Inspire Me!

[wyld_dandelyon]

Writing is mostly a solitary effort. You look at upcoming deadlines, you think about ideas and characters you already have in mind, you might even do word wars--but in the end, what's really happening is between your brain and the empty computer screen, taking that nothingness like a lump of clay and shaping something out of it. Hopefully something riveting and thought provoking and entertaining, or at least entertaining.

But I like having company along the way. So I periodically invite my friends, readers, and fans to send me prompts--topics, props, characters, questions, and the like. In return, if one of your prompts inspires a story, I'll give you a private peek at the first draft.

Right now, I'm thinking of music and strong women. It's a long time since I did some sword and sorcery; I think that's because I read so much of it for a while; something to inspire me to do something different with that genre would be cool too. Or maybe something different with fairy tales.

And in advance, thanks for wandering the still-empty landscape of stories-yet-to-be-written with me!

Comments

Re: Hmm...

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Ooh--you're mean!

But challenges can lead to good stories....

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

*cackle* Yes, I'm mean.

It could be worse. Recently I was at a house concert with filkertom asking people to write words on slips of paper for song inspiration. I asked him if he wanted me to play fair or be challenging. He said write down anything at all that I wanted.

I wrote down "antidisestablishmentarianism."

And he filked that, gods bless him, with a caveman character.

Re: Hmm...

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

Tom is amazing. Though I wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't been handed that one before.

I wasn't speaking as a writer when I said that was mean, but as a musician! :-D

Re: Hmm...

[wyld-dandelyon.livejournal.com]

P.S. The writer-me says keep on being mean. The challenging stuff is more likely to spark something unique!