Link to this post on Google+: Memorable First Line.

Link to post on Google+: Writing Prompt: The Monster Squad.
#writingprompt   #writingpractice   #writingpromptsforwriters   #wp  

First sentence –> Beginning

Second sentence –> Middle

Third sentence –> End

If you can’t think of anything to write about, here is a link to a random subject generator:

Writing Exercises: Random Subject Generator

By the way, writingexercises.co.uk should come with a warning, it’s the kind of site that can make your time disappear! It’s a fascinating site but … be warned.

By the way, this writing exercise was inspired by Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge A Story In Three Sentences. If you want inspiration, head over to Chuck’s site and look at the microficiton his readers created. (BTW, Chuck Wendig generally uses language that’s NSFW but these flash fiction challenges are work safe.)

Fun writing site: The BBC Writers Room

Link to this post on Google+: Write About Your Pets.

Link to post on Google+: writing prompt

On Google+: Writing Prompt: Your Least Favorite Teacher.

The above quotation is from in The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling.

Shared on Google+:

https://plus.google.com/114796970901567956883/posts/YBau3SnTnt5

On discovering J.R.R. Tolkien:
“Quartana, one of the fanzines I hoped to write for, was covering mostly sword and sorcery and fantasy. They had a story about this English guy, Tolkien, and his story about hobbits and rings. It sounded cool to me, so when the first pirated Ace edition of Tolkien came out in paperback I snapped it up. I had a very mixed reaction when I started it. I was a high school sophomore by then. I thought this was like Conan? What the hell is all this stuff, Hey nonny nonny, and little guys with hairy feet smoking pipe weed. Conan would always begin with a half naked woman and a giant snake [Laughs], and I was looking for the giant snake. But by the time I got to the Black Riders and Bree, I was hooked, and by the time I finished Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien had become like my favorite writer, finally knocking Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton off their pinnacle.”

As I read Return of the King, I didn’t want it to be over. That last book blew my mind, particularly the scouring of the Shire. I didn’t like that when I was in high school. The story’s over, and they destroyed the ring — but he didn’t write “and now they lived happily ever after.” Instead, they went home and home was all fucked up. The evil guys had burned down some of the woods; a fascist-like tyranny had taken over. That seemed anticlimactic to me. Frodo didn’t live happily ever after or marry a nice girl hobbit. He was permanently wounded; he was damaged. As a 13 year old, I couldn’t grasp that. Now, every time I re-read The Lord of the Rings — which I do, every few years — I appreciate the brilliance of the scouring of the Shire. That’s part of what lifts the book from all its imitators. There was a real cost to Tolkien’s world. There’s a tremendous sadness at the end of Lord of the Rings, and it has a power. I think that’s partly why people are still reading and re-reading these books.”

“By the time I finished Lord of the Rings it actually somewhat depressed me, because I didn’t think I could ever do anything of that stature. Fortunately, I got over that.”

Martin’s liking for Tolkien’s work comes as no surprise. One thing that caught my eye–perhaps because I hadn’t heard it before–was that Martin used to be a big fan of Andre Norton, so I looked the author up.

“On February 20, 2005, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which had earlier honored her with its Grand Master Award in 1983, announced the creation of the Andre Norton Award, to be given each year for an outstanding work of fantasy or science fiction for the young adult literature market, beginning with 2005 publications.”

You probably already know this, but Andre Norton was the pen name of Alice Mary Norton (she also wrote under Andrew North and Allen Weston). And, according to her wikipedia page, she had a distinct style.

Themes in Norton’s works:
- Alienated outsiders on a rite of passage undertake a journey through which they realize their full potential.
- The story takes place “in the open countryside, with only short episodes in a city environment.”
- “in conflict situations they are more often scouts, spies or guerrillas rather than regular soldiers in large military formations”
- Norton’s characters are “resourceful and capable of taking independent initiative. In some books, protagonists are introduced already in possession of such characteristics. In others the protagonists (often young) are thrust into situations where they must develop them quickly, and invariably succeed at it.”
- “Many planets in the books are Earth-like places, where humans can live without special protection, and have extensive flora and fauna which are described in considerable detail and often have substantial bearing on the plot.”
- “In many of her books, especially her mid-period and later fantasies, such as most of the Witch World series, there are [...] ancient stone highways left by unknown civilizations, flanked by half-fallen walls overgrown with vines, [...] studded with tall pillars topped by mythical shapes. These vistas are universally presented as almost vibrating with magical power.”
- “Another common setting, in both fantasies and science fiction, is of a room filled with alien super-scientific equipment, often where something evil (such as experimentation on humans or other living creatures) has gone or is going on.”
- “A common theme in the books is the presence of sympathetically presented feudal and tribal cultures. In several books Native American tribes and their various analogues are given a chance to be more successful than they were in actual American history.”
- “Nonhuman creatures and cultures are usually presented sympathetically, with human protagonists sometimes supporting them against oppressive human authorities. In contrast, several books present technological and mechanized cultures as negative or even positively evil.”
- “An important role in Norton’s books is often given to animals — both ordinary terrestrial ones, such as cats [...] and exotic fictional ones, whose characteristics are meticulously worked out. Many of Norton’s animals are highly intelligent without being anthropomorphic, acting as virtually full partners to the human protagonists and in many books forming telepathic links with them.”
- “the use of “Credits” as a unit of currency”
- The use of “lethal “Blasters” and the non-lethal “Stunners” as the main hand-weapons”
- “A fictional board and counter game called “Stars and Comets” appears in many Norton science fiction books. However, only fleeting hints of the rules are revealed. Counters styled as either “stars” or “comets” move across the board taking opponents’ pieces. The rules of movement and capture seem to be very complex allowing hidden strategies and sudden reversals of fortune. It may be that there are both elements of skill and chance. Often, it is not the game being played itself which features, but references to it as an analogy of some plot situation. Its use helps to reinforce the alien culture being portrayed, and also gives the reader a sense of continuity between books portraying differing people and places.”
- “an interstellar refugee camp turned slum of dubious reputation called the Dipple provides the starting point for a number of planet stories, as the number of desperate young people seeking any escape from its poverty is high.”
- “She also developed the concept of traveling through alternate worlds [...] The second book in the Time Trader series, Galactic Derelict, features the use of recovered alien technology, to enable human travel to the stars.” (Quotations taken from Andre Norton’s Wikipedia page.)

It would be fun, one day, to attempt to write a story in her style. Perhaps I’ll take that on as a Friday challenge.

Here is the code:

<a href=”mailto:someone@example.com?Subject=Subject%20line”>
Click here if you’d like to send mail to someone</a>

Here’s an example:

Click here if you’d like to send someone mail

You can even add a body to the email:

<a href=”mailto:someone@example.com?Subject=Subject%line&body=This%20is%20the%20body.”>
Click here if you’d like to send mail to someone</a>

Here’s an example:

Click here if you’d like to send someone mail with the body field filled in.

By the way, Mail needs to be enabled for these examples to work.

Hope that helps!

Photo credit: “cookie” by lutty moreira under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.