Hello, Dear Readers; I hope your week was a productive one.
Usually, having an imagination is a great thing; I love to write, and part of my previous jobs did entail some work imagining scenarios of how customers might react to different promotions. I like being able to create a world in my head and explore it, and then write about the interesting bits down.
Living in 2020 with imagination is...not great, honestly. It's like this year is actively striving to create the world's weirdest apocalypse year bingo card, and every time I think about the implications of each new event and how those could turn out for people, I honestly can't predict what could be next. It's like trying to figure out a domino effect in an M.C. Escher painting.
Things that have already happened in 2020 Bingo: World-wide plague? Check. Mass layoffs in the USA? Check. Protests all over the world against systemic oppression? Check. The USA almost starting WWIII? Check. Murder hornets? Check. Summer-season wide-spread forest fires (first in Australia, now in the USA)? Check. Ebola having another outbreak in Africa? Check. The USA's Pentagon releasing possible proof that aliens exist? Check. Dams which are privately owned and not given proper upkeep breaking and flooding people out of their homes? Check. Dogs and cats, living together in harmony? Check.
I am mentally fatigued to the point where I feel disappointed but not surprised when each new event happens. Our new version of "normal" (in quotes because none of this is even remotely normal) is such that if the next big news story is that Atlantis rose from the sea and declared war on the companies that dump waste in the ocean the most, I'd read through the article while drinking my coffee, watch the video footage, think 'good for them for standing up for themselves', and move on to the next news article.
I would like to end this blog with some fanciful predictions for 2020 to go with the theme it is apparently running on, but I'm slightly anxious to put any ideas out into the universe that could come to fruition and hurt somebody. So instead, predictions for 2020 that will help humanity.
1) A legitimate cure is found for COVID-19 which is both shelf-stable and efficient to make and give to people with minimal side-effects. I say shelf-stable so that it does not require refrigeration to be viable, which helps in the shipping and maintaining of the cure to hot climates.
2) Scientists figure out how to efficiently clean the oceans of all the garbage and micro-plastics.
3) Technology is created and implemented that will drastically reduce harmful emissions made by large manufacturers.
4) Strides are made towards positive systemic changes for the betterment of all humans.
What sort of things do you want to see in 2020? Have a good week, Dear Readers.
-A.M.W.
Showing posts with label writing fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing fiction. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
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.
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.
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.What do you do next?
"Tell that to the chupacabra in my raccoon trap," he replies.
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.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Works In Progress
Fiction is a great outlet. However, with my imagination, sometimes I get multiple ideas at once, and I know that if I don't write it down, I lose it. The result of this is I have found myself with multiple save files. The longer stories, or the ones that are close to done or are done, have their own save files. I also have one save file that is approximately twenty pages of snippets of dialogue or situations, and it keeps growing, because it's not as if my imagination stops once I have a set number of ideas written down.
There's something interesting that happens when I have that many ideas all in one save file. I think of the snippet dump file as a lost-and-found box, in which there are several different puzzles broken down into pieces I discovered, and it's not until I have enough of them that I realize how certain ones go together. I read through the save file, and I realize that some things from over two years ago, are actually scenes that happen later to the same people for whom I wrote a scene last week.
The big thing about the works in progress is that there is always progress; even if I don't see it right away, because the puzzle pieces aren't all there yet, the progress is there waiting to be pieced together. It becomes a lot easier to handle a twenty-page snippet folder when I know that at some point, I will be pulling pages of work out of it to make its own save file, to work on that story on its own.
It's important to keep typing, but it's also important to revisit what you write from time to time. It helps connect the dots for the various pieces you have standing on their own to make a short story. In some cases, it may help connect some short stories you put away over the years, which with a couple segue scenes could be made into a longer work. This is also a good way to look at how your writing style has progressed over the years; take a look at your lexicon, your turns of phrase, and how you have characters speak and interact. The progression may be subtle, but it will be there.
-A.M.W.
There's something interesting that happens when I have that many ideas all in one save file. I think of the snippet dump file as a lost-and-found box, in which there are several different puzzles broken down into pieces I discovered, and it's not until I have enough of them that I realize how certain ones go together. I read through the save file, and I realize that some things from over two years ago, are actually scenes that happen later to the same people for whom I wrote a scene last week.
The big thing about the works in progress is that there is always progress; even if I don't see it right away, because the puzzle pieces aren't all there yet, the progress is there waiting to be pieced together. It becomes a lot easier to handle a twenty-page snippet folder when I know that at some point, I will be pulling pages of work out of it to make its own save file, to work on that story on its own.
It's important to keep typing, but it's also important to revisit what you write from time to time. It helps connect the dots for the various pieces you have standing on their own to make a short story. In some cases, it may help connect some short stories you put away over the years, which with a couple segue scenes could be made into a longer work. This is also a good way to look at how your writing style has progressed over the years; take a look at your lexicon, your turns of phrase, and how you have characters speak and interact. The progression may be subtle, but it will be there.
-A.M.W.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Storytelling in Fiction
I love a good book. After cleaning and organizing my house, I actually realized I had somehow acquired so many books over the past year or so that I will need to buy another bookcase, as the one I have is already stuffed full. I love being able to open a book and mentally walk right into a different world. I like to read comedy more than watch it, and I am a sucker for a good who-dun-it, mainly because I like to see if I can spot the foreshadowing before the "who" is unmasked at the end.
I like being able to write stories too; worlds just spinning about in my brain, full of people and relationships and conversations. Being able to write it all out is freeing both mentally and emotionally to me, so most of my stories are for me. There are some worlds, some characters, which I wouldn't mind writing whole novels about and actually publish it, but for now I'm keeping those worlds to myself.
I also love video games. There has been some very well-crafted, fully realized, world building storytelling found in video games both currently and I would say in the past decade. I especially love the ones where you can play the game two different ways; either follow the main story/plot/conceit of the game and get see the world built around you one way, or you can take the time to talk to all the characters, do all the little side-quests, and uncover a completely different way to look at the world you are playing in.
I think the thing I love most about storytelling in fiction is the world building. What is so special about this particular world, this setting, that can draw people in? Of all the infinite possible worlds that one could build, what makes the particular world in that book/game/show the best setting for the characters and storylines? It fascinates me, like discovering a new world every time I open a book or boot up a new video game or watch a new show or movie, and it is in the discovery that we have joy.
So raise a glass for the storytellers; every book, every show, every movie, every video game you and I enjoy would not exist without them.
A.M.W.
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