The Snowflake Chronicles

Fantasy Newsletter August 14, 2013

"Fantasy Newsletter (August 14, 2013)" 

Creating sci-fi and fantasy prompts

Create sci-fi and fantasy prompts by observing your environment

Carry a notebook with you
To create your own writing prompts.

Observe your environment,
Write a description,
Write down all questions,
No matter how weird or odd
Your logical mind considers
The questions to be.


It is summer. The long warm days encourage outdoor activities and sometimes discourage or, at least, interfere with writing. We go out and enjoy ourselves in the pool or at the beach, while stories and poetry wait on our computers for us to finish them. If we have the technology and a connection to the internet, we can sometimes write from the beach or beside the pool. However, not all of us can afford the technology or spare the time to access the internet while we are out having fun.

This is why I like to carry a small loose-leaf notebook and pen with me. I can write down any ideas that I run across while I am interacting with other people in real time. For instance, today I got an idea for a fantasy story by simply watching the wind blow through an oak tree. The branches swayed in the wind, which caused the leaves to look like they were dancing. As I watched, the limbs move I felt the wind on my face. I wrote the description and then I wrote down the questions that came to mind.

Is it possible for the tree limbs move and the leaves flutter without the wind blowing? What would cause such a phenomenon? Can a tree move its limbs and leaves itself? Could magic cause the tree's limbs and leaves to move without the assistance of wind? At this point, I realized that I really did need a prompt generator to create writing prompts because I can do it myself by just observing the world around me and writing the questions down.

I can use this same technique to find science fiction prompts as well. Take a weird incident that happened with my cell phone and the television remote. I checked my cell phone and noticed that the battery was completely charged. Then I placed my cell phone on the couch beside me before I turned on the television. After turning on the TV, I put the remote on the couch on top of my cell phone. When I picked up my cell phone after the program was over, the battery needed recharging.

I know there are numerous logical explanations for the cell phone battery running down. In fact, there are too many explanations to go into in this newsletter and none of them makes a good science fiction prompt. Did the remote control steal the charge in my cell phone battery? How did the remote steal or eat the power in the phone's battery? Once I answer those questions, I have a science fiction story.




Do any of you have any other ways to create your own writing prompts? Do you have any other questions or ideas for this newsletter?