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Creative Writing Prompt!
Topic Started: Sep 4 2013, 03:35 PM (1,872 Views)
Don Jentleman
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Renzo is too sexy for himself
This feels a bit short, but I happen to like it, especially since I wrote this in the middle of the night within an hour. The muses are weird sometimes.

The River
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JBRam
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Don't play with fire, kids.
That's really cool, DJ. I'd like to see a continuation of this piece, actually. There are some minor things that slightly took me out of the mysticism of the world you had created. The first two paragraphs are beautifully written, but the first line of the third jars just a little. I'm going to attribute that to the speaker's voice, though.

Again, there are a lot of visual descriptions, but there are plenty of other senses. What does the speaker hear in this world? I picture it as a type of dead silence (pun intended) asides from the speaker's footsteps, perhaps. With those steps being the only sound, perhaps bring those front and center and give them a lot more detail than you normally would. Or perhaps there's an odd whispering sound that the speaker can't place, or something else that gives the piece and setting a more eerie feel. That, of course, is up to the writer.

I like how we learn almost nothing about the speaker other than the voice (and an approximate height). I picture a female character, for some reason. I might even remove the reference to the speaker's height and say the old man was average height. If you continued the story, I'd suggest keeping that concept in mind: give little to no description of the speaker, including gender. When the man asks for the speaker's name, I would say "I give him my name" and then continue onwards. It's a very tricky way to write a story, but you've started it effectively.

Very intriguing concept, and excellent execution, especially considering the amount of time involved. I look forward to reading more of your writing.
Edited by JBRam, Sep 23 2013, 11:20 AM.
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Speedy
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Fairly sure I've given up.
You know what? I think I'll coin an excerpt from another story of mine. I wonder how many people know about it..

The Ante Contero

I do realize it's a short, 6 paragraph story.. But as I said, an excerpt from a previous work. It never continued due to the nature of said previous work. :P
Edited by Speedy, Sep 23 2013, 11:54 AM.
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JBRam
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Don't play with fire, kids.
That's a neat idea too, Speedy. You guys keep posting ideas I'd like to see continued :P Especially since I have a feeling that something in the Ante Contero didn't work quite as planned.

I'll add this to the OP, but it bears saying here: this is for creative writing, not just short stories or things that need to be five pages long. I set that as a maximum. I wouldn't mind seeing poetry here too. There is plenty that could be said in a short poem about Discovery, or whichever prompt we end up with next month. You shouldn't feel like your work is "not as good" as a longer piece. I'm looking for quality, not quantity, and when I really want to see more to a story, I think that means it's succeeded.

That said, the only real critique I have to offer is something I struggle with myself. Ellipses. I love using ellipses in my writing, but I've found that I sometimes use them too much. Often, a comma or even a full stop is more than enough to convey the idea of a pause. Sometimes in dialogue (and less often in narration) a hyphen can also create the same effect. Other than that, I would like to have felt more of the cold of the blizzard in the narrative, and what effect (if any) the relic had on that.
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JBRam
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Don't play with fire, kids.
I wrote this in about four hours today. I've had the idea in mind for quite a while and originally planned to make a novel out of it, but some plot holes didn't want to get filled in. This is actually deceptively difficult to write, and you might see why near the end. It's about four and a half pages, so get yourself some popcorn. Also, I know that this is rather rough, but it should be good enough for this prompt. I actually have several more pages written for the beginning of the story, some of which I added into this for adequate backstory. Enjoy~

Rikar's Fate
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Hatsune Candy
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The soul of a forgotten file
Right, I would read other people's stories, but I hardly have enough free time as it is, so I'll just drop this here and be done with.
You won't believe how long it took me to find the inspiration for this piece.

Spoiler: click to toggle
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JBRam
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Don't play with fire, kids.
After careful consideration...

I have decided that Cedi's prompt will be this month's winner! I really liked the depth of the story, how it felt there was a lot more to the story than just what was posted. The style was also unique and done really well.

So, Cedi, you get to pick the next topic! WHOO!
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Cedi Fonei
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Dragon Lord in Training
Thanks, Jeebs! I'm surprised to know that the aspects I wanted to focus on in my prompt were recieved so well- I mean, yeah, I'm definitely glad and consider my writing a success in my own opinion, but I didn't think others would consider it especially successful. I definitely want to flesh out that setting more, as you can probably assume by that little cliffhanger, and I hope that I can write something equally engaging in the process.

As for a new prompt... I've already given some thought into one, though I didn't think I would have the opportunity to offer one this soon. It's tempting to suggest a silly, specific prompt like "dragons", but that would be a very restricting and pointless idea. I mean, yeah, you could write a WHOLE buncha different prompts with that, I guess, but I personally want to suggest a prompt that isn't such a concrete concept- something that can be interpretted many ways, that doesn't need to always include such an obvious element. Kinda like the Discovery prompt, we all took the term to varying degrees of literal and traditional meaning. I also wanted to suggest a prompt that can have a little more meaning to it. Because you can't apply much about dragons elsewhere. Unless the dragons symbolize something.

... I guess I just feel compelled some kind of acceptance speech, so that when I decide a new prompt there's more substance to this post than "thanks bro, here's my prompt". So, without further adeiu, I hereby give my choice for the next prompt as...

"Faith"
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JBRam
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Don't play with fire, kids.
I actually wrote this back several years when I was in college, but it fits the prompt. I'll write something else if I have time as well, since this is an old story. Note: This story was published in a Christian magazine. As such, it has religion involved: it was written for a specific audience, and about a specific circumstance. Please keep that in mind as you read.

Down to the Streets
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Hatsune Candy
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The soul of a forgotten file
I'm not religious by any means, but that story pretty great, Jeebs.
Also, I'm assuming it doesn't matter which interpretation of "faith" we use?

You said we could use poems, so here's my entry.

Forever Departed
Edited by Hatsune Candy, Oct 15 2013, 03:56 AM.
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