Bella and Martinique started screaming protests at her.  “That’s enough from both of you!  Shut your traps and get to work.”  She then turned her attention to everyone else in the room.  “The rest of you hurry up and get dressed.  You’ll be on early tonight.”


            
Later that night, after the room had been put to rights, Daniella silently opened her makeup box and dug out a short fat kabuki brush with a mother of pearl inlay at the base of the handle.  She heard a gasp behind her.  Her head whipped around and found Gaysha standing in the doorway.

“You started that mess?”

“Hell no!  I finished it.”  Gaysha raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.  “What?  The tension was killing me!  It was like being in an episode of Gays of our Lives!  Someone had to end it before they burned the place down and I certainly wasn’t going to let someone else have all the fun.”

“I suppose you expect me to be grateful?”

“Not at all.  But if you are feeling gracious, then maybe you could clear my bar tab?”

“In your dreams honey.”

Daniella raised her hands in surrender.  “Fine.  Can’t blame a girl for trying.”

“No, but I can blame you for a lot more.  Pull a stunt like that again and you’re fired.  Now put that back before you start another fight.”  Gaysha left, her platform heels clicking softly on the linoleum floor.

Shiael

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #138 on: May 11, 2011, 08:25:54 PM »
The story of my life..... jk.




   “Hey Sarah, c’mere,” I said.

   “What?”

   “See this? Well, I found an almost identical constituent of information in this book as in this one, which was rather difficult to construe,” I noted, hefting a large, blue, hardcover book. I brushed a lock of brown hair out of my face.
   
   “Hmph. if you had trouble with it, then I don’t even want to try, so don’t.” She fixed her dark brown eyes on me, and lifted an eyebrow. “now, would you mind translating?”
   
   “Honestly, if you can’t understand me now, then you have zero chance of understanding me where we are--unfortunately--going. Help me with these.” I lifted a stack of books off of the desk and dropped them in her hands. “we need to go now if we ever expect to find it.”
   
   “I meant the book, not you. I can understand you. Kinda. And would you please tell me where Jahsak got to?”
   
   “Why ask me? That boy is nonviable to monitor. He is your boyfriend, not my problem.”

   “Fine, walking-talking-living-breathing-dictionary.”

   “Got enough adjectives in there? I dont think that that could be a compound sentence if you tried.” She gave me a flat look that I returned with a smile.

   A crash brought us both out of our daydreams. The door of the tiny cabin caved in, revealing the crashing waves outside of the boat. A stream of curses cascaded from underneath the demolished door. As usual, Sarah broke the dangerous silence.

   “What in the...”

   “Sarah!”
   
   “Was that?” my oblivious best friend asked.

   Jashak and another (very good looking) man burst through the empty space. He was dripping wet, seawater running down the curves of his face. And good old Sarah, of course, had to break the silence again.
   
   “Ahem? who are you? and what do you think you are doing, breaking down our OUCH!” i kicked her shin to shut her up before she revealed any information to the stranger, however hottt he might be. smoothly slipping the several shiruken hidden in my sleeve into my open hand, i drew a thin dagger with my other. i moved my feet into a defensive stance. Jashak came to his aid.
   
   “No! Nella, the captain is dead. He tried to pull something and we had no choice. Most of the crewmen sided with him; there was an enormous brawl. They either surrendered to us or are dead.”

   “Your point being?”

   “We have no one here who knows where we are going, or how to steer.”

   “...Oh.”

   The other guy finally spoke. “Jash thought that you would be able to sail it.”

   “Jahak. Are you flaming INSANE? You have seriously taken a hard blow to the head in battle.” He returned my flippancy with a blank stare. “All right, fine. I’ll give it a try.” I glared at all three of them as I walked out the door.
Nothing is ever easy...

fardawg

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #139 on: June 23, 2011, 06:06:00 PM »
dhalagirl

"...smoke stained plaster"; "...before they burned the place down".  Were they supposed to have flame powers? If so it was lost on me since there was no description of fire during their fight (unless I missed something). If they don't have powers you might not want to confuse it with the fire and smoke references. And if you change it so they do have powers, a nod in my direction would be nice in the acknowledgements  ;)

dhalagirl

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #140 on: June 24, 2011, 02:34:36 AM »
This piece isn't a fantasy.  It's contemporary.  The flame in flaming slapfest is the fact that the characters are all flaming gay drag queens.  The smoke stains are to give the backstage area some history and ambiance.  It's a flashback to when you could still smoke backstage.  The "burned the place down" remark was figurative.

Hope that clears everything up.

fardawg

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Re: Writing Prompts!
« Reply #141 on: June 24, 2011, 12:23:52 PM »
This piece isn't a fantasy.  It's contemporary.  The flame in flaming slapfest is the fact that the characters are all flaming gay drag queens.  The smoke stains are to give the backstage area some history and ambiance.  It's a flashback to when you could still smoke backstage.  The "burned the place down" remark was figurative.

Hope that clears everything up.

I got the "flaming" gay part, and I knew the references were figurative for smoking etc. if you weren't writing fantasy. I just thought you might be  going to go for a double meaning since going for a gay reference for "flaming slapfest" was a little on the nose (I was thinking "familiar and original" / "strange attractor").   I still think it would be hilarious if it was a fantasy about drag queens with literal "flaming" powers though.  ;)
Good job though.