For today, something to play with - free online "magnetic" poetry!
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It must be a couple of years ago now I bought The Writer's Toolbox by Jamie Cat Callan. 
Like my ever-growing pile of books about writing, it got looked at a couple of times, and I had the best of intentions to use it, but then it got put to one side and forgotten about it.
I pulled it out again recently when I was stuck on a prompt-based challenge, to add a couple of elements and a first line to get me going. It worked, although the resulting story is possibly too strange to actually do anything with. The toolkit itself is a fun idea. It has some spinners with things like characters and obstacles on, sicks with first lines and lot twists, and cards with sensory details and objects. The different idea generators are designed to be used with those of the same sort (although I mix and match), and the idea is to write from one until the egg timer runs out of sand then use the next one to turn the story in another direction. I liked the idea so much I decided to make my own, except based around speculative fiction. I got as far as buying a pack of craft lolly sticks in different colours, but realised I was going to have trouble writing on their rough surfaces and also couldn't decide what to do with my sticks. Have some for fantasy and some for science fiction? Include characters/settings/fantasy races and aliens/settings? Then I got distracted, and moved house, and haven't done anything more with it than find a tin to keep the sticks in. The problem with the toolkit is there's a risk of getting bored with the content. Sure you'll end up with different combinations, but there are limited options for each different element. There's only so many times you want to write about "Joy from the rock band" or someone who solves their problems by learning to drive. The sensory details and plot turn prompts have probably got a it more life in them, and you can always combine them with other, weirder prompts. See you at Seventh Sanctum? |
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