Monday Morning Muse: Recycling writing

 "Good morning and happy Monday! 🌟 

As we step into the new week, may your day be filled with inspiration and creativity. Remember, every challenge is a chance to grow and every moment is an opportunity to shine. Let the possibilities of this week unfold like a fresh canvas, and may you find joy in every little discovery along the way. Here’s to a Monday that sets the tone for a fantastic week ahead!

Today's Pumping Your Muse Writing Prompt

Recycling writing 

For today's creative challenge, dig out one of your unfinished fiction projects and take a look at it. If it's an older piece, and you've written for years, it can be an eye-opener to see how much you've grown as a writer. And you may also see the merit in your original idea. The question is, why is it unfinished. Did you get stuck? Lose interest? Did it grow cumbersome and too complicated?

Refresh your memory and re-immerse yourself in the story. 

• If the story starts to wander or lose focus stop reading. That's your starting point. 
• If you couldn't figure out how to end it. When you reach that point in your reading. Stop. That is your starting point.
• If you recognize it is too cumbersome stop when you recognize it. That is your starting point. 

Based on your starting point write a short story related to your narrative, but write it from a secondary character's POV in the first person. Let them talk. If you're lucky, they'll tell you something you didn't know, and it might just be what you need to finish the story.

 

 

 

 

 

Sense of touch writing prompt

As writers we seek to create words that leave the page and create an image in the mind of readers. Not a static image, but a moving picture that draws the reader into a corporeal experience. Russian born American writer Ayn Rand said it this way. "Words are a lens to focus one's mind." If the reader walks through a field with our character we want them to hear the crunch of snow under boots, or feel the stiff winter breeze make eyes water, smell the wood smoke in the crisp air, and when we spot the cabin in the distance we want them to draw a conclusion. In other words, we work to engage the senses and sometimes it’s not as easy as one would think.

Today’s writing prompt is and exercise in the sense of touch. It is designed to help practice putting into words tangible details of what our hands feel and the thought process as we take in that information. For instance, if you touch an orange, what does it feel like? It’s easy to come up with words for how it tastes: Tangy, tasty, sweet, sour, delicious, or juicy. But how does it feel? If I tossed one to you and you caught it, you might say it feels like a ball. But what of the texture and other features? Is it smooth, rough, or somewhere in between? What about its weight? What is its shape? Is it big or small? Wide or narrow? Squishy or hard? Solid or springy?

Sense of touch writing prompts

For this writing prompt, I offer a couple of possibilities.

1) For this first writing exercise it is helpful to have a buddy. Tell them you will be playing a game where you will be blindfolded and will have to guess what you are touching. Have them select random items and place them in a box. I suggest at least 10 things and a box at least the size of a shoe box.

 

Equipped with your box of things, video your blindfolded self guessing what it is you are touching. With each item, talk out loud about what you feel and what you think as you figure it out. What led you to your conclusion? That is the gold you seek in your writing. The details you want to include in your writing. 

 

 

2) The second writing prompt option is to do something new. Again, video yourself during the experience. Talk about what you feel and what you think. Here are a few ideas.

• Get a pedicure
• Go for a walk in the rain
• Get a massage
• Try waxing some part of your body
• Give yourself a facial

Practicing the expression of the thought process in relation to the sense of touch will help prepare you to bring life to your writing. Have fun with this one!

Story idea prompts for alternate history

Alternate history is a subgenre of science fiction, speculative fiction, and even finds its way in to some fantasy. To create an alternate all you have to do is change one historical decision or event. Prevent a person from arriving to where they were in real history. Two people who never meet can never have the child that will change or save the world. Think John Conor of the Terminator franchise.

 Writing alternate history can be fun and challenging writing exercise but once you get started, you'll find you have a preexisting world as your backdrop and the freedom to tweak it to fit your story. For today’s creative writing prompt, choose a person, place, or event as the springboard for your muse. Consider the following writing topics and select one.

Person: Col. John Stevens

For the first story prompt idea, consider Col. John Stevens, III (June 26, 1749-March 6, 1838: American lawyer, engineer, and inventor who constructed the first U.S. steam locomotive, first steam-powered ferry, and first U.S. commercial ferry service from his estate in Hoboken, and was influential in the creation of U.S. patent law. On October 17, 1782, he married Rachel Cox (1761–1839), the daughter of John Cox. She was a descendant of the Langeveldts (or Longfields) who originally settled New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had thirteen children of which seven were sons. 

 

This man lived a full, accomplished life which offers plenty of fodder for alternate history. For instance, it can lead to a new and unusual Western frontier inhabited by gargoyle like creatures that carry people away as they lay down the rails for the trains pulled by the steam locomotives. Or how about an accident on the ferry service? What would happen when they reached 1822 Manhattan on the other side and how would that change the future? You might consider writing an anthology of stories based on this one man with all these possibilities! It's a way to relate the unrelated and still have a theme.

Place: Ancient Site

This category is ripe for alternate history. Choose one site and decide: Were they created by humans? If so where did the technology come from, or why doesn’t anyone today know how it could be replicated. Is it instead an alien project of some sort? If so what was it’s purpose? What difference does it make to the world today? For your story create an advanced race that has the technology needed to create the site. Your challenge is to also create a plot that develops the reason they’ve build these mammoth structures. Did they accomplish their goal? Or is it something still unfolding like a ticking bomb.

• The Pyramids
• Stonehenge
• Monolithic human figures of Moai
• Or change it up with ancient hieroglyphics on Mars
• The Nazca Lines of southern Peru

 

World War I

The first World War was won by the Allies: the United Kingdom, France, United States, Japan, Italy. They defeated the Central Powers: Imperial Germany, Austro-Hungary Empire and the Ottoman Empire. It lasted from 1914 until the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919. Check out this timeline of World War I and choose one item for your story's setting.

As you can see, alternate history requires knowledge of history. Equip yourself with enough details to make your story fit the time. Have fun as you travel back in time to create a new future!

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A story within a story

Over at Writer’s Village University, I rub elbows with plenty of writers. In a recent exchange with a fellow writer, he talked about mining his book manuscripts for short story ideas related to his longer works. It’s a way to make additional money and even promote his books. 

I’m doing something similar with my novel, Dragonborn. In it, a book of evil plays a big role. The Book Darkmore holds the spirits of the people who used its powers and are no longer living. The spirits live within the pages of the book eternally, but when a new host gives itself to the book, the spirits of the book and its dark magic influence that human host. I have come up with a slew of creative writing prompts and am writing a collection of stories related to the Book Darkmore. Readers will learn of its origins as well as the history of the hosts as well as their spirits. It’s not something you’d have to read to understand the story of Dragonborn, but the stories make it a perfect companion book for Dragonborn fans and will cover all four with books of the series.

Today’s Writing Prompt challenge

Today’s writing prompt challenges you to find a story within a story. It doesn’t matter if the original story is yours or not. For instance, you could pull a story from something like the Wizard of Oz. The first that comes to my mind is, “The House that Fell.” It reminds me of when I lived through a category 4 hurricane. That memory is rife with story prompts. I could make it fiction or non-fiction. It might even involve something like time travel and the opportunity to do things differently before the storm hits. Follow your imagination. If you are stuck, go to one of your favorite fairy tales. The possibilities are endless

Harvest at least one possible story idea from another work. It can be your original work or from somewhere else. But I recommend you make a list of your creative writing ideas. Keep them in your story writing topics folder. Then if/when you feel writer’s block nipping at your muse, pull from your ideas folder and start writing something new. It will get the juices flowing and you’ll be ready to go back to writing what you were working on.

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