Dragon Writing Prompts

Updated every day of Nano. You may need to scroll down to see today’s prompt.

I had a last minute NaNo inspiration that will help me. I tend to skip over description. So for each day of NaNo month I’ll send out a prompt to focus your attention on something you might not ordinarily notice in whatever scene you’re working on. The intent is not to generate great prose but to force you to expand your vision of what’s going on around and inside your characters.

Write at least one paragraph for the day’s prompt:

Today’s prompt:

22. Your POV character hears a song and it evokes strong memories full of emotion and sensory detail.

Previous prompts:

1. Describe your point of view (POV) character’s current emotional state and how it affects him or her from head to toe.
2. Describe the shoes of the next character that walks into the scene and what they remind the POV character of.
3. Describe the weather (or environment if weather isn’t relevant to your story) in the scene you’re writing right now. Involve all 5 senses.
4. Relate something in your current scene to a toy from your POV character’s childhood.
5. The current situation to your POV character is [fill in an animal]. Extend the metaphor. What in the situation are the teeth? Why is something like the breath? How does it relate to the sound the character makes? (And whatever else you can come up with. Use all five senses!)
6. It starts raining (or stops raining). Describe the emotions *and* memories this evokes in your POV character.
7. In the next conversation, describe something the character is doing as they speak each line of dialogue.
8. Relate your POV character’s best friend (current or childhood) to one of the characters they’re with right now. Likenesses and differences. Relate both physical traits as well as attitude, temperament, life story …
9. Describe your POV character’s inner state in terms of one of the seasons, that is, the seasons that are relevant to your story.
10. A bug is in your current scene. Use the bug’s actions as a mirror of what’s going on with the situation or inside your POV character.
11. My daughter’s favorite: Food descriptions! For the next meal your character has, describe, obviously, taste and sight and smell, but also texture, presentation, how the colors work together, emotional reactions, physical reactions, memories.
12. My daughter’s favorite: Food descriptions! For the next meal your character has, describe, obviously, taste and sight and smell, but also texture, presentation, how the colors work together, emotional reactions, physical reactions, memories.
13. Something in the current scene transports your POV back to a place they frequently played (playground, tree house, junker car behind the shed, mom’s closet …) Pay particular attention to the resonance of the emotions between the two places.
14. In the next populous area your character visits, sum up their impression with one word. Rather than agonizing over the right word — which wastes valuable NaNo time! — use the first word that comes to mind. Take it as far as you can. How does it relate to the people, buildings, atmosphere, smell, colors, sounds …
15. Relate the current situation the character is in to a game, like chess, dice, Monopoly, dominos, poker. Even if your setting isn’t contemporary it’s likely every culture will have games of chance involving dice-like objects (bones for instance) or strategy board game (like chess or go or parchisi).
16. Describe the next store your POV character visits. How are the proprietor or associate like the store? How do the appearances (dirtiness, cleanliness, order, chaos) relate? The voice and speech mannerisms?
17. Relate your POV character’s current emotional state to a storm. It might be the anticipation of an approaching storm, the middle of the storm, or the relief or aftermath of a storm. Work the metaphor for all it’s worth!
18. Another character is fiddling with an object — jewelry, something in or from their pocket, something they picked up. Use the manipulations as a window in the character’s fluctuating emotional state.
19. If the current situation continues, how does your POV character envision himself and the important players in his life in the future.
20. In the current scene, your character picked up some skill she’s using during the course of her life. Reflect on that, particularly the emotional resonance the experience has for your character.
21. Rather than expand, synopsize. Someone new enters your story, or your character needs to relate what’s been happening since the beginning of the story on a post card or Tweet. Make each word count for dozens.

NOTE: Don’t link to this post! Blogsome includes the day in the URL and I’ll be updating the date as I add each item to keep it at the top of the blog throughout November. If you’d like a link, use the post at Blogspot: A month of NaNo prompts.

I stumbled across a few tarot spreads designed specifically for writing projects and the need to use them as a NaNo prompt wouldn’t let go! They’re a bit more time consuming than the other prompts but may be less time consuming and more productive than banging your head against the desk as you struggle to figure out what should happen next ;-)

The spreads are all designed by Arwen.

The first is a Goal, Motivation, Conflict spread. She suggests it’s best used during writing after you know your characters and when you’re stuck on where they should go next. (Click on the image for Arwen’s explanation of the layout.)

If your knowledge of tarot extends no further than the ability to place cards on a table, you can draw each of the 7 cards below and it will give you explanations.

Type in a Question like “Who is my character?” or “What is my character’s goal?”, under Deck choose a deck that sounds like it fits your story (obviously you might need to explore them a bit), under Spread choose One card.

If you want to explore the possibilities for your main characters (or it might work for protagonist and antagonist), this spread can be used over and over. It’s called a ladder spread because the top card (7) can become the bottom (2) card of the next set and so on up the ladder as you keep plotting your story out. (Click on the image for Arwen’s explanation of the layout.)

Arwen also designed a Characterization Spread that delves into childhood and other influences on your character.

There are more Tarot Spreads for Writers at the Aeclectic Tarot Forum. Scroll 1/3 of the way down the page (or search for “writer”.)

If using tarot for plotting intrigues you, there’s also Tarot for Writers by Corinne Kenner that gets some great reviews.

For each of your main characters, including your antagonist, write out how they think at this moment in your story all this will end, who will live, who will die, who will get what they want or what they’ll get instead and what are the consequences? Maybe the bad guy will come up with a better ending that you have planned! ;-)

(If you’re not doing NaNo, use this for a story you never finished.)

Michael Arnsen keeps popping up like a zombie who just won’t accept a shovel to the head! And as usual time is crunched during NaNo so I’ll totally rip off his delicious list of Twisted Prompts for Nanowrimo Writers to inspire you:

• Unexpectedly kill a character. Have your protagonist hear their dying words…but only partially.
• Take a break and reflect: What element of fiction is the weakest in your book right now: character, setting, dialogue or conflict? Choose one. The next time you hit the keyboard, write three paragraphs of prose dedicated just to that element in some way. And make it DARK.
• The next time you give a description of a character’s physical features, identify a disfigurement. ANYTHING, ranging from an almost imperceptible scar on their brow to giant webbed feet. Expound through dialogue or monologue about what sort of torment that disfigurement causes the character, and how they endure it.
• Notice the teeth.
• Give your viewpoint character permission to have a lengthy flight of fantasy, imagining what they would do if they had psychic powers or dreaming how they might solve the main conflict if they had superhuman powers of some kind.
• Set your next dialogue-driven scene in a foul restaurant. Break up the conversation with intermittent observations of the low hygiene and filthy food. At the end, draw comparisons between the establishment and the novel’s conflict or antagonist.
• Use a banal object in a scene as a makeshift weapon.
• “Goth up” a minor character and give them something morbidly pithy or darkly ominous to say.
• Take your main character’s hostilities and frustrations out on an inconsequential object…but in prose that dramatizes this eruption in an ultraviolent way.
• Treat weather as a monster.
• As you head into your next plot point, ask yourself: “And what could make the outcome even worse?”
• Review your manuscript so far. Seize on an object or image from your description that you mentioned in passing, and bring it back into the picture in an uncannily meaningful way.
• Something strange is hidden under the desk/table/seat. Your protagonist stumbles on it. This is important to a future scene. But keep the discovery a secret for now. You’ll figure out its importance later.
• Make your main character sick. Whether a cold or a contracted disease. Use this sickness in an unexpected way to solve a problem.
• Describe a new character (as they enter the story) in the darkest way you know how, from head to toe. Then make them so nice it’s laughable.
• Introduce your viewpoint character to Insanity.
• Reference a horror movie or book in an explicit/overt/obvious way. Then turn it inside-out.

(Scroll down for today’s prompts.)

• You know how sometimes an idea will pop into your head while you’re writing something else? It’s an obvious idea and you know you’ll remember it so you slog through the scene and by the end you’ve forgotten what it was?

 

• You know how sometimes you’ll hover over the keyboard, debating which choice to make and you just can’t decide what would work best?

One of the Nanoers at our local kick off party mentioned a technique in Weekend Novelist called:

Writing Down the Page

(I can’t find a description on line so either she misremembered its name or no one else found it nifty, but I’m finding it useful! If anyone knows what it’s called, please let me know!)

It’s a way to capture fleeting ideas and get you writing instead of hovering.

If you use this for your whole NaNo (which I’m doing), you’ll end up with a flowing collection of ideas. Which is a great way to send your internal editor on vacation since you may not be writing complete sentences and you’re deliberately including a range of ideas some of which you know you’ll eventually eliminate.

The important part is: don’t write paragraphs. Hit carriage return after each sentence or snatch of an idea. It’s going to look more like a poem, a long list, than a novel. It’s a free flowing brainstorm. You can put an extra carriage return when you start a new idea and label it with some bold text.

Sometimes a fairly cohesive scene will flow out. (Mine is conforming to scenes and chapters.) Often it will be snatches of dialog. Bits of description. Questions for you to answer. Or half a dozen possibilities of what a character might do and why.

So if you’re stuck, don’t ponder. Write down the problem. Explore it right there in your Nano. Brainstorm a list of possibilities. If an idea for a scene comes up while you’re doing that, write it down right where you are. (You can mark it with xxx to remind yourself to move it and expand it later.)

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What I’ve done with it so far is, at the beginning of each chapter, I explore the character’s desires (wants, objectives, goals). Each scene will have a goal (getting the demon nest rooted out, for example) as well as the character’s greater goal of the novel hovering over them.

Then I explore obstacles (conflicts) I can throw in their way. (I tend to be too nice to my characters! Deliberately brainstorming obstacles keeps me focused on a story’s engine: overcoming difficulties!) Each of these obstacles creates an evolving set of minigoals for the character to achieve (getting away from the annoying coworker, getting shoes that don’t have a broken heel, for example).

Then I write down possible responses to the obstacles and how the character can reveal more of who he is, reveal more of what’s going on in the story, in what he chooses to do and the way he chooses to do it. It helps remind me of the tree I’m writing about rather than getting lost in the foliage of a few thousand individual leaves.

I’m finding it much easier to throw problems and obstacles at a character when I don’t (yet) need to write the scene that gets them out of it!

Have your character list 5 ways they’re ordinary (for their world, of course!) and 5 ways they’re not ordinary. (Though you don’t need to include it, they picked those particular items out of the totality of who they are for a reason.)

Idea from Charloft where’s there’s a new theme each day for your characters. (A very active community.) There are loads of responses to this particular one. In case the Live Journal community disappears one day, I saved the list.

I also opened an Ordinary and Special topic at the NaNoWriMo forums.

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What’s special or ordinary about the picture? Go to Face Research — Make an Average. Click on several pictures. Click View Average and see what a composite of the pictures is like. (Try all the thin faces, all those with dark hair, all those with long chins, all with large ears ….) I tried to create a girl’s face where race wasn’t easy to pinpoint.

Roll over the post’s image and you can see all the faces, male and female, averaged together. (The sampling of images does contain a large proportion of Caucasians.) Is it a girl or a boy? It would be interesting to see a composite of all 20 yos, 30 yos, etc in the world :-)

What’s interesting is that average isn’t bland but tends toward beauty. So beauty isn’t so extraordinary as it is average!

Whether you’re gearing up for NaNo or want to try your hand at flash fiction, NaNo liasons have passed on Plot Generator for the beginning of your story and Plot Twists.

Flash fiction are stories less than a 1000 words and come in many varieties with sometimes very specific rules. Some other names are: short-short stories, sudden, postcard, minute, furious, fast, quick, and skinny fiction. Many have websites where you can share the torture of confining your writing by word count:

365 Tomorrows posts a new flash fiction everyday. You may submit your (science fiction based) stories for consideration.

Camille Renshaw provides a good overview of the craft in The Essentials of Micro-Fiction.

Here are a few types of flash fiction with specific limitations:

• pinhead stories (50 words or fewer)
• nanofiction (less than 50)
• 55 word (55 or fewer but must include a setting, character or characters, conflict, resolution, so it’s not, for example, a slice of life piece.) You can read the 2008 winners of the 55-word contest run by New Times magazine for inspiration.
• 69er, 88er, 99er
• microfiction (under 100)
• drabble (100 exactly and its spinoffs: dribble - exactly 50 words, droubble - exactly 200 words) The Drabble Project has some examples from drabble’s beginnings.
• ficleys (64-1024 words but you can continue someone else’s story).

I should have guessed there would be lists of costumes based on puns on the internet! Once I started gathering, I couldn’t stop. :-) If you’d like to guess what they are, you can reveal the answer by highlighting the line.

Gathered from around the internet, particularly Pun Intended: Costumes with a Punch Line.

• Get a bunch of watches and tie them around your waist, like a belt. Waste of Time
• Pin a bunch of sponges to your clothes. Self-Absorbed
• Wear pale blue and pin cotton batting to it in random places. Carry a small spray bottle filled with water. Partly Cloudy With A Chance of Showers
• Wear all black and attach to your clothes things like chewed up gum, candy wrappers, popcorn, empty paper cups, etc. Floor of a Movie Theatre
• Go as a purple pumpkin. The Grape Pumpkin
• Attach stuffed dogs and cats to an umbrella. Raining Cats and Dogs
• Attach a P to your shirt and paint your eye black. Black-eyed Pea
• Attach 7 Cs to your shirt. (Or do it with 7 friends each wearing a C.) The Seven Seas.
• Don a pig mask, wrap yourself in a blanket. Pig in a Blanket
• Attach arms to a coat. Coat of Arms
• Attach fake hair to your arms, chest and neck, carry a flower pot filled with dirt and a little shovel. Hairy Potter
• Attach a bunch of (small) cereal boxes to your shirt with plastic knives stuck in them. Cereal Killer
• Wear a BIG band-aid on your butt. Pain in the Ass
• Attach a yellow circle to your stomach. Add some devil horns and a pitch fork. Deviled Egg
• Wear a gold outfit, gold accessories, gold hair, carry a shovel. Gold Digger
• Attach a dollar to each ear. Buck-an-Ear
• Strap a doll to your rear-end and sit on it. Babysitter
• Wear a brimmed cap with a leaf (or snowflake) dangling down in front of your face. When someone asks what you are, blow on the leaf (or snowflake). Leaf Blower or Snow Blower
• Carry a quarter and a hammer. If someone asks what your costume is, put the quarter down and pound it with the hammer. Quarter Pounder
• Attach a throw rug to your head. Carry a broom. Swept Under the Rug
• Drench yourself in water and carry around two sticks, a scarf and a carrot. Melted Snowman
• Cut out a large “1″. Cut a hole in the middle of the 1. Attach it to your chest. Hole in One
• Put “Hello my name is…” tags with random names all over your body. Multiple Personalities
• Attach a pack of Tic Tacs to the tip of your shoe. Tic Tac Toe
• Pin men’s underwear to your shirt front. Chest of Drawers
• Dress as a girl. Form a large arrow pointing up with safety pins. Pin Up Girl
• Wear all black, and attach a postage stamp to your chest. Black Mail
• Dress up as a present. Attach a tag that says “From: God, To: Women.” God’s Gift to Women
• Attach large labels that say “Shirt: $30…Jeans: $50…Shoes: $70……Halloween costume that took minimal effort: Priceless. Mastercard Ad
• Glue a poker chip to your shoulder. Chip on Your Shoulder
• Carry a toy aircraft in a basket. Aircraft Carrier
• Write “Go Ceilings!” on the front of your shirt. Add other gear (pom poms, big foam finger, etc.) Cheer! Ceiling Fan
• Tie a computer CD around your neck and carry a lighter. When someone asks what you are, hold the lighter up to the CD. CD burner
• Attach dollars to stars on your shirt (or make dollars into origami stars). Starbucks
• Attach a guitar pick to your pocket. Pick Pocket
• Attach pictures of Robert De Niro all over yourself. Mucho Dinero
• Dress as a man. Tape an “E” on your chest. “E”-male
• Carry fake eye balls. When someone asks you what Halloween costume you’re wearing, drop them on the floor. Eye Drops
• Wear buttons and carry signs that say “Devil is #1″ and “Vote for Satan,” etc.. Devil’s Advocate
• Write the number 3.1415926 on an orange pumpkin shape. Attach it to your shirt. Pumpkin Pie
• Attach some quarters to hairclips, and place in your hair. Headquarters
• Attach an empty M&M candy wrapper to your chest. Eminem the Rapper!
• Attach white trash to yourself. White Trash
• Carry several bags filled with construction paper “B”s. Bee Keeper
• Wear all black clothes. Cut out big, bright numbers and attach them to your clothes. Someone You Can Count On
• Tape a quarter to your back. Quarterback
• Attach a quarter to your back and a dollar to each ear. Quarter back for the Buckaneers
• Wear a nice suit. Attach legal documents all over yourself. Lawsuit
• Carry a stuffed dog. When someone asks about your costume, throw the dog up and catch it. Dog Catcher
• Wear a name tag that says “Susan.” Paint your eyes black. Black-eyed Susan
• Wear a bra on the outside of your shirt and attach the letter “Z” to it. Zebra
• Wear a name tag that says “Johnny”. Cut a circle out of cardboard or plastic, big enough to stand on. When someone asks you what you are, throw the circle on the floor and stand on it. Johnny on the Spot
• Attach a large brown “E” to your chest. Brown-E (Brownie)
• Take two round circles of brown fake fur and attach them to the back of your pants.. “Bear” Bum!
• Attach an empty bag of Wise potato chips to the back of your pants. Wise Ass
• Tape a disposable razor to your back. Razorback
• Wear pink clothes. Add a name tag that says “Floyd.” Pink Floyd
• Dress in normal clothes and carry a sign that says “Strike.” Nudist on Strike
• Attach a nickel to your back. Nickelback
• Wear a large garbage bag over your body. Attach a large letter “T” to the front. Tea Bag
• Make the letter “I” out of cardboard, write “Beauty” on it, and attach it to your shirt. Carry a beer. Beauty is in the Eye of the Beerholder
• Wear a pot on your head. Pot Head
• Put a picture frame around your neck and sign your shirt. Self Portrait
• Carry a small dumbbell. Stare at it intently when asked what you are. Weight Watcher
• Attach a large picture of yourself to the front of your shirt. “Stuck on Myself”
• Wear an extra-large bra over your clothes. Stuff it with jars of spices. Spice Rack
• Attach Smarties candies all over your pants. Smarty Pants
• Dress up as a bug and a lady. Lady Bug
• Attach stuffed animals (and horseshoe magnets) to yourself. Animal Magnetism
• Attach chicks to yourself. Chick Magnet
• Wear a slip with Freud written across the front. Freudian Slip
• Dress as a basketball player. Wear 2 large donuts around your middle. (Even better with 2 people, each wearing a donut.) Dunkin’ Donuts
• Put peas or peapods all over you. “I Come in Peace.”
• Color your neck red. Redneck
• Dress as a bunny and carry a feather duster. Dust Bunny
• Dress as monk and carry chips. Chipmunk
• Attach a bunch of green Ns and Vs all over you. Green with Envy
• Wear scrubs with pepper packets attached. Dr. Pepper
• Dress as a cat. Attach trash you’d find on the street. Kitty Litter
• Dress in black. Attach a strip of yellow tape from right shoulder to right ankle and left shoulder to left ankle. (And a dotted line down the middle if you wish.) Attach a fork to your chest. Fork in the Road
• Dress as a star made out of “rock”. Rock Star
• Dress in a somber suit, attach women’s panties, tucked into pockets. “Undy Taker.”
• Dress as a bat or Batman. Carry a customer service bell. Ding Bat
• Write “Bless You” on your shirt. Wear nose glasses. Blessing in Disguise
• Attach fake thumbs to all your fingers. All Thumbs
• Attach a picture of an anchor to your chest. Anchorman or Anchorwoman
• Drag a picture of the Queen of England or a Queen CD. Drag Queen
• Paint your face white and draw a musical staff and notes on it. Face the Music
• Attach a chick (or picture of a chick) to your hip. Hip Chick
• Dress in shades of green. Attach a bottle of dressing to your side. Mixed Greens with Dressing on the Side
• Attach a pink I to your chest. Pink Eye
• Carry knives, splash yourself with fake blood. Attach a B to your chest. Killer Bee
• Drip fake blood on yourself. Wear a “Mary” name tag. Bloody Mary
• Wear hospital scrubs, under a brown hooded cloak, carry a light saber and a speculum. OB-GYN Kenobi
• Wear an orange toga with a laurel crown. Orange Julius
• Wear bat wings with a baseball uniform. Baseball Bat
• One half of the couple wears an army shirt, and the other half wears army pants. Digestive Tract (upper and lower GI)
• Wear nerdy glasses, a toga, and a pocket protector. Geek Goddess
• Pin socks all over your normal clothes and SMILE. When people ask, flash a manic grin. Ecstatic Cling
• Cut out many pictures of porpoises. Fan them out around your face with a headscarf. All Porpoise Flower
• Get a Scott Baio mask or print out a picture of his face. Dress as a wolf. Beowolf
• Guy dressed in a maid’s costume. Trans-janitor
• Dress as a bee. Attach words to you. When people ask, spell the words. Spelling Bee
• Wear a trench coat. Inside attach lots of flowers. When people ask, look around as though being secretive then flash open the coat. The Secret Garden
• Dress as Gene Simmons of Kiss with a French beret. French Kiss
• Dress as a skeleton. Carry a bell. Dead Ringer
• Hang a Welcome sign around your neck. Wearing Out Your Welcome
• Carry Zs around in a fish or butterfly net. Catching Some Zs
• Dress as a poop with angel wings. Holy Shit
• Dress up as a cow (horns, bell, udder) and angel wings and halo. Holy Cow!
• Wear normal clothing and tell everyone, “I’m a homicidal maniac. We look just like everyone else.”

October 31 at midnight, NaNoWriMo begins!

National Novel Writing Month is a time when people all over the world withdraw from life to crank out a 50,000 word novel in one month.

At first it seems insane and impossible. After doing it a few times, it’s really not so bad! :-)

Everything you need to know about it is at the NaNoWriMo website.

I’ll be posting prompts that are usable for Nano (or other writing) throughout the month. (If anyone wants to drop me a “Hi!”or add me as a buddy, I’m JFetteroll (so original, I’m always JFetteroll!) at the NaNo website.)

In the forums are online and face-to-face support. (Check out the regional boards to see if there are writing groups near you.) There are word wars (to see who can churn out the most words within a certain time) and prompts and people to help if you get stuck either emotionally, logically or factoidally.

And most people do get stuck around week 2, at the 15,000 word mark. Expect to hit that wall. At that point you’ve let your characters run rampant setting up their relationships and you suddenly realize you’ve written 15,000 words of crap and you’ve pushed the characters as far as you can go and alphabetizing your spices would be a much better use of your time. Every novelist hits that point. What separates the failed novelists from the successful ones is that the successful ones keep going. :-)

If you think you don’t have time, I found this week’s posting at the NaNo website inspiring :-) Cylithria Dubois — what a great fantasy name! — wrote her last novel while part of a forward observation team stationed in Iraq: Cylithria Dubois, Marine Corps novelist

Some tips:

✓ Don’t worry about quality. Your goal is quantity not quality. Send your internal editor on vacation. This month there’s no such thing as bad writing. (Or it’s all bad! Whatever mindset keeps the words flowing for you.) Note: No one will read it. Bots at the website count your words to see if you’ve gotten at least 50,000.

✓ Don’t worry about getting the beginning right. Jump into the middle of the story. Write the end first. Write the middle first. Doesn’t matter!

✓ Don’t worry about going in order. If you get stumped, or another scene is begging to be written, jump ahead. (As you find out more about your characters, you’ll know how to fill those jumps in — which might be after NaNo.)

✓ Don’t worry about finishing the story. The goal is 50,000 words of a single work (eg, not a bunch of short stories). It doesn’t have to be a complete novel. It’s a way to get you started. (Novels are closer to 100,000 words, though it depends on the genre.)

You can plan as much or as little as you want, but no actual writing before November 1. Some people like an outline. Some people don’t want to know where their characters are taking them. Whatever works for you.

Happy writing!

Describe someone in positive terms but then add a negative twist.

• In a neat strip his hair clung to his head from forehead to shoulders like a beaver tail of soft curls.
• Her cherry lips framed corn yellow teeth that rivaled a horse’s.

Also describe someone in negative terms but add a positive twist.

• The wrinkled parchment of his face burst into life with his smile.
• Her fog of thinning hair glowed like dandelion fluff in the sun.

From #161 at Meredith Sue Willis Writing Exercises.

“Top 10 things I believe with all my heart and soul.”

Okay, I did promise no self reflection in the prompts! But you don’t need to use it to dig beneath your dirty (or dull) layers ;-) Use it as a way to generate a real, heartfelt list that, with some tweaking, could be used for a character. Start with ten real ones, and then let them flow.

Though some may be weighty or serious, don’t let the prompt limit you. I certainly believe with all my heart and soul that Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream would beat any other flavor in a wrestling match on my tongue ;-)

When you’re done, look over what you’ve written. Take some directly, tweak some, get inspired by others to go a different direction then craft a character from the variety.

Take your favorite character and describe their car (or usual mode of transportation).

Is it new or used? Why that particular model? Did they pick the color specifically or just what was available? Where did they buy it?

What’s lost under the seat? What’s in the trunk? What are the stains on the seat and how did they get there?

What’s in the glove compartment? The trunk? The storage area? What’s in the back seat?

What’s broken and do they intend to fix it?

Do they run it into the ground or is it well maintained?

Has it been modified? To be cool? To be more practical?

What are their rules for passengers?

Hippocrates believed moods and behaviors were caused by the balance of four bodily fluids (called humors): blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm. During the Renaissance, Shakespeare and other authors based characters on the four humors or temperaments. It’s good to have a balance in real life, but for characters it’s good to be unbalanced :-)

Come up with some characters based on the four humors. Set them in a situation together and see what happens.

Sanguine (blood, cheerful)

A sanguine person is generally light-hearted, fun-loving, a people person, loves to entertain, spontaneous, leadership abilities, and confident. However they can be arrogant, cocky, and indulgent. They can be day-dreamy and off-task to the point of not accomplishing anything and can be impulsive, possibly acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion.

The temperament is associated with the season of spring, the qualities of warm and moist, the element of air. Various modern equivalents are: artisan, improvisor, artistic, innovative, changeable.

Synonyms: cheerful, confident, optimistic, assured, hopeful, buoyant, in good heart

Choleric (yellow bile, enthusiastic)

A choleric person is a doer. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were cholerics. On the negative side, they are easily angered, bad-tempered, mean-spirited, suspicious and angry.

The temperament is associated with the season of summer, the qualities of warm and dry, and the element of fire. Various modern equivalents are: idealist, catalyst, religious, doctrinaire, inspired.

Synonyms: irate, testy, hot-tempered, fiery, irritable, quarrelsome

Melancholic (black bile, somber)

A melancholic person is a thoughtful ponderer. Often very kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly creative – as in poetry and art - but can become overly pre-occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist. This often results in being unsatisfied with one’s own artistic or creative works and always pointing out to themselves what could and should be improved.

The temperament is associated with the season of autumn, the qualities of cold and dry, and the element of earth. Various modern equivalents are: guardian, stabilizer, economic, traditional, industrious.

Synonyms: languid, spiritless, gloomy

Phlegmatic (phlegm, calm)

A phlegmatic person is calm and unemotional. While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. However the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend.

The temperament is associated with the season of winter, the qualities of cold and moist, and the element of water. Various modern equivalents are: rational, theorist, theoretic, skeptical, curious.

Synonyms: unemotional, indifferent, cold, heavy, dull, sluggish, matter-of-fact, placid, stoical, lethargic, bovine, apathetic, frigid, lymphatic, listless, impassive, stolid, unfeeling, undemonstrative

There’s a chart that categorizes the traits and strengths and weaknesses of each:

If you’d like to see the mixture of humors in your character (or yourself) there’s a personality test.

The Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson is about a world where people are isolated into quarters by personality type. I’m seeing some inherent conflict there in a land filled with leaders but no followers and thinkers but no doers.

What does your character …

… fear?
… dread?
… want?
… want to avoid losing?
… want to avoid gaining?
… love?
… desire?
… need?
… crave?
… hate?
… loathe?
… have a passion for?

If your character doesn’t want something badly, there isn’t much reason to read about them.

While in real life happiness is a great thing, it’s boring in a character ;-) Their desire needn’t be a huge thing like saving the world. It can be simple personal quest like recreating Mom’s lost recipe for cherry pie or a war on the invading bedbugs.

This can work for a current character, a dropped character you were fond of but couldn’t make work, a brand new character.

(The above words are intentionally similar to need. Some words may feel the same to you. That’s okay. We each have slightly different connotations for words and words you feel are the same may spark very different ideas in someone else.)

Ben Shott writes about words for the NY Times with an occasional weekend competition.

This weekend’s competition is to come up with new collective nouns for modern nouns. Collective nouns are the words for groups like pride of lions and murder of crows.

Here’s his description:

Many of the collective nouns with which we are familiar can be found in the “Book of St. Albans,” published in 1486. This curious volume, often attributed to Juliana Berners, contains treatises on hawking, hunting and heraldry, as well as a host of, now famous, nouns of assemblage, including:

An exultation of larks; a parliament of rooks; a murmuration of starlings; a shrewdness of apes; a gaggle of geese; a turmoil of porpoises; a business of ferrets; a spring of teal; and a pride of lions.

This weekend, co-vocabularists are invited to submit novel nouns of assemblage for modern phenomena. A bucket of Wiis? A swamp of blogs? A murder of crowds?

You can add to or just check out the contributions at his blog.

(Not sure if you’ll need to register to read the blog. I know you do for the NY Times articles.)

Last week was the quindecennial (15th anniversary) of Wordsmith.org when Anu Garg sent out the first word of the day to a handful of grad students. 4000 words and 700,000 subscribers later he presented 5 15 letter words and the challenge to craft definitions of 15 letters for each. (I should have posted the contest!)

But, anyway, here’s the results with catchy succinct definitions that are more likely to stick with you than standard definitions :-) (Though, admittedly, the opportunity to use the words won’t crop up too often ;-)

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From Anu Garg:

Last week’s contest to define the words in 15 letters generated tremendous enthusiasm. Many teachers discussed the contest in their classes and shared definitions from their students. More than 2000 readers sent one or more entries filled with creativity, humor, and lateral thinking.

It wasn’t easy to select the winners from so many outstanding suggestions. Listed below are the winning entries which have each gained an autographed copy of one of my books.

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Subintelligitur

Winner:

An idea alluded to. -Karyl Davis (karyl.davis lackland.af.mil)

Honorable mentions:

• Don’t say it. I get it. -Virginia Davidson (vdavidson50 hotmail.com)
• Kenned sotto voce. -Chiron (chiron godhammer.com)
• You should know it. -Susan Frost (richandsuzi yahoo.com)
• Virtually stated. -Albert D. (filiquark yahoo.com)
• Obvio sin decirlo. -Steven Fuller (sfuller garfieldre2.org)
• Ca va sans dire - duh! -Margaret Cox (mocox1 cox.net)
• No words required. (Anu Garg’s worst nightmare!) -Monica Porterfield (mporterfield mltvacations.com)
• Obvious ergo mute. -Paul B. Calico (pbcalico strausstroy.com)
• Don’t spell it out. -Brianna Sims (brianna.sims gmail.com)
• Read my lips, dummy. -Jonathan Danilowitz (jon-dan 013.net)
• Under the liminal. -Daniel Pesta (towardus comcast.net)
• Doesn’t need sayin’. -David Honigmann (david_honigmann mckinsey.com)
• Said but not aloud. -Jonathan Weiss (jweiss1999 aol.com)
• Feel it in my bones. -Edie Bonferraro (edieb mailbug.com)
• A tacit knowledge -Rachel Blau DuPlessis (rdupless temple.edu)
• Shhh. I understand. -Justin Peniston (moose0225 aol.com)
• I get your message. -Judith Henderson (judyframehend aol.com)
• I comprehend. *Wink* -Dan Marlowe (sisyphus42 gmail.com)
• No need to mention. -Julie Southern (southernbookworm hotmail.com)
• You know, I know, shh! -Liza Levy (sparkydoc kyk.net)
• Inferred w/o a word. -Jeff Miller (jdmiller milligan.edu)
• Don’t need to say it. -Gabby Kissane (gkissane gmail.com)
• The ways of a woman. -Gordon Havens (gordonhavens hotmail.com)
• Many readers sent these suggestions:
• Between the lines
• Not said, but known.
• Don’t tell me - I know!
• Not said, yet known.
• Implicitly known.
• Heard but not said.
• Ya know what I mean.
• Known sans speech.

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Lepidopterology

Winner:

To see life flit by. -Julie Paschkis (jpaschkis comcast.net)

Honorable mentions:

• Life after cocoon. -Edie Bonferraro (edieb mailbug.com)
• Study of flitters. -Rebecca Haaland (rebecca emsp.no)
• About winged bugs. -Vaishali Kamath (vaishalikamath hotmail.com)
• Flitterers study. -John A. Olmsted (jolmsted exchange.fullerton.edu)
• Study live jewels. -Kate Daniel (writerkate earthlink.net)
• What cute insects! -David M. Lieberfarb (dmlieb optonline.net)
• Nabokov’s leisure. -Stephen Schwartz (hillendari hotmail.com)
• Study of farfalle. -Riccardo Fragnoli (riccardo.fragnoli mpsa.com)
• i.e. Geek moth-ology. -James Miller (millnjam yahoo.com)
• Focus: Flutterers. -Don Recker (dlrecker nwinfo.net)
• On gossamer wings. -Uwe Stichert (info language-coaching.net
• Splendor impaled. -Zack Fisher (zackipooh gmail.com) [He adds: While this is not the actual definition of lepidopterology, I remember thinking just that the first time I saw a butterfly collection, as a child.]
• Buttermothology. -Judi Jones (judith.jones pncbank.com)
• Science a-flutter. -Nyree Sharp (nyree_sharp yahoo.com)
• Wee wing scrutiny. -Daniel Watson (dwatson illustratus.com)
• Etude de papillon. -Gabby Kissane (gkissane gmail.com)
• Re Papilionoidea. -Joe Dickey (joetdickey yahoo.com)
• Study of cute bugs. -Terence Singh (terencesi nedbank.co.za)
• Winged bugs study. -Jonathan Osborne (jono fullemployment.org)
• Ciencia Mariposa. -John Connors (john.connors cengage.com)
• Of the mothly crew. -Vicki Boyd (vickeeb gmail.com)
• Volar bug studies. -Stephanie Hollenback (stephanietraylor hotmail.com)
• Look! On the flower! / Look! Near the lamp! -Jeanne Landkamer (jeanne.landkamer metc.state.mn.us)
• Moth examination. -Laura Richens (lrichens tulane.edu)
• Many readers sent these:
• Fluttery studies.
• Butterflies et al.
• Moth scholarship.
• Moth and kin study.

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Mathematicaster

Winner:

2nd rate math geek. -Greg Foster (lokesman gmail.com)

Honorable mentions:

• Ramanujan manque. -Eric Towne (etowne bates.edu)
• A minor math major. -Howard Distelzweig (howard_distelzweig pall.com)
• He divides by zero. -Peirce Hammond (Peirce.Hammond ed.gov)
• Rounds pi to three. -Joselyne Gonzalez (joselyne yahoo.com)
• Uneven math maven. -Catherine Masters (cmasters schiffhardin.com)
• He’s no Pythagoras. -Jacquie L Lowell (jlowell.improv juno.com), Dave Zobel (dzobel alumni.caltech.edu)
• Two plus two’s five. -R. Ganesh (r.ganesh iflexsolutions.com)
• No Euclid or Gauss. -Devika Nair (devikanair1979 hotmail.com)
• Digits: all thumbs. -Jason Morgan (aeelectra yahoo.com)
• In-add-equatician. -Brendon L. Etter (better carleton.edu)
• Can do two plus two. -Matt Schmidt (mschmidt hussoninc.com)
• Math challenged. (I could have made it “maths challenged” but I prefer the irony of the above.) -Alan Broom (alan.broom macquarie.com)
• Numbers Are Not Us. -Colleen (argonauta4 aol.com)
• IQ’s greater than pi. -Bill Ward (bill wards.net)
• Bank executive, e.g. (not a timeless definition, but it works currently). -Aaron Long (aarondavidlong hotmail.com)
• Just a calculator. -Tal Cohen (tal forum2.org)
• One does not add up. -Mike Freedman (mike freedthinkers.com)
• A nonplussed soul. -K. F. Turtletaub (doctorkf verizon.net)
• Calculably unfit. -John Hudspeth (johnhudspeth windstream.net)
• Big sum, small mind. -Caroline Murphy (ckmurphy54 hotmail.com)
• An amateur at math. -John P. Marhin (john.p.marhin mainroads.qld.gov.au)
• 0 < x < a math savant. -Greg Foster (lokesman gmail.com)
• 99 percent of folk. -Kassy Daggett (kdaggett efn.org)
• rkathleendillon. -R Kathleen Dillon (rkdillon verizon.net)
• Math isn’t my forte. -Kevin Ogburn (kevin.ogburn co.hennepin.mn.us)
• Calculating Risk. -David Lehner-Smith (david.lehner-smith target.com)
• Small-time mathmo. -Owen Biesel (owenbiesel gmail.com)

Many readers sent:

• Number numbskull.
• Math geek wannabe.
• No good at numbers.
• A numbers bumbler.
• A numbers fumbler.

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Dermatoglyphics

Winner:

Digital printout. -Judith Bill (jgb22 comcast.net)

Honorable mention:

• How callous are we? -Will Whetzel (wwhetzel mssadvisors.com)
• Palm/foot reading. -Jeff Miller (jdmiller milligan.edu)
• Epidermis scrawl -Kathleen (stidmama yahoo.com)
• Digital imagings. -Jason Nabi (jhn8d virginia.edu) and Wendi Dumbroff (penelopey aol.com)
• Unique digital ID. -Ian Hoffman (Ian.Hoffman usdoj.gov)
• Skin cartography. -K. Sahasranaman (k.sahasranaman gmail.com)
• No hands are alike. -Sophia S. 6th grader, Community Middle School [sent by James Eng (james.eng ww-p.org) who encouraged his class to try this week’s contest and shared their many entries]
• Skin crop-circles. -Matthew Planchak (panqike gmail.com), Alexis Abraham (cawaaahome aol.com)
• No two are the same. -Mike Hansen (mfh papermc.com)
• The skin’s pattern. -Carly, 4th grader [in Erin Allen’s class (eallen howell.k12.nj.us)]
• Study of skin ruts. -Peter Kidwell (peter.kidwell cox.net)
• Skin’s hills, dales. -Noël Lee (noellee free.fr)
• Palmar, plantar ID. -Lisa Hyatt Cooper (lhcooper verizon.net)
• Skin deep studies. -Kenneth Kirste (kkkirste sbcglobal.net)
• Think whorl piece. -Matt Schuette (schuette79 hotmail.com)
• What OJ fears most. -Analiese van den Dikkenberg (sandad hotmail.com)

Many readers sent:

• Hand- or footprint.
• Extremity prints.
• Finger, toe prints.
• Skin ridges study.

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Infundibuliform

I had not asked for 15-letter definitions for Monday’s word, but some readers sent them nonetheless. Here are a few selections:

• Tapered like a 3-D V. -Louis P. Nappen (nappen comcast.net)
• Just like a conoid. -Julie Davis (julie.davis ssa.gov)
• Tornado-ish shape. -Mike Riley (mr.mikeriley gmail.com)
• Swirls into point. -Susan Frost (richandsuzi yahoo.com)
• Hourglass halved. -Don Recker (dlrecker nwinfo.net)
• It’s funnelicious! -Keith Parsons (khp38120 aol.com)
• Smaller at one end. -Joe Trivers (joe_trivers amat.com)

Many subscribers sent their congratulations (a 15-letter word) in exactly 15 letters:

• A Happy Fifteenth. -Mike Weinert (weinert.mike bls.gov)
• I wish you the best. -Michel Cornelissen (mjm.cornelissen gmail.com)
• Best wishes to all. -BranShea (via Wordsmith Talk bulletin board)

Thank you for participating and for your kind words.

Strong verbs not only enliven writing but can bring out character. Think about the difference between a character who slinks from the room and one who tramps. Of course it’s easy to go overboard trying to never use the same word twice. Better to rewrite so the first mention of the movement goes a long way.

Advice on substitutes for said is all over the board. Some say never because dialogue should be written so the speaker and tone is clear. Some say rarely use said because it’s repetitious. As a reader I’m fairly oblivious to the word said and only want reminded who’s speaking. As a writer, I occasionally substitute said when there’s something extra going on that won’t come through in the dialogue like “rasped” or “whispered.” One thing to watch out for is writing dialogue like “WATCH OUT FOR THE TIGER!” Sebastian shouted when it’s obvious he’s shouting.

As a fun exercise the writers on the list came up with a slew of Said substitutes several years ago that has surprisingly few repeats from Deanna’s list.

1000 Verbs to Write By
by Deanna Carlyle

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All the writing advice in the world can’t replace good tools and lots of practice. This is why I’ve compiled the following list of over a thousand action verbs. I needed a handy, printable reference tool that didn’t strain my eyes or my wrists. Try it for yourself sometime. It works.

For “walked” or “ran” lumbered plodded scurried sidled slinked/slunk proceeded wended scuttled went on his way shuffled scuffed scuffled stumbled shambled waddled wobbled scooted slouched scrambled scampered minced trotted strolled sauntered ambled marched stepped paced roamed roved meandered shadowed pursued trekked continued on drifted past/along strayed glided along strode stalked stomped strutted swished swaggered stamped tramped trudged traipsed trod/treaded/trodden limped hobbled lurched staggered tripped crawled crossed traversed inched across hurtled galloped charged darted advanced approached bushwhacked chased climbed crept along, crept away sneaked/snuck tiptoed stepped lightly pussyfooted dashed danced pranced descended ascended dodged edged eluded emerged entered evacuated escaped evaded fled flitted flew hauled off groped his way launched across scaled lunged moved paraded passed patrolled plowed prowled propelled pursued raced sailed rushed sidestepped skidded skipped stole stomped steered swerved veered listed trampled ushered waded wandered hiked withdrew ambulated perambulated absconded trailed after bolted tore tore along made rapid strides covered ground sprinted careered scudded hastened raced hurried jogged cantered loped tripped took flight decamped drifted For “reacted” reeled back rocked back flushed blanched blushed scowled nodded her consent nodded his agreement smiled grinned grimaced fell silent shrugged and said admitted with a nod shook his head beamed smirked simpered listed tilted swayed keeled over flinched shivered sniffed blinked retracted sighed exhaled inhaled flicked flung reclined shifted relaxed swallowed pouted looked + adj. yielded hesitated made no attempt to frowned made no answer fell silent paused stared gasped started startled slackened reclined drew back stepped back stiffened resisted retreated raised an eyebrow cocked her head to one side put her head to one side tilted her head chuckled yawned laughed snickered giggled stifled a yawn stifled a laugh took a deep breath glanced off glared shrugged devoid of emotion grinned sneered For “said” uttered mumbled drawled parroted echoed said half-aloud snarled blurted moaned muttered murmured cooed whispered crooned hollered shrilled sassed prompted questioned demanded queried replied suggested responded sang out scoffed screamed yelled yelped shouted inquired chirped squealed squeaked asked herself asked assured commanded cried out exclaimed advised announced growled stuttered stammered instructed told jeered scolded lamented mocked objected questioned roared speculated snapped spat stated whined jabbered prated prattled gibbered cackled gabbled sputtered blathered rambled on rattled on maundered digressed sermonized preached came out with declaimed pontificated harangued ranted rhapsodized gushed spouted let slip enlightened him pointed out chatted revealed boasted crowed vaunted bragged disparaged belittled notified addressed blabbed nattered bantered yakked whispered wondered aloud rejoined retorted replied recited repeated remarked came out with conveyed declared summoned imparted mentioned added put before revealed let out divulged disclosed made known vented aired breathed betrayed recited predicted advanced averred avowed avouched assumed imagined professed claimed purported insinuated cited named offered proposed pleaded imputed implied asserted expressed pledged ascribed affirmed professed admitted

For “jumped” vaulted leapt/leaped pounced startled flinched sprang lunged launched jerked jolted erupted exploded shot from For “took” drew withdrew pulled out a picked selected chose plucked removed snatched out scooped up rooted out snatched trapped took up raised picked up hoisted set upright elevated seized prized open wrenched wrested produced extracted extricated accepted fetched grabbed snitched took hold of jimmied gathered grasped gripped fingered nabbed packed ransacked appropriated swiped snared dragged acquired obtained gained procured garnered gleaned pilfered lowered took down tore down swapped For “pulled” pulled out removed took out extracted produced tugged extricated lugged drew dragged yanked For “pushed” propelled ballasted set in motion drove trundled shoved thrust pressed forward made one’s way squeezed through roused prompted forged ahead For “put” stashed placed posed posited plunked down mounted positioned stationed set before dropped crammed stuffed stuck lodged plopped plunked parked stationed planted perched inserted lay set set upright stood on end upended deposited consigned relegated strapped tossed threw flung lobbed hurled heaved cast slapped onto draped dunked eased shifted interposed installed For “looked, saw” glared glanced off regarded made out descried remarked had in sight glowered squinted shot him a look fixed her with a stare sighted ogled cast a glance his eyes begged her to amplify gazed gaped spotted surveyed turned an eye on looked upon distinguished fixed her gaze on noted recognized identified took a look took a glance stared leered scowled scanned peered squinted gaped noticed observed considered watched viewed took in studied examined inspected scrutinized perused sized up took stock of skimmed glanced through flipped through perceived discerned beheld watched for looked on eyed detected contemplated kept in sight held in view stood guard kept watch monitored For “thought, remembered” wondered asked herself pondered noticed reflected struck her as entertained the notion held in one’s mind It occurred to her It came to her realized knew she considered. she considered this. he was tempted to brought to mind he was taken with the idea that she reasoned understood considered went over reviewed pictured featured imagined pretended hoped feared envisioned deliberated envisaged called up conjured up conceived of fancied allowed the conceit judged suspected intended expected planned concentrated mused ruminated recalled mulled over brooded over projected anticipated concluded esteemed took heed kept in mind guessed supposed formed an image of conjured hatched fabricated fashioned formulated concocted reasoned that turned it over in her mind flirted with the idea recollected bore in mind deduced inferred thought back to put her in mind of called to mind reminded her of acknowledged weighed reconsidered thought better of For “felt, seemed, showed, looked like” sensed had the impression understood detected seemed appeared betrayed indicated betokened foretokened revealed bespoke suggested signified connoted hinted at alluded to implied intimated presaged portended forewarned disclosed displayed lay open made manifest exposed bared struck her as looked as if looked like had the look of had every appearance of had the earmarks of resembled sounded like exhibited evidenced showed manifested emblematic of

For “touched” clutched pawed gripped grasped took hold of adjusted felt manipulated maneuvered twiddled palpated palmed handled thumbed rummaged through caressed fondled stroked grazed rubbed tugged squeezed scratched pinched patted tapped tamped rapped brushed bedaubed dappled dabbed swept across scraped glanced alighted pressed wrung kneaded shoved gouged grazed prodded ticked trapped jabbed poked pressed probed goaded twisted wedged pried prized open pry/pried pulled pushed primped preened rattled pumped mangled massaged felt flattened smoothed scooped up flicked flipped flogged fondled groped handled held knifed mauled tapped drummed wiggled worked stubbed scoured scrubbed For “had, held” bore exhibited showed displayed betrayed wielded carried was furnished with contained wore sported spanned suspended grasped gripped clutched contained toted possessed retained embraced evinced For “hit” beat socked bumped clapped thumped lashed pummeled punched rammed crashed thwacked slapped smacked pumped impacted attacked hacked swiped swung trounced tackled For “was, were” stood sat took up perched lay hung took place contained spanned loomed occupied remained stayed persisted befell (happened) bechanced occurred happened For “sat” slumped eased into lowered himself sank into sat himself was seated plopped down crouched squatted hunkered down roosted perched settled straddled sat astride sat bestride reposed leaned reclined lolled lounged sprawled lodged For “stood” got to his feet jumped up rose rose to his feet got up remained upright held herself erect stationed herself For “smelled” got scent of sensed sniffed detected snuffled snorted inhaled scented snuffed breathed in savored perceived discerned reeked stunk assaulted the nostrils For “tasted, drank” savored relished nibbled at tried sipped gulped took a deep swallow chewed ingested ruminated sampled sank his teeth into bit into crunched melted licked slurped chugged smacked suckled sucked swigged swilled chomped ground munched gnawed rended quaffed imbibed tippled nipped supped drained washed down swilled down guzzled down lapped up soused quenched For “heard” overheard caught detected picked up perceived apprehended eavesdropped listened listened in gathered heard tell of strained her ears harked harkened attended to took heed of took in gave audience to gave an ear to lent an ear to heard him out within earshot out of earshot For “lie down, lay” reclined eased onto flopped onto lay prone lolled luxuriated lay prostrate lay recumbent lay back rested reposed lazed sprawled lounged slouched slumped For “entered” stepped inside went in came in sailed in burst in set foot in/on broke in forced her way in intruded penetrated passed into For “left, exited” ran off walked off went out departed retreated decamped deserted repaired retired withdrew quit took off fled sallied forth bowed her way out For “turned” wheeled around twisted to one side whirled about rotated spun on her heels pivoted revolved swiveled reeled trundled circled eddied swirled sheered veered shifted divagated angled off shunted

Copyright 2004 by Deanna Carlyle at deannacarlyle.com

Schizophrenia: Do You Hear What I Hear

Multiple Personality: We Three Queens Disoriented Are!

Narcissism: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing About Me!

Dementia: I Think I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Paranoia: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town To Get Me

Mania: Deck The Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town

Depression: Silent Anhedonia, Holy Anhedonia, All is Flat, All is Lonely

Personality Disorder: You Better Watch Out, I’m Going to Cry, I’m Going to Pout, then maybe I’ll tell you why!

Obsessive Compulsive: Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell Swing Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock

Suicidal: Thoughts of Roasting On an Open Fire

Passive Aggressive: On the First Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me (then took away)

- Unknown

If you’d like to play around with some Christmas song titles while you wait for relatives, or to play in your head as you listen to Aunt Bethelda’s sixth retelling of her colonoscopy, Wikipedia has a list of Christmas Carols , non-religious Christmas songs , secular songs associated with Christmas . Here are the most common ones (or ones I recognize anyway):

“Angels We Have Heard on High”
“Away in a Manger”
“Deck the Halls”
“Do You Hear What I Hear?”
“The First Nowell”Go Tell It on the Mountain”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
“Good King Wenceslas”
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
“Here We Come A-Wassailing”
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”
“I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)”
“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”
“Joy to the World”
“The Little Drummer Boy” (”Carol of the Drum”)
“O Holy Night”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”
“O Tannenbaum” (”O Christmas Tree”)
“Silent Night” (”Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!”)
“The Twelve Days of Christmas”
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
“We Three Kings Of Orient Are” (”Three Kings of Orient”)
“What Child Is This?”

“A Holly Jolly Christmas”
“All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”
“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”
“Feliz Navidad”
“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
“It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas”
“It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
“Silver and Gold”
“Silver Bells”
“(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays”
“Toyland”
“Up On the House Top”
“White Christmas”

“Frosty the Snowman”
“Jingle Bell Rock”
“Jingle Bells”
“Let It Snow”
“Winter Wonderland”

I will not suggest you try the games listed at Poop Wars where you replace one of the words with poop or add “in bed” or “under the sheets” after the title. That would be just too irreverent, regardless of the fact that a preacher’s daughter told me she did the “under the sheets” one with hymns to entertain herself during services.

Happy Holidays!

Did your NaNo generate a lot of characters you’d like to find out more about? Do you have a collection of characters from past stories you’re fond of and would like to work with again?

This character quiz is modified from one by Cat Bowen (~DrowElfRocker) on Deviantart. I liked the random comparisons she had going so replaced a few of the single character questions with more combinations.

First, list 12 of your characters in no particular order. They can be from one story or from several.

Then, answer the questions:

1. Who would make a better college professor, 6 or 11? What subject would they teach?
2. What personality trait do 4 and 11 have in common?
3. 12 sends 8 on a mission. What is it, and does it succeed?
4. If 5 and 9 were trapped in a elevator together, who would be the first to crack?
5. Would it make more sense for 2 to swear fealty to 6, or the other way around?
6. For some reason, 5 is looking for a roommate. Should he share a studio apartment with 9 or with 10?
7. 2, 7 and 12 have dinner together. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?
8. 3 challenges 10 to a duel. Why and what happens?
9. If 1 stole 8’s most precious possession, how would she/he get it back?
10. Suggest a title for a story in which 7 and 12 both attain what they most desire.
11. What kind of plot device would you use if you wanted 4 and 1 to work together?
12. If 5 and 6 visited you for the weekend, how would you get along? Which would you most feel like killing off by the end of the weekend?
13. If you could command 3 to perform any one task or service for you, what would it be?
14. If 7 and 8 had grown up as siblings in a unstable home, who would have turned out the most different? Who would have survived the best?
15. If 2 had to choose sides between 4 and 5, which would it be?
16. Out of all the characters, who would win the beauty portion of the pageant? Who would win the talent portion? And who would win Ms./Mr. Congeniality?
17. Who would make the best superhero: 3, 9 or 11? Who would make the best supervillain? What would their super powers be?
18. 1, 6, and 12 are having dim sum at a Chinese restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it at the same time. Who gets to eat it?
19. What might be a good pick-up line for 2 to use on 10?
20. Who is most likely to be arrested 4 or 10? For what?
21. 6 finds out 5’s secret. What happens?
22. If 11 and 9 were racing to a destination, who would get there first?
23. If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, would you feel safer in the company of 7 or 8?
24. 1 and 9 reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4’s secret Organization. 11 volunteers to help them, but is later discovered that he is actually a spy for 4. Meanwhile 4 has kidnapped 12 in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advise of 5, they seek out 3, who gives them what they need to complete their quest.

    -What title would you give this fic?

Do your fingers pause over the keyboard as you try to decide what to write next? Do minutes pass where words could have been pouring out and the cursor is still blinking in place like a caution light at 2AM?

Do you need five thousand words today to catch up and you know most of the day will be spent with your fingers in hover mode?

Then try Dr. Wicked.

Put in your word count and the time you want to spend and click Write. You’ll get a box to type in. If you stop writing for more than a few seconds, there will be … Consequences. What consequences? You get to decide what level:

• Gentle Mode: A certain amount of time after you stop writing, a box will pop up, gently reminding you to continue writing.
• Normal Mode: If you persistently avoid writing, you will be played a most unpleasant sound. The sound will stop if and only if you continue to write.
• Kamikaze Mode: Keep Writing or Your Work Will Unwrite Itself

Watch a demo on YouTube :-)

When you’re done, remember to copy and paste from the box. (If you try to navigate away, a reminder will pop up.)

Great for NaNo crunch time as well as daily writing exercises. You can set it for 10 minutes to 2 hours.

While’s she’s too easy to poke fun at, I was fascinated by the following quote by Sarah Palin that was in response to her apparent confusion over Africa being a continent or country.

“My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.”

And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”

Dick Cavett remarked in the NY Times, “It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.”

I think she was just doing verbal NaNo. But, even if she was, no matter how badly you write during NaNo, know that you can write better and have a better command of the English language than someone who was 8.5 million votes and a heart attack away from the presidency.

And when you have a few minutes after you’ve completed your day’s words for NaNo, there’s the Sarah Palin baby name generator where you find out what your name would have been if you’d been born to Sarah Palin whose kids are named Track, Willow, Trig, Bristol, and Piper.

I’m Lock Pepper Palin.

More lists? Yes, more lists! I got up a late and stumbled across this.

(5000+ words. I was trying to do 2000 a day but couldn’t quite make it last night as my characters bumble into each other, trying to get sparks to fly and illuminate some secrets they aren’t revealing to me yet.)

These are from the NaNo forums somewhere. If you’re doing NaNo, use the first on your next page. Each time you start a page, use the next in line. Do that through out the book. Feel free to adjust as needed (add words, change tenses). (Of course, you can cut them up and draw from a bowl if you wish.)

If you’re not doing NaNo, begin at the top and incorporate as many into your writing piece as you can.

If you haven’t already…
Ten Types of Awesome.
the wind’s will
We’re without magic.
It’s getting awfully cold.
Don’t. You. DARE.
Stop That
if this is all
Uproar.
if all that matters is
make it through the past
walls falling down
of your dreams
if you want to
Did you try…?
In Triumph.
It’ll be- wait…
the reason is I don’t know why
That’s Classified!
it’s at least
in feeble hands
What are you gonna do?
hold still!
it all go wrong
Hang on for your death
so distracting
go forth
a matter of pride
Who stands before me
Unknown wisps
the dead dying
What’s right is wrong.
I’d rather be
not a reason
because you can’t.
wimps and posers
just take forever
a glimpse into the future
Invisible or alone?
refusing to lie down
I hope, but I know
if you’ve never
I fall apart
You’re the only one.
a new day
died happy
What you’ve never needed
If you can, don’t.
WHAT was I thinking?
don’t think of a pink elephant.
if you want to
scare yourself.
make it or not.
to live forever, die.
empty mess
anything at all
let go and hang
stop only me
rocks fall, everyone dies.
we’re not dragging the dragons.
Heck does that.
into the death
what a to do to die.
son of a marigold
anytime I want. Really.
eternity of metamorphosis
everything adds up to nothing
meek and bold
alone, the bold
I can’t be you now.
At a loss for speech- not words.
one more outburst
go around again
Magic believes in you.
strong against yourself.
parade of trees
What you never wanted
live up to nothing
Hang on loose
you’re still kissing him.
you can’t always count on me
To be young, nervous breakdown.
Soul over heart
Dead again?
creature of light
walk on me.
leave my dreams behind
ensue a rebellion
The land’s a survivor
wheel of strength
fight for wrong
let it die
unneeded puzzle piece
Gunning for Truth
stay whole, bleed the soul
his memory now
broken, not dead.
Incredible isn’t.
smile against it all
Ignorance for hope
stop, turn, take.
everything away- I’ll hurt it.
each other, alone.
God doesn’t decide this.
take me for everything
alive in here
no is for those
oh yeah, HUGE success.
to save me, face me
all together, all alone
whatever you don’t.
tomorrow is yesterday now
what you must, you can’t
thunder from the trees
ask your questions now
gift, not competition
waste your precious
happy kick in the nuts,
seven stories in
the question- but.
uphill downhill sick
breathe for me
stay calm and PANIC!!!
none able to tell
when your all isn’t enough
hold my soul
figure it later
light fears darkness
nothing’s gonna change
the darkest light.
watch this time
As we knew it
rest is wrong.
I Will Rise Again.
When the spindle wheel turns
dying, not dead
I know a place where we can hide out.
You don’t have to know the truth if you believe it.
This tiny voice in my head starts to sing.
Came along one day…
Looks a mile to my feet.
When I open my eyes I’m still taken by surprise.
You don’t have to know the truth if you believe it.
Some people want to be heroes, others have to be asked.
My Body was not moving on it’s own after all
inside mountains
nothing to say to each other
just take it!
Because it is my birthday!
Not close enough.
It’s not peanut butter.
Just talk yourself up.
Try and stop me.
I’m just saying…
He knew there was a reason why he hated snow

Random words to spark your NaNo or other writing.

Most of these came from 15 Minute Ficlets, a site for writing fiction in 15 minutes using word and picture prompts. The site is no longer active, but there are other, similar sites around. (The rest came from 15 Minute Fic, though the words weren’t quite as good.)

I like to think of these words as lenses. The word has colored how your character views his or her world and they’re seeing or feeling or remembering something about the current scene you’re writing that relates to the word. Unlike words randomly chosen from the dictionary, these have more flexible definitions. Feel free to play with word forms and tenses. They’re supposed to spark creativity, not chain it :-)

I’ve divided them up into chunks of 8 if you’d like to spread them out over the next 30 days, but feel free to use them however you want. (Hmm, if each word sparks about 208 words, there would be your NaNo! :-)

farewell
discovery
deluge
renewal
fool
explosive
heritage
screen

thunderous
mystic
lovely
moon
mediocre
open
peppermint
anxiety

exhausted
brisk
knave
electric
congratulations
misled
sophisticated
gateway

ambition
envy
premature
memory
catastrophe
blush
hold
transition

addiction
scorch
rescue
piercing
independence
fight
honor
discord

mockery
impatience
justice
fatigue
gloomy
reunion
unexpected
absent

nurture
unknown
blessed
rushed
congeal
youth
sin
growl

gratitude
overwhelmed
whispered
routine
kaleidoscope
resolute
scared
gluttony

festive
tidy
feast
tired
silence
chocolate
flood
connected

thick
odious
legacy
jubilant
acceptance
glisten
fever
anticipation

pinnacle
fretful
linked
sentimental
savory
vacant
inside
tail

deaf
zaftig
young
xenophobic
wondering
mother
tattered
challenge

transformation
missing
searching
karma
gourmet
juvenile
undeniable
limp

vitriol
contagious
discombobulated
quest
strike
translation
anguish
true

complicated
interrupted
giving
painful
freeze
stretched
consumed
mimic

complete
elegy
haunted
deserted
jealous
oblivious
frustration
natural

harvest
empty
falter
extra
abstract
capricious
pause
pawn

devotion
impression
bathtub
bloody
redeem
aggravation
father
replacement

drenched
tender
noisy
practical
incomplete
evasive
disaster
solid

deeper
abandoned
spring
collection
quirky
competition
misdirection
unusual

intoxicating
disguise
submission
examination
flaky
obsession
chilling
tweak

perfection
marvel
nostalgic
cookie
snow
forgetful
surrender
chicken

broken
gathering
dream
forgiveness
unfinished
late
humorous
form

conclusion
dust
alias
match
bright
abomination
slowly
question

salvation
prison
vacation
desire
loss
expectation
sign
shiver

fantasy
baby
light
apology
uncomfortable
happy
bridge
essential

relief
daze
frantic
bathe
sink
disconnected
training
impose

burrow
sketch
unforgiven
vanquish
flair
wave
blue
spell

bear
refine
hassle
fire
wait
engrave
leech
unbidden

hang
guilty
bank
quirk
blatant
honey
destroy
messenger

From Slate Magazine:

The Encyclopedia Baracktannica

Now with more words and definitions!

By Chris Wilson

It’s hard to imagine that Barack Obama would be as big of a phenomenon if his name were, say, Tom Smith. As numerous fans, detractors, reporters, and bloggers have demonstrated, it’s a name that lends itself to neologisms—everything from Barackstar to Obamania to Omentum.

We present the unabridged Encyclopedia Baracktannica, a list of words that have been Obamafied by Slate. This is a widget, so you’re welcome to add it to your site. To do so, click the “Get & Share” link below and choose a service.

It’s coming! Midnight next Friday, is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month: November 1 to November 30.

What is it? It’s a month when people all over the world set aside time to churn out bad novels ;-)

The goal is to have at least 50,000 words by midnight November 30. Since you must write fast — 1667 words per day — there isn’t time for editing or perfecting or even worrying over whether it’s good or not. And that’s the whole point! One of the biggest obstacles to writing is running commentary from our internal editors on how bad something sounds and how trite it is.

For NaNoWriMo you send your internal editor on vacation. It’s not allowed to contact you at all. While the editor is away you let the ideas flow out of your fingers. There will be a lot of bad ideas! But mixed in will be some good ideas, even great ideas that would have been blocked by the critical voice of the editor.

The novel doesn’t need to be complete. (Most commercial fiction is between 75,000 and 100,000 words.) It doesn’t need to flow. You can leave scenes that aren’t working incomplete to move onto another scene that’s trying to get out.

No one will read it. You’ll upload your final document to the automated counting bots at NaNoWriMo and they will count your words. If you have 50,000 words or more, you win! Win what? Win the satisfaction of being one of the elite who has completed a novel :-) And a nifty downloadable certificate that says you won.

My daughter Kat (now 17) and I have done it four times. And while insane, it’s also a lot of fun and rewarding too. How long does it take? Basically it depends how long you give it! Most people are doing this while holding jobs or going to school and can only write in the evening or on weekends. Kat and I give it all day and have found it consumes whatever amount of time you give it. ;-)

While you can’t begin writing until November 1, you can plan as much as you want. I’ve done it 4 times without a plan. An idea comes to me the week before or sometimes the day before and I just let it take me where it will. Some like to know where they’re headed. Some like the adventure to unfold. Which is better depends on what you find works for you :-)

Most areas (even in other countries) have local groups that meet occasionally throughout the month for writing and moral support. They’re listed in the Regional Lounges section of the forums at the NaNoWriMo website:

There’s also lots of online support in the forums, tricks and tips, word challenges, even places to ask obscure questions (like, for example, whether someone could carry $1 million in $1 bills.)

For the past three years I’ve been throwing out prompts as the sparks for writing, just assuming that was the only way to use them. I stumbled across a 15 minute fiction site (now defunct) that sent out weekly words as prompts but they suggested coming up with a scene first and then using the word as fuel. Odd how the obvious can be not so obvious :-)

Which works better depends on your needs at the moment. :-) But if you’ve been finding your ideas limited by a writing prompt, try coming up with the scene first and see where the prompt takes it. Maybe take a previous scene and see where it takes you.

In fact it’s what you need to do for National Novel Writing Month if you want to incorporate the prompts into your novel. If you haven’t heard about NaNoWriMo, it’s coming up November 1st and I’ll be posting more about it this Saturday :-)

Colombo Yogurt (owned by General Mills but I’m guessing the brand is local to New England) is running a contest to rename their flavors to reflect their New England heritage. Each state (Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York) will get their own flavor names.

The prize is a New England getaway to Cape Cod for two.

All the particulars are at the website.

Here’s the flavors to rename. For some reason not blueberry. Maybe they’re keeping that one for themselves!

Cherry
Peach
Raspberry
Strawberry
Vanilla
Boston Cream Pie
Cherry Vanilla
Creamy Vanilla
Juicy Peach
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Meringue
Mixed Berry (raspberries, blueberries and strawberries I believe)
Orange Creme
Red Raspberry
Strawberry Banana
Lowfat Plain
Nonfat Plain
Lowfat French
Nonfat Vanilla
Lowfat Strawberry

(Though there are thousands of writing contests out there, I don’t post about them much since it’s just too hard to make sure they’re legit. Company contests are at least pretty safe!)