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Aditus

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  1. Aditus

    Fan-tastic

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    I’m melting. What do you do when it’s hot? Hug the AC? Work surrounded by fans? Jump into the lake/sea/pool?
    Well, there are treats: less clothes, skimpy shorts, no shirts - did I say less clothes? Okay, to the prompts.

    #143
    Daydreaming, your MC follows a hot person through the grocery shop until they reach the produce section. They grab the same...melon. What happens, dinner or nothing? Something in-between?

    # 144
    Describe your favorite place in summer. Make us feel it.
     
  2. Aditus

    Going for a Joyride

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    What did you think when you read the headline? Did you remember the song from the nineties? Or the film from 2022? Or even a cool trip and you can’t wait to tell us all about it? Insert *eyebrow waggle* here.
    Anyway, here are this week’s prompts:
     
    PT #137
    Your protagonist spots an irresistible offer to rent their dream vehicle for a weekend and invites a special person for a joyride. Even though I want to know everything, what kind of vehicle, who has been invited, where they go to, what I’m really looking forward to is the invitation. How is it done? So many possibilities....
     
    PT #138
    Some friends planned to go on a trip over the weekend, but it had to be canceled because of an upcoming storm. Now they sit together and play board and word games. One suggestion is to tell a story in one very, very long sentence. Everyone adds to it until the story is finished.
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
     
  3. Aditus

    Curses and Bears

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    I’d like to thank Libby Drew; she inspired me to create PT#131 when she cursed my fellow prompter Cole Matthews.
    PT #131
    Invent a colorful curse or charm, depending on your current mood, and maybe tell us something about it, such as why or who.
    PT #132
    Your MC goes camping with someone who never did this before. Write a story or vignette and use the word bear five times without talking about the actual animal.
     
    Please include the prompt number either in your story/chapter description or title to help readers who would like to search for specific prompts. Also, please remember that stories less than one thousand words must be posted as part of a collection
    If you check the subgenre 'prompt' in your story tags, then people/readers can find everything here:
    https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/subgenre/prompt/
  4. Aditus

    Dessert Prompts

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Upon request of a certain hungry someone I offer:
    PT# 125
    A couple has dinner at a fancy restaurant and is about to enjoy their famous lava cake on ice. They slowly slide their spoons into the molten chocolate and find—something that doesn’t belong. What is it? How do they react? Will they get their money back?
    PT #126
    Create a dessert that will satisfy even the hungriest GA member using the following words: sparklers, cream, chocolate-covered ants, strawberries, blue cheese, walnuts, pudding, black bowl, and a secret ingredient. 
     
  5. Aditus

    Hiding

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    PT #83
    It’s a matter of common knowledge among friends and family that the protagonist of your story despises a certain person. Ironically, this very person dies in a freak accident at their house. As no one would believe this, they have to hide the body. Help them.
     
    PT#84
    In order to avoid the pesky marriage-soon-trigger, Ash doesn’t date, officially. Find the most outrageous excuses to tell the family or — just tell them a truth of your choice, preferably all nicely boxed up in a short story.
  6. Aditus

    Genres and Tags Prompts

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    I browsed the various genres and tags the other day and thought how about we go on a writing adventure, step out of our comfort zone, and try new things?
    PT #119
    Your protagonist orders their favorite hot beverage at the coffee shop, stirs it with a strangely formed spoon, and suddenly the place is devoid of any customers. The door opens, and in comes a person wearing black clothes and a Venetian mask. Write the first lines of their conversation, or more?
    PT #120
    Write a letter either as a fictional person or yourself and tell a friend about a life-changing encounter.
     
  7. Aditus

    Fanfiction Prompts

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Think of a favorite book, game, show, or movie. Did you ever want to change something? Be a part of it?
    PT# 113
    Choose a short scene and jump right in, be it as a new/random side character or even one of the MCs.
    PT # 114
    You love a book/game/movie, but you always thought one of the characters chose the wrong love interest. Write a short scene where you hint at a different choice.
     
  8. Aditus

    Artful Prompts

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Writing is an art that sometimes is inspired by other forms of art, including music, architecture, painting, or sculpture.
    Pt: 107:
    Someone drew a stairway with chalk on a street. Your MC sets foot on it and pretends to walk downward; suddenly he enters a basement. Describe what he finds.
     
    Pt 108:

     
    What happened?

     
  9. Aditus
    PT#101
    You moved a bookcase to make room for the New Year's Eve party and an old atlas falls down. Inside you find a yellowed New Year's resolutions list. Try to answer the wh-questions who, when, and what and create a story.

    PT#102
    You get an email from yourself on New Year’s Eve warning you about a mistake you’ve made in the past year. What did you write to yourself?
    Happy New Year!
    Your Prompt Team
     
  10. Aditus

    Magical Prompts

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Magic is in the air!
    PT#95
    Sam got a magical advent calendar from gran Lulu. So far, the chocolate and marzipan were delicious but magical? What does the calendar’s magic do to Sam?
    PT#96
    Looking for the box with Christmas decorations in the attic, your protagonist pushes cardboard boxes around. Suddenly something strange drops on the floor. After a closer examination, it turns out to be a mechanical arm. After playing around with it for a while it suddenly attaches itself to them, replacing the biological body part. Ooops.
  11. Aditus

    Spacy Prompt

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    So, why the heck did I give you these random prompts? I helped my nephew to draw all kinds of alien species, that’s why. And because there has always to be a second prompt, I used the next sentence someone said to me as a first line. Val thought I have to explain my randomness.

    Prompt #89
    The newest spaceship is ready to leave the space yard when the main engineer gets a last-minute order: He has to modify the captain’s chair. Due to the new captain’s species, he wouldn’t be able to use the old one comfortably. Explain.

    Prompt #90
    First line: “That’s not my package!”
     
  12. Aditus
    After finishing the King’s Mate series, I wrote short stories for the anthologies, prompts, and collaborations with Valkyrie and Cole Matthews, mixed with some poetry. A few months ago, however, I thought it is time to start a new book. Those who know me a little are probably aware of my fascination with vampires. They will play a decisive part in the new series.
    I’m currently writing chapter four. As I am a slow writer due to life and the fact that English is my second language, it takes me roughly a month, at least, to write a chapter if everything goes according to plan.
    I hope the Catburglar will be the first book in the Professions series. To cut a long story short, I hope I’ll have most of the book written around my GAnniversary in September, and I can post the first chapter then. This time, I won’t post as soon as a chapter is written, because life always happens when you don’t expect it.
    I think I bored you long enough now. Here is a short excerpt from the first chapter.
     
    Winter birthdays suck. Majorly. No pool parties in June. No barbequing with friends in July. No crackling bonfire at the beach in late August, drinking lots of cold beer, singing off-key to ancient metal ballads.
    I guess my summer-birthday-having brothers had had enough of my annual whining. They invited our closest friends and organized a beach party for me...in February. Which was why, on my twenty-fourth birthday, I was sitting beside the above-mentioned merrily-crackling bonfire, with a scarf around my neck, a hat on my head, trying to open a bag of chips clumsily with gloved hands. And because it was friggin’ cold or because of the many beers I had, I needed to pee very urgently. I got up to find a quiet place to water the seagrass and looked around.
    “I dare you to whip out that puny dick of yours where I can see it!” My brother’s girlfriend hid her eyes demonstratively behind both her hands. She might have had a little too much of the chardonnay.
    “You wouldn’t know what to do with this fine example of male beauty and virility,” I gestured at my crotch, bucking my hips suggestively for good measure, "if it hit you smack dab in the face!”
    Lin pretended to gag. “Ew! Nathan, help!”
    My brother instantly threw a beer can at me. “As if she’d look at your puny thing when she can have mine.” My so-called friends guffawed and cheered at his blunder.
    “Your puny thing?” Flipping them all off, I turned my back to the bonfire and switched my phone’s torchlight on to speed-stumble towards the dunes. I really, really needed to piss. Behind one of the beach huts, far enough away from Lin’s delicate eyes, I fumbled for my zipper. With all the bulky winter clothes in the way, I couldn’t reach the pull tab as quickly as I needed. “Fuck that shit!” Shoving my down jacket out of the way, I pulled one glove off with my teeth. A sharp crack from behind made me stop mid-motion, and my back stiffened when a cold shiver ran down my spine. “Lin?” I lifted my phone and searched around. Maybe scanning the place before I got my dick out would be a good idea. Just to avoid literally pissing off an unsuspecting critter with my most vulnerable body part out in the open. Right?
    Even if I had seen him, I wouldn’t have been quick or strong enough to escape his iron grip or fight him. Increasing pressure on my shoulders made me stagger forward, and then something gripped my chin and sniffed along the right side of my neck. I was either too panicked or too drunk to imagine what creature would do this. Then it struck. The searing pain instantly petrified me. It felt as if acid had been injected directly into my vein and pulsed through my body from the point of impact directly to my brain. All I heard then was greedy gulping; moments later my vision blurred till darkness swept over me.
     
    “Konstantin said he left him near the lifeboat.”
    I sat up groggily, peeling my face off a slimy, wooden surface. Lifeboat. I wiped away some grains of sand and pieces of seaweed and grimaced when too many sensations suddenly bombarded me. Someone nearby was talking too loudly; the pungent stench of rotten fish and wet wood overwhelmed me. I inhaled more cautiously. I stank of rotten fish—and stale beer. My butt felt cold and damp. In the distance, the surf roared deafeningly against the cliffs. When I blinked my eyes open, the horizon was lined with the blue hues of early dawn. Clumsily, I braced myself against something slick and squidgy, trying to stand, but my legs instantly gave out. I felt like shit. Worse than the amount of alcohol I usually drank justified. I never drink hard liquor. My first thought was that the others must have spiked my beer. Sand crunched. A huge, dark figure leaned over me. “I found him!” Before I could react, a dark, thick cloth was thrown over me. I heard a muffled voice. “We have to hurry, Doc; sunrise is close.” They grabbed me, wrapped me up even tighter, and threw me over their shoulder in a fireman carry, as if I weighed nothing, and ran.
     
  13. Aditus

    Famous First Words

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    I always wondered if famous authors stare at a white sheet of paper or a blinking cursor, wrestling with the very first word, the first sentence, like me. There is a story somewhere, but how to begin? Or do the words just pour out of them?
    PT#77
    Let’s borrow an opening line of a famous book and write a short piece of fiction or a poem.
    I’m pretty much f*cked. (The Martian by Andy Weir)
    All children, except one, grow up. (Peter Pan by J.M: Barrie)
    He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. (Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini)
     
    PT#78
    Play with perspectives. Write the same story from the perspective of at least two persons.
  14. Aditus

    Prompt Day Aug 12, 2022

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Still a bit short-winded, I present to you the Friday Prompts!
    PT# 73:
    You stare at your best friend’s wedding list. Instead of pots and pans or nifty gardening equipment with useful links where you could order it, you read: Surprise us! As your friends love “quirky things with character”, you decide to go to a yard sale. In the end, you have to choose between a huge, inflatable pink flamingo, a hand-pottered caterpillar-shaped bowl, and a coat rack that looks like a human spine. What do you choose and why? Or do you find something else?
     
    PT# 74
    Ever since you saw a lady wearing a pink cowboy hat in a video on YouTube, you keep seeing her all over the city, even in your favorite bar serving drinks. Who is she? Is she real? Or are you having a Perception moment?
  15. Aditus

    Humor Me

    By Aditus,

    I know it really means don’t argue with me, or just do it (please), or even indulge me. What I’m asking for is to make me and everyone else laugh in my very special, weird way.
    PT #65
    Explain why the MC of your prompt story is standing in front of their house in their underwear, with one sock on the left foot and a cooking spoon in their hand.
     
    PT #66
    After a long flight, someone grabs their suitcase, marked with a bright yellow band to avoid any mix-up, from the luggage belt. At the hotel, they open it and find out it’s definitely not their suitcase. What do they find? And remember, make us laugh, no stinky socks, boring books, or lame leatherette boots.
  16. Aditus

    Gimme a Cake!

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Around here we’re picking berries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, and currants, which means, cakes, pies, jams, preserves. Okay, I’ll stop here. What are your favorite cakes? Which cake is typical for your country?

    PT #59
    The protagonist of your story finds a beautiful cake on their doorstep, without a card or any hint who gave it to them. Help them to unravel the secret.
     
    PT #60
    Describe any cake and make your readers want to eat it. If you tell to whom you’ll give it and why...means more brownie points for you.
  17. Aditus

    Prompt Us!

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    We always tell you what to do. Write a story, a poem using this or that. I thought we could do it the other way around this Friday. You tell us what to write. For example, @Valkyrie Write a story beginning with a Valkyrie, an Erinys, and an Oracle meet at a spa, or @Cole Matthews Please write another sonnet. (He will probably kill me for this.) So, good-bye if you don’t hear from me anymore.
    If there is more than one prompt, we get to choose and the rest go into the guest prompt bank.
    PT #53
    Prompt us.
    PT #54
    It’s Pride month. Write a poem a story, whatever you want, and tell us what Pride means to you or to a fictitious character.
  18. Aditus

    Prompt May 13th

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Do you want to write a story, maybe for the upcoming anthology,  but nothing inspires an idea?
    How about this?
    PT# 47
    For weeks, someone has this uneasy feeling they forgot something important: a birthday, an anniversary, an invitation. Then a long-forgotten childhood friend calls them. “I just wanted to remind you about—”
    About what? I’m curious to read your story.
    Or, you send someone on a scavenger hunt.
    PT# 48
    The protagonist steps out their door and finds several blue shimmering items that no one else seems to see. They follow the trail. In the end, they are able to assemble a wondrous machine. What can it do?
     
    I don’t believe in bad luck on Friday the 13th!

    Don't forget the Sub-Genre Rewrite the Prompt Contest - Entries due by May 22, 2022
     
  19. Aditus

    April 22nd - Introduction Line

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Sometimes the story is outlined on paper or in our head, but how to begin?
    The first sentence should engage the reader without revealing too much or boring them to death.
    This time we’ll do it the other way around.
    PT #41a
    Pick an introductory sentence from a favorite book on your shelf at home or a story on GA and use it to start a short story or vignette.
    And because it’s still April:
    PT#41b
    Choose the first line of any poem and continue to write a poem of your own.
     
    PT #42
    Did you see the Sub Genre rewrite challenge? Your goal is to rewrite a given prompt to show it instead of telling it. You can focus on the scene itself or rewrite it into a new story. Add more that comes before or after but be sure to include these paragraphs in all the glorious five senses details to bring the story alive for readers. More than one author can pick the same prompt, as we all visualize scenes differently.
    Have fun!
  20. Aditus

    March 25th Call to GA’s poets

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    April is National Poetry writing month (NaPoWriMo). The challenge is to write a poem a day until May. Over the last years, we had several poets who took up the gauntlet. I understand that many of you can't or don't want to write a poem a day, but we are looking forward to every poem or poetry collection that will be posted during the next month.
    We are happy we could win AC Benus as a special guest to get us started with two brand new poetry prompts:
    Skyscraper
    Let's Write some Skyscrapers!
    Never heard of it before?
     
     
    PT#33a)
    Stand-alone Skyscraper – by this point, we are all tired of winter in the northern hemisphere, so write a Skyscraper thinking ahead to how eating your first slice of season-ripened watermelon will make you feel. Capture the moment and the undercurrents of emotions. Alternately, choose an animal of your choice to write about, be it bird, frog, ladybug, firefly, or anything that makes you reflect upon nature and the current season.
    PT#33b)
    Stanza-pattern Skyscraper – write a poem of at least three stanza-form Skyscrapers strophes. Base your poem on the feelings raised in you by listening to the following Karl Ditters composition:
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRUxdA59yQ&t=339s
     
    https://youtu.be/0nRUxdA59yQ
     
    Alternately, go to the following image hosting service and write a poem based on any of the pictures that engage your creativity. Be sure to include a link to your inspiration picture with your completed poem.
     
    https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mist
     
    Whichever theme you choose, be sure to have your Skyscraper(s) consist of 7 lines of the correct syllable count. Also, carry your thought out through all of the lines, avoiding any hard-stops or one-and-done lines of poetry. The Skyscraper is verse, and all about how you turn the line beautifully from one to the next. Remember that.   
     
    Ballad
    Let's Write an 8-10 Ballad!
    Never heard of it before?
               
     PT#34
    Write one 8-10 Ballad (or as many as needed) to explore your feelings concerning the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. Perhaps start with remembering where you were the moment you heard Putin had actually invaded. This is an excellent form to tell the war’s “story” to this point in time, while also relaying how the fighting/defending makes you feel (i.e. the Narrative and Lyric elements united together).
    Alternately, choose a memory of a kid’s birthday party and write about it. Perhaps write about one you celebrated as a child in the context of one you have thrown or attended as an adult.
    Whichever theme you choose, be sure to make each 8-10 Ballad contain 4 quatrains for a total of 16 lines (and use as many 8-10 Ballads as you need, which you will label i., ii., iii., etc. – and title individually if you like). Be sure to only rhyme on lines 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, 12, 14, 16, for a total of 4 pairs; do not use any pair of rhymes more than once in the 16 lines of any particular 8-10 Ballad. Avoid repetition to keep the poems sounding fresh.
     
     
     
     
     
     
  21. Aditus

    March 4th Round Robin

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    A Round Robin isn’t a fat bird.
     
    It’s actually a lot of things, but the only interesting definition concerning prompts is that it is a form of storytelling. There are several variations. Let’s try two.
    PT# 27
    Tell a story that begins at the same place as it ends.
     
    PT# 28
    Find at least one fellow author and tell a story together. Write its paragraphs or sentences alternatively.
  22. Aditus

    February 11 No weather for Mad Hatters

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Around here you have to hold onto your hat, unless you want a workout. Let's make it a theme.
     
    PT 21
    List of words. You had a stressful week at work and no time for grocery shopping. There's a storm outside, and you are hungry. Besides rice and canned beans, all you have in your fridge is two eggs, shrimp, one red pepper, a dragon fruit, fish sauce, and a jar with kimchi.
    What’s cooking?
    And to stay with the Valentine theme, sorta...
    PT22
    While on a second honeymoon, an obsessive-compulsive bus driver joins the mafia. 
  23. Aditus

    January 28th First Month Done

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Are you already looking for the ‘reset button’ like me?
    What better method to get over a substandard start of the year is there than writing?
    PT#17
    A young man, wearing a long striped purple scarf, is ice skating in a circle alone. What is his story?
     
    PT#18
    First line: "It's pouring out here. May I come in?"
  24. Aditus

    Intermezzo Prompts December 10, 2021

    By Aditus,


    Prompts
    Santas are all around you, wherever you look. Maybe you need a break to become inspired?
    PT#5
    Write a short story or vignette using at least five words from @myr’s word of the day list.
     
    Or you can’t get enough of beards, bellies, and bells and you want to throw yourself head-first into the hustle and bustle.
    PT#6
    Christmas - Your Secret Santa gave you a pink jockstrap. What happens next?
  25. Aditus

    Translations

    By Aditus,

    There are about 7000 living languages in the world. (Ethnologue)
    We come upon texts that have been originally written in a language other than our own all the time: manuals, articles, papers, songs, movies, TV shows, books, etc.
    Personally, I try to read or listen to the original version, emphasis on ‘try’, seeing the sheer number of possible languages. It means I have to rely on translations.
    My question for readers: Do you prefer an as verbatim as possible translation over an interpreted version?
    By interpreted version, I mean where the translator channels their personal perception of the text.
    There are always phrases and expressions that are difficult to translate. To find the balance between clumsy word by word transcription and too /smoothed/subjective interpretations is the highest level of the art of translating, in my opinion. Thus, people specialize in certain kinds of texts. Translating screenplays, books, papers, or manuals requires a different extent of accuracy.
    Now the question above especially goes to authors. Would you prefer an as verbatim as possible translation of your work over an interpreted version?
    Or: How would you feel if someone interprets your work in a way other than what you intended?
    If you translate other people’s work: Which kind of translator are you and why?
     
    On a side note:
    One of my stories has been translated to Russian. I was asked before it was uploaded to a Russian forum, and they provided the link. I don’t speak Russian, and I had no way to check the accuracy of the translation. I found it interesting and funny when people discussed said accuracy while commenting on the original story.
     
    However, if someone translates my text into a language I don’t speak, I transfer part of my control over it. I have to trust them to make it right. Depending on the importance of the work to me, I admit it’s difficult for me. Scientific texts would have to be 100% accurate.
    To answer my own question: I always try to stay as close as I can to the original text. If in doubt, I have two versions ready: a clumsy word by word and a smoothed.
    Okay, did I do this entirely for myself or is anyone else interested in this topic?
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