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Place yourself or a character/s in a high-speed chase. What are the circumstances that led to it? What are the consequences? Steve

Hey everyone! I recently finished round one of the short story competition at NYC Midnight. I found the process used for story creation to be quite enjoyable, even though I had to write with a subject and character assignment which were out of my comfort zone. (Thank goodness the genre was fine, or I would have been screwed!) Anyway, At Renee's suggestion in one of my recent blog posts, I decided to make a forum post reflecting the prompt style of the competition, hoping you'd enjoy it. Each person is given a random genre, subject, and character assignment, and is asked to write a story of 2500 words or less. Obviously in free form such as this, we don't need to keep the word limit if we don't want to, but you're welcome to follow the full rule set if you'd like. Here are some examples: Drama / A laboratory / A teacher Romantic Comedy / Recycling / A bartender Sci-Fi / Halloween / A bus driver Horror / A trial / A CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Fantasy / Luck / A lead singer The full list of genres(and their definitions) available in the contest can be found here: http://www.nycmidnight.com/genres.htm Feel free to respond with suggestions you'd like others to try. I'll offer a suggestion to start the ball rolling. Crime Caper / Cattle Ranching / A runaway.

Metaphors and similes are frequently used in writing fiction for description purposes, and most of the time, I don�t even notice them when I�m reading, so I�m not that surprised that I don�t use them a whole lot when I�m writing. But, today I got to thinking about how sometimes they can really add to your writing when someone sent me this exercise. So far, I�m not very good at it, but it would be interesting to see what others come up with: Finish each phrase with the metaphor or simile that first comes to mind: 1. The hot wax dripped from the table like 2. The old lottery tickets on the empty train station seemed 3. The oars on the boat rowed as if 4. .............. is like muscles stretched taught over bone. 5. Kevin swallowed the coffee as if 6. The waves rolled over the sea with 7. If I should wake before I die, 8. Sand in a bottle is like, 9. An unread obituary is like ............ 10. She watched the car rolling towards her from the wreckage as if

Write about Valentine's Day, without mentioning these words : Valentine's Day, cupid, love, roses, flowers, hearts, February. The length is your choice. Enjoy BeaStKid

I'd been to many interments, each of them a different experience of loss and grief, but never before had I been asked to shovel dirt onto a friend's casket. They are all looking at me, expectantly, a shovel held out towards my hands. Can I do this? Can I really do this?

The challenge for this prompt is to use your creative skills to make a 200-500 word flash story without using any commas. Semi colons are allowed: but they are kind of like cheating because they are pretty much commas

I thought it would be fun to see how creative we can be... Remember 5/7/5 syllables... Nature’s beautiful Wind, trees, flowers and rivers man messes it up

Try this one: What "goes without saying"?

writing a story with only similes and metaphors im gonna give it a try the moon peered out from the clouds. the two hugged each other as if they were scared. the demon rose up and pierced the sky with its teeth. the sky wept rain and Micheal's face was covered in sorrow. the ground seemed to move as michael ran. his footsteps rattled the ground. the trees were unforgiving as the grabbed Michael and tripped him. the monster danced around him as if he was already dead. tears erupted as the beast flew lower and lower till the musky breath of a thousand rotting corpses filled Michael s nostrils. his eyes begged and pleaded to let them go. the moon was now floating over the demons head. and with one swift motion the clouds attacked him with lighting. the creature cried a howl as Micheal's ears burst open. he stood tall and mighty like a giant. Michael wandered into the distance like a lone ranger with nothing to loose.

Anyone ever notice that we skipped Prompt #7? You awake one day to find a giant jar of mayonase about to attack you. Who do you think about? What do you do? Describe the situation. Just for the record, this didn't come from my mind, so I'm not the one you should be asking 'What the hell?' about I just thought it was a weird one. Joe

Ok, CJ refused to accept "Goat" in the poll lest we denounce his evil tactics. But I won't give up, so here, it's a prompt. Write anything related with GOAT. Here I go: Take care, Ieshwar

Write a scene where four or more people are holding a conversation. Conversations with multiple people are common in real life, but very hard to write well as the reader tries to follow who is saying way, or even more than one conversation at the same time. I have to admit that I'm not that good at this, either, and I'm going to have to work at a response for this writing prompt. As a good example of what I'm talking about, check out the conversation about half way through Being Gay Sucks by Ruthless after Terry shows up.

Random prompt I gave to Ashi for a poem, thought I'd toss it up here for everyone, 'cause why not? "the wind of a passing subway train turning us about to face the other direction"

Here is a picture you can use to write about! This is a picture of my great-greatgrandfather's house--still there, but minus the porch.

Hah, I really haven't been keeping up with these. I'm glad they're working out though. Write a Eulogy about an object or idea/belief (Santa Clause is real), not a person, that you've 'lost' over the years. 'Lost' doesn't mean that you could have physically lost the object, but something you no longer have, that affected your life.

I don't know if this idea has been done but it suppose to help a writer craft better scenes AND character development. The premise: Write in 350 words or less the description of a place. The place is suppose to describe and represent the character. You are building your character through the setting. You cannot mention the character in any way. The character cannot be present. No reference of any other people either (ie. having other people there to talk about the place). Basically we can imagine your character through the descriptions of your place. The kicker: Here is your character: A woman who works at a bakery who just won the lottery. Have fun! Here is my attempt: The one bedroom apartment was on the fourth floor of the weather beaten, once white, building that stood facing the grey lake. Inside the apartment, the wooden floorings were worn and dull. Dust bunnies grew large in the corners. The air was dry and sweet, filled with sugar and cinnamon. A subtle chill ran through the house from an opened window in the living room. The kitchen was small, littered with takeout boxes from a bakery, one stacked upon another against the wall that lined the living room. A pot sat in the sink, water pooled to the top, hiding the burnt food stuck to the bottom. Tacked onto the refrigerator, under magnets in the shapes of horses, were lottery tickets, scratch tickets, and pull tabs. An apron hung on the side of the rattling fridge, stained and caked with flour, dirt, and spices. A long brown strand of hair hung loosely from the neck piece of the apron. In the living room, a bright purple triple XL sweatshirt from Disneyland was draped over the back of the worn fabric couch. Dust has settled and collected on the arms of the couch. The television that faced the couch laid on the ground, its antennas straight and shiny, seemingly untouched. By the opened window, the white satin mesh curtain fluttered in the cool night gale. A wooden rocking chair sat, faced out the window towards the lake. The orange glows of the lake walk 's lamp posts reflected off the black surface of the lake like gold coins in the sun. Next to the chair sat a wooden corner table. Upon it rested a thick pair of silver horn rimmed glasses. A fantasy novel with a lottery ticket as its book mark lay next to the glasses as did a lighter. On the ground, next to the stand was a copper bucket filled with barely burnt cigarettes.

This is a conversation between a military officer at the front and an old friend at home-- a war that is going badly and the people at home are being lied to about it. Read about Alexi's emotions and the setting and Write the conversation. Level: Challenging __________________________________________________________________________ After 1:00am in the morning, Captain Alexi Markov's desk smelled like cold coffee and cigarette butts. His uniform was wrinkled and dusty from the day�s battle. The Afghan dust seemed to stick to everything. (1) There had been another pointless battle earlier in the day. A pointless patrol had suffered a pointless ambush. The poorly equipped and trained Soviet troops fought as well as they could with what they had. Four vehicles had been destroyed, another four were damaged. Twenty of his soldiers were killed and another fourteen were hospitalized. There were twenty files on his desk: the files of twenty young Russians who would never go home. Twenty young faces that that assumed formation with the hundreds, maybe thousands of young corpses, that would haunt him till the day he died. The children that they sent him to fight the Kremlin's pointless war were woefully unprepared. They arrived starry eyed young pioneers(1) fresh from obsolete training for a different kind of war. They were then thrown into the meat grinder that the Afghan occupation had become. Those soldiers that survived for six weeks would probably make it to become grim faced veterans at the age of nineteen or twenty. Markov was past being angry. What was inside of him was a toxic mixture of emotions: constant fear, betrayal, sadness for the dead and sadness for the living. A company commander for the 103rd Guards Armored Division(3) picked up the phone on his desk at divisional HQ in Kabul. Talking to Misha had always calmed him down in the past and he needed calming badly. If he were to have to face the division's commanding general without pulling his sidearm and shooting the drunken fool in the head for wasting his men, he needed calming down. He dialed his old friend�s number. It rang three times and a sleepy voice answered, "Hello?" "Misha, I need to talk." <<< ________________________________________________ (1) Afghanistan is a very rough country with a very difficult mixture of terrain conditions: mountians, hills, plateaus and desert can all coexist with a few miles of each other. Sandstorms are common deposting fine grit on everything. (2) Young Pioneers- the Soviet Union's version of the Boy Scouts with the addition of quite a lot of Communist Indoctrination. (3) Guards Armored Division- these are mixed formations of tanks and armored infantry (motor-rifle) companies. Infantry are transported in armored personal carriers like the ubitiquious BMP.

Well the other one wasnt that successful, but lets do another one. And this time Dio requests that you all post your answers

Whoops, I completely forgot that I'd promised myself to post on Mondays. My bad. As far as I know no one took up the first prompt. But that's okay. Maybe someone will later on, some day. So I'll continue forth. So here we go. Something simple and just considering yesterday was Remembrance Day. Prompt du jour #2 – Creative Tag: list of words Cross, war zone, lighter, torn picture, flashlight Leave a comment if you try this out ~CHEERS~ Andrew

I don't think anyone took the prompt last week, so without further ado this weeks prompt. Prompt du jour #4 – Creative Tag: Mystery There’s a killer on the loose, and everyone in your community is scared. This is startling to you because you sense that the serial murderer is targeting a select class of citizen. Who is he/she and why are they targeting them?

Write a paragraph (or more) in the first person that explores how a protagonist feels (or how they feel about their surroundings). Then, re-write the same scene in the third person. Bonus challenge: Write it in the second person, as well.

So I'm going to be trying something a little new here. I've already spoken to Comicfan and got his blessing. I believe this gives more opportunities to provoke creativity. I think it's a good thing . I hope you do too and are willing to participate from time to time. So without further ado.... Prompt du jour #1 – Creative Tag: Time Travel As you were sitting at home watching the evening news you suddenly sit straight when the news anchor announces that the ability to time travel has now been discovered. And although you suspect that this could be disastrous and expect the government to hold stringent controls on such matters, you nearly jump out of your seat when they announce that the government is looking for volunteers to test out their theory. Why do you volunteer and what do you wish to change about your past? Feed back would be greatly appreciated regardless if you wanna do this or not. Do I somehow miss the mark on what a prompt should be? Do I need to be more open ended? Let me know because I'm just doing this for fun.... ~CHEERS~ Andrew

Write a drabble. What's a drabble? I thought you'd never ask... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drabble I only just stumbled across this today when I read a drabble that someone had put on their blog, so I haven't come up with my own yet. But I intend to... honest

I'm gonna give this a try, so here's the idea for the prompt: Adam and Even.