Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part 5

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers! Hopefully this week will be the last full week of stay-at-home, as some people are ordered to do so until April 26th, and most others are April 30th. As such, I'm planning an actual blog for next week, so barring any evolving circumstances, this will be the last writing prompt blog for the time being. Let's begin.

1. In a fit of pique, your beloved decides to send you a letter written in Victorian love-letter style, and beseeches you to write one to them in return. What do you say to your beloved? If you have no current beloved, write one to your ideal partner.

2. You are on vacation! It's just you and a pile of books, and some puzzles, and a lovely cabin in a heavily forested area, which your rich grandfather built himself back in the 1950s. The cabin is fully furnished, and has gas, electricity, and running water. All of the systems have their main controls in a small shack off to the side of the clearing where you parked your car. One night, just after the sun has gone down, the power goes out. There is no storm or heavy wind which could have caused this, so you get ready to go out with a flashlight to reset everything from the shed when you notice the complete and utter absence of sound outside. No animal noises at all, not even the song of crickets or the family of raccoons you know nests in a tree not too far from the house. The hair on the back of your arms and neck stands up as you finally hear the sound of skittering on the front porch, and you hold your breath as the storm door is jostled, then slowly let out your breath after the action is not repeated. After a few moments, the skittering noise is heard moving away. What do you do?

3. You have been turned into an animal familiar as part of your training to become a magical apprentice of a warlock/enchantress. They can communicate with you telepathically, so you can still talk to somebody while you are like this, but everybody else will just assume you are just an animal. What animal do you turn into, and what sort of shenanigans does your magical teacher order you into while you are like that?

4. It is a beautiful day outside. You start to take a walk, and notice a calico cat, fluffy and friendly, on your path. She turns about your legs for a few moments, purring as she receives pets, and then trots off down the path. You are going the same way, so you travel with her for a few moments, before she turns off the path and after about 10 feet, looks back at you and mews. On a whim, you decide to leave the path and follow her. You swear you only follow her for maybe 20 minutes, the fluffy plume of her tail easy to see, but when you look at the darkening sky and your watch, you realize it's been four hours, and nothing except the cat looks familiar. You keep following her, as trying to backtrack seems futile right now, and soon you come to a clearing. The clearing has stone pillars, carved with runes, at the four cardinal directions, and a single stone stand, carved intricately and three feet tall in the center. The stand has a small wooden chest on top of it, and just enough room for the cat to leap up and sit on the corner. She blinks slowly at you and mews again, and you get the distinct impression that she is smiling. What do you do?

5. Big businesses no longer push for a boring "formal business" aesthetic, and let people dress and style themselves however they want, because as long as you do a good job, your aesthetics do not matter. Facial piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, and wacky outfits are totally fine, though if you prefer something more conservative that is fine too. What is your preferred aesthetic, and how do you get to change how you look now to look how you want? How do you feel about going to work and comparing styles with your coworkers? Thinking about your coworkers, do you think you can guess the style they would wear if given complete freedom to do it without repercussions?

As always, think these scenarios over, have fun, and enjoy playing in a different head-space. I hope you are all staying safe, are healthy, and are washing your hands. Until next week, Dear Readers!

-A.M.W.

Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part 4

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you are all doing well in this time of pandemic. General update about me: I have signed up for more online classes, and I will be diving into those as soon as I post this entry. I have hand-sewn a mask for myself along with headband, and then did a second one which I sent to my sister. I have made soup and applied for jobs and stayed home as much as possible. I'm still holding out hope that when the stay at home order is lifted, the office I interviewed with right before all this went down does want to employ me in some capacity, as I was up for two different positions in their office, and I was very impressed with the place.

Now that all the personal stuff is out of the way, here are your writing prompts for this week:

1. Great news! Your cousin invented a working hovercraft, about the size of a small sedan which floats, and they want you to be the pilot while they video proof that it works. They give you a how-to manual and a minimum instruction about the control panel, which is less them piloting while you observe and more of them making you sit in the pilot's seat while they point to different things and say "this one does x". Do you read through the how-to manual, or do you wing it? What shenanigans do you get up to while learning how to pilot this vehicle?

2. You've taken up a handicraft (e.g. knitting, crochet, embroidery, spinning, weaving, etc.), and you've gotten rather good. The next time you join a march/parade, you decide to use your craft to make a sign/banner. How fabulous is it, and what does it depict/say?

3. A bored billionaire wants you to be their player piece in a life-sized game of Monopoly, which goes strictly by the actual rule-book. You get to walk around a constructed city set up like a Monopoly board, with holograms to simulate houses/hotels, wearing a hat that looks like one of the Monopoly tokens and doubles as a headset so your billionaire can tell you how many places to move. Whenever the billionaire "buys" a property, you have to place a sign on the property saying your billionaire owns it, and when they "buy" houses/hotels, you have to activate the hologram to display the appropriate amount of buildings. The jail is a real building that you have to get locked into, with an on-duty warden. For this ridiculous job, which takes a full day to play, the billionaire will only refer to you as the Monopoly token on your head, but they promise to pay you $100 per hour, and double that if they win. Do you take the job?

4. You, as an archaeologist, are on a dig when one of your diggers uncovers a stone door, slanted down like a cellar door you might find behind a house. You read the inscription and it appears benign, so you document everything, and open it up. There is a set of stone stairs descending into the dark gloom of the earth, but as you contemplate who goes on the expedition down with you, a whistle-like screech emanates from somewhere deep within the opening. The sound gets stronger and stronger for 10 seconds and then abruptly cuts off, leaving your ears ringing. You look at your team and they look at you. Do you go down into the ancient underground, or do you look to see if maybe there are other ruins topside to look at first? No matter which you choose, what do you find?

5. For video game nerds: You get sucked into the last video game you last played, and you can choose to be a non-player character, or a new antagonist (think mid-level boss), or a new option for people to play as the protagonist. What game are you in? Which do you choose? If you choose to be a non-player character, what do you choose to do? If you choose to be a new antagonist, what is your aesthetic and attack type?

As always, enjoy these, have fun, and I hope you have a good week! Stay healthy, stay occupied, and wash your hands!

-A.M.W.

Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part Three

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. Colorado has extended the stay at home order until April 26th, so I find myself with even more time on my hands and more time to think up prompts for you. Wear your masks outside, remember to wash your hands, and stay safe! Below are five more writing prompts to give your brain a dose of fantastic what-ifs to contemplate.

1. Congratulations! All that hard work paid off and you are being recognized for your achievements. They're running a feature article about you in a magazine specific to your field of achievement. What did you do, what magazine are you in, what title would you really like the article to have, and for bonus points, are there any photographer shenanigans getting you to pose Just Right for the lighting, or suggestions for odd costuming?

2. Submarine technology has improved so you, as a marine biologist, get to explore some for the deepest places on Earth. You come across an odd expanse where the rock looks different, but not in a way you can readily explain, and it gives way to a cave definitely large enough for you to explore should you choose to go in. What are you the first human being to discover?

3. Getting to know the ghosts in your new house. They aren't scary, but they do have some house rules they left for you as their new roommate. What rules do they give you, are they reasonable, and how do they enforce them? Shenanigans encouraged.

4. Due to a genie who was incredibly salty that you didn't choose to use your last wish to free them, they decided to take your last wish and be incredibly petty in regards to your wording. As such, when you wished that all clothing and shoes you wear for the rest of your life, no matter what you put on or what material it is made of, turns into the most comfortable-feeling clothing you could ever wear. Instead of having comfortable clothing for the rest of your life no matter if you wear a starched shirt or towering heels, the genie has decided that, once your outfit is fully on, it will turn into the outfit you loved to wear the most because it made you feel the most comfortable in your own skin. The sizing changes to fit you as you are now, so the outfit can be from when you are an adult or teen, pre-teen or toddler. What are you wearing for the rest of your life?

5. You are an inventor, and just before the order came to hunker down, you placed a large order for various materials to help you tinker. It has finally arrived, and everything is here...plus some interesting extras that you thought were only science fiction, such as crystals for power conversion, a working power armor frame, tiny little stable fusion cores, and a dozen coronets with some sort of wifi programming tablet. The Inventor's Warehouse let you know that they are free to you for being a loyal customer. What do you invent? You can use as much or as little of your new hoard as you like, and as always, shenanigans are encouraged.

As always, have fun! I'm rooting for all of us to make it through this together.

-A.M.W.

Stretching Imagination Muscles, Part Two

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I am back, with more writing prompts. Firstly because I want to entertain you while you are stuck inside, and secondly because coming up with these is entertaining to me.

1) You are an ecological scientist, working in the Southwest USA. You and your lab partner spend most of your days cataloging the flora and fauna of the desert biome, noting minute mutations for study. You are friendly with the locals, both townies and farmers, and in particular one man who helps trap and relocate raccoons, who has your phone number in case he catches something odd. Tonight, your phone rings and it's him, begging you to come see what he caught when trying to rid a farmer of some pests, and gives you the address. When you get there, you stare dumbly at the creature in the trap, not wanting to believe what your eyes are telling you is real.

"But...they're a myth," you whisper to the trapper.
"Tell that to the chupacabra in my raccoon trap," he replies.

What do you do next?

2) You, in your boredom, have created a new sport which can be played while social distancing. Describe it, and any rules which might help those who seem interested in participating.

3) Thanks to a gifted DNA test from Christmas that you finally got around to taking, you find out you are actually related to a recently deceased Baron from a small country in Eastern Europe, who had taken a test hoping to find a blood-related heir. He had no kids or direct relatives, so the firm handling the estate has contacted you and claimed that as you are the only person who can prove their bloodline connection, you can claim the title, the land, and the sweet castle in the middle of nowhere countryside. There is, however, a catch; you have to live in the castle for at least 75% of the year, as per the last Baron's instructions, and attain citizenship in this European country you are going to be living in for the rest of your life. Do you go, or do you get your entire family to take DNA tests so one of them has to move instead, while keeping the estate in the family?

4) You've won a lifetime supply of your favorite food! Difficulty: The contest bankrupted the company that produces it, so as a last act to make good on the offer, they shipped the lifetime supply to you all at once instead of in manageable monthly shipments. What foodstuff is it, and how do you deal with the excess?

5) Due to an industrial accident, you were put in a coma. Upon awakening a week later, you find yourself perfectly fine...but you now understand what animals are saying when they vocalize. How do you prove you are not insane, or, what kind of shenanigans do you get up to with this new knowledge?

Have fun, Dear Readers!

-A.M.W.

Stretch Those Imagination Muscles!

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you are all okay.

This week, instead of me writing on about a topic that is current-events relevant (because I did that last week, and it's all the more pressing now), I want to set up something fun for all of you who might be stuck at home and are suffering from a case of Being An Extrovert Forced To Act Like An Introvert. This will be both a mental exercise and a writing diversion from the news and what is happening outside your houses/apartments. Come with me on this journey.

Imagine the following scenarios, and use the ones that grab you as writing prompts:

1) Cryptids are real and are seen a lot more than they have been in centuries previous, in areas they have never been seen before, and it is surmised that these species have had some sort of population explosion, so they are expanding and sharing territories. Some aspiring vloggers, sensing The Big View Numbers, have gone into the woods outside of town to figure out how to interview either a Mothman or a Sasquatch, while others are going out and trying to capture a Jersey Devil. It's been two weeks and nobody has returned or uploaded new footage remotely. You're part of the search and rescue team, and just as you look up into the thickening canopy of the forest, you spot the one thing you never wanted to; the Blair Witch stick symbol, done up in twigs and twine. You resignedly pull out your phone, report your findings to the Sheriff, and ask for a recording setup before going further into the woods.

2) Due to a wizard's meddling and a severely miscast spell, Minecraft rules about building and crafting things now apply to our world, and all the hostile creatures now spawn at night, with some staying around during the day. Do you choose to change the world outside using these new rules, and if so, how? If you choose not to change the world, do you use the rules to do personal projects (create potions, update your home interior easily, etc.)?

3) You're house hunting, and you found a house that's in the perfect neighborhood. It's beautiful on the inside and out, but the real estate agent seems resigned that you won't want it, as it's been on the market for three years without a single bid. They take you down to the basement, which is finished, with the exception of the side room which has the furnace. As you are down there, looking at the furnace, your teenage kid points and asks "Why is that door there?". You look, and there is indeed a door in the very back of the room...with three deadbolts on it.

4) Congratulations! You just won three million dollars in a mail-in sweepstakes you entered! There is a catch in all of that fine print, though; you have to spend ten percent of it on frivolous things (nothing necessary, nothing you've been saving up for to improve your house or life, nothing that will significantly improve your net worth, no giving it away, no donating it to charity or buying things that you will then donate to charity). How do you spend $300,000 in the most frivolous way possible?

5) You've been shot back in time, back into your body when you were 10 years old. There is no going back to the future for you, but you retain all of your knowledge. How much of an Agent of Chaos do you become, having all that adult knowledge in a 10 year old body, in the era in which you were a 10 year old? Shenanigans are most definitely encouraged.

Have fun, Dear Readers.

-A.M.W.

Imitation As A Form Of Learning

Back in the day, when the world was young and so was I, I took a variety of writing courses. One of the ones that I learned the most from was a creative writing course run by a local author via my community college. Her writing exercises were always good, because she asked us to challenge ourselves by grabbing a random author, reading some short stories of theirs, and then writing a short story that imitates their writing style.

It was because of this course that I was able to pick up writing styles quickly and efficiently. I think it also helped when it came to picking up computer platforms; if you're looking on how best to adapt your thinking on how to communicate, you're also looking on how best to use the tools given to you to accomplish that communication.

When I feel stuck in a rut, I go back to this writing exercise. I will pick a book at random off my bookcase (I will roll dice to get a random shelf number/book number), read it enough to get a handle on the style, and then write a short story in that style. It helps me think outside of my usual box, and oftentimes it helps me figure out a problem I'm facing in my own writing.

I have used this trick when it comes to technical writing and proposal writing too. If I am unsure about how best to put together a document, I can search for something in the same genre, and then imitate that format and style of writing to put together my document. Continual learning and ability to adapt is key to stay relevant in the current workforce, especially when it comes to content creation.

So the next time you're feeling stuck, pick up a book! It may be the creative bump you need to get out of that rut.

-A.M.W.