Even more fun with Writing Prompts

Writing prompts are fun.

In my VA writers’ group, we use prompts. Our facilitator, Nate will throw a suggestion out there, or hit us up for something like the name of the Protagonist, an Antagonists (person or thing), and then give us ten minutes to do something with it.

Some of the stuff that comes out is really good. One of the guys in the group is a poet and he comes off with some interesting stuff. Most of it is very lyrical and is first-class poetry. Others are really good at world building. Others still are great at strolling down memory lane and opening things up we never thought much of.

Mine, of course comes from Police and the Army side of the house. That, in and by itself, give me the capacity to come off with some totally weird stuff. This last week we had the name of Richard who supervised a chain gang that spent much of their time patching the cracks in the roads with tar. The antagonist was Time, and the setting, a Graveyard.

Most wrote introspective stuff, where Richard comes to terms with the death of the men who died under his supervision. Of him walking through the graveyard and seeing the names of men who he’d supervised (and he never even cared to know their names) or coming to terms with how he treated them.

I wrote this almost HP Lovecraft thing out of those three words. You don’t have to share, but almost everyone does. So, when it came my turn, I said that what I’d written would most certainly have me tossed into deep analysis, strong meds, and probably electroshock. I had our protagonist is totally paralyzed. I never said dhow that happened. He finds that he can’t move, he can’t speak, and he’s completly in the dark. There isn’t a crack of light to be seen. All he can do is hear. And he hears a voice. He strains to hear and in horror realizes it’s a minister saying, “Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes.”

He’s being buried alive and has minutes left to live.

And he can’t open his mouth. And he must scream. (Apologies to Harlan Ellison. I always thought that was truly terrifying.)

Like I said, strong meds.

So, give that a try. Have someone give you the name of a protagonist, maybe a little background, and nothing more.

Have someone else give you an Antgonist. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a person.

And finally, a place.

See what you get.

Have fun!