  Short Stories
This week: Random Prompts and Generators Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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This Issue:
Random Prompts and Generators
Using words, images and more to boost imagination.
What random sources inspire your writing? |
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So, sometimes when I'm really not sure what else to write, I will hop into a randomizer just to see what it spits out.
There are many different web-based sources for random prompts-- in fact, we've even got some made by the Storyfamily themselves which are pretty useful (over here: http://www.21x20.com/)! How do we make good use of these kinds of limits? Certainly contests and activities are a great way to play with more "limited" forms of writing; contests usually have pretty set word limits designed to keep your imagination sharp and your editing eye even sharper. Using prompts to limit yourself to a specific topic, or subgenre, can force you to think of stories you might not otherwise attempt!
Randomizers can be used for story titles or character names, too. I've found that I can be inspired to write an entire story just by finding a unique title. I might not even keep the title I used as the prompt when the story is completed, but the exercise can really help. Seventh Sanctum is one of the places I use frequently for these kinds of prompts and ideas.
I've also cultivated a ton of links to various randomizers through Chuck Wendig's blog under his Friday Flash Fiction prompts tag: this Random Titles Generator , for example, which usually produces some fanciful material-- sometimes a little too abstract, like, say, "The Nothing of the Son" might take a little work to make it useful-- but hey, sometimes even just rearranging words and getting unusual conjugations like you can find over on WatchOut4Snakes's Random Phrase generator can inspire you to think a whole different way about otherwise unrelated words and phrases. If you're more of a visual parson, try surfing the Explore tag on Flickr; you never know what you'll find there.
Getting out of your usual comfort zone is a great way to explore with your short stories. Using randomly-generated sparks for your stories can help you to find other things you might want to explore. A prompt which makes you look up a word you haven't learned before might very well send you down one of those delightful little Internet rabbit-holes of discovery-- just don't forget to pop your head back out and write something once you've done all that research! 
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
~jay |
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From last month's issue: "Making Time"
brom21 writes:
To me writing is something that you can make time for. Just substitute the hours of TV or video games that you watch or play with writing. People spend many hours a doing both. I basically do not watch any TV and I write instead. Games do distract me a little but not as they used to. Like you say, we have to make time. Thanks for the newsletter, it is encouraging.
I'm glad to provide some encouragement! Keep up the good work. And yes, everyone, writing IS work! 
Elfin Dragon-finally published writes:
I'm glad you wrote this article. For me I often use the "Idle Time" option because I'm often going to doctor appointments or some other type of thing where I'm sitting and have that sort of time. Then I can use it to jot down notes for either stories or poetry. Even if I'm at home resting sometimes I use that "me, idle time" to jot a few notes down. I also use the "Force But in Chair" to get me working on books which either need re-writes, re-reads, or simply some additional writing. These are the toughest for me so I have to use this method to at least get me going. Again, great article for us folks who might need a little "push" now and again.
Absolutely! I know the feeling. There's a hurdle we have to overcome sometimes in committing to our writing. Good for you for sticking with it! |
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Short Stories: July 22, 2015 Issue [#7110]
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