Wednesday Writing Prompt #5

If you've been following December's weekly tickles to your writing fancy you should be in the groove by now...

Jocelyn Armby liked to be frightened

So, what have we got?

• a statement; you could make it speech by adding quote marks, a full-stop to finish the statement, or a conjunction (and/but...) to add a qualifying phrase.
• who is making the statement: an off-page narrator, or a person implicit in the story?
• Jocelyn Armby - is a precise rendition of a female name. Do you refer to your friends as such? 
• Jocelyn Armby - from the name alone, how old is this person?
• liked to be frightened - use of past tense could mean the usual past tense of current-time fiction, or it could mean that Jocelyn Armby no longer likes to be frightened. Why?
• frightened - everyone's threshold is different. For some people a painted clown jumping up and saying Boo! is frightening; for others the painted clown itself is frightening. What is Jocelyn Armby's threshold?
• Jocelyn Armby - is this a person, or an avatar?

This list of questions might be longer than used for previous Prompts, but it isn't exhaustive. Before its end, though, your mind should be fizzing with possibilities. This is what habit does. Make your habits good ones for 2015.  And remember, if you'd like to read a full short story, and see the writing of it dissected and rebuilt, sign up for my occasional Newsletter (top right) and receive a free PDF chapter from Reading A Writer's Mind...

Happy New Year!

#Ebook Price Rise - Buy! Buy! Buy!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends. As we slump out in the nuts, choccie,fruit & alcohol lull before the New Year celebrations, please be aware that this is the final buying weekend of the year. 

On Thursday January bursts through our doors with promises of Health, Wealth & Happiness. At that precise moment the European Union slams a price rise on all downloadable digital items via its VAT "readjustment", and has the brass-neck to declare that micro traders in the rest of the world uphold its onerous regulations and collects, and passes on, its taxes.

Bah-humbug!

So if you have your eye on a downloadable game, or a craft design, or a list of ebooks, DO NOT DELAY. On Thursday you'll find they will cost substantially more - in the UK approximately 17% more. Buy - buy - buy! Now.

Wednesday Writing Prompt #4

Yes, even on Christmas Eve. Your mission [should you wish to take it] is to make something Festive from this:

'Do you come here often?'

Okay, stop laughing and concentrate for a minute. Cliches become cliches because of overuse, but that doesn't mean they should be disregarded altogether. They need to be interrogated, and then turned on their heads.

So what have we got:

• a spoken question - and the single speech marks, just like the double quote marks below, are not a mistake; it's the way we punctuate in the UK. Reverse them if you'd prefer.
• you - who is "you"? "You" can be a single person or an entire group of people.
• is the speaker the narrator?
• why is the question being asked? Clue: because he/she doesn't know.
• therefore, what is happening around the speaker that is so out of his/her norm that the question needs to be asked?
• Be festive. And I suggest you interrogate that word, too, before jumping to the nearest conclusion.

Have a great mid-winter... festival!

Wednesday Writing Prompt #3

You know the score by now, so here is the opening phrase:

The wall felt sticky beneath my palm

Okay, so what have we got? Don't jump to immediate conclusions, or run with your first impressions. Think it through and think round the obvious:

• What sort of wall? 
• Where is this wall?
• ...felt sticky - note the 'felt'. Why not looked?
• ...sticky with what? Think smell, taste, temperature - use the five senses.
• ...my palm - denotes a first person narrator. Or does it?

Add more questions of your own and go for it.

Join me again next Wednesday for another Writing Prompt, or drop by Prompt #1 and Prompt #2 to kickstart your writing.