“A poet's work . . . to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.”― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses A poem is the ultimate portrayal of human emotion. A poem is the most concise, compact organization of thought. What is a poem …
Tag: writing
Prompt: The Last Nymph
“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”― Madeline Miller, Circe The last of her kind, Syd was a forest nymph who lived a life of solitude. The plants and animals kept her company most …
Prompt: Messy Witch
“Yes, you are nosy. You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all.”― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle How does a witch clean up her messes? Describe a magical being tidying up after a day of potion making (or magic making, spell casting, whatever). What kind of ingredients did …
Prompt: Your OC and a Time Machine
“That's the thing about human life--there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.”― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon If your OC had a time machine, how would they use it? Imagine a scenario where your character meets a time traveler. The …
Prompt: The Puzzle Maker
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”― Frank Herbert, Dune Germaine makes sense of their universe by designing puzzles. Outside their window, there are monsters and cults, sorcerers and chaos; but inside their little house, there is order …
Prompt: Duct Tape
“Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshiped.”― Andy Weir, The Martian What can you fix with duct tape? Make a list of all the things you would attempt to fix with duct tape. It can make sense, like a cardboard box, or it …
Prompt: Exploring Portals
“We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.”― Stanisław Lem, Solaris She had been a part of the program for about a year now. When she first joined, they said …
Prompt: Creation Story
“Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud...”― Yann Martel, Life of Pi Creation stories explain why and …
Prompt: Stealing Memories
“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”― Lois Lowry, The Giver Nathaniel could not only read minds, but read someone's past. Their whole history, all of their memories would swarm him like a pack of angry hornets. He couldn't control it either, it …
Prompt: Dying Stars
“She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.”― Neil Gaiman, Stardust Inside every star, at its very core, is an egg like object. In that egg lives the physical embodiment of the star. In some stars, there are humans, in …
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