Dragon Writing Prompts

When Google displayed “How to kill your darlings without remorse“* in a search I thought the page might be about killing off your characters, which I have a hard time doing! It turned out to be about deleting favorite passages you’ve written that don’t move the story forward. Ah, that’s hard too! I do find it easier if I let the bit live in the story for a while, read it several times, until it loses it’s specialness and then I can move it off to my “Cut stuff” file, which she calls a “Dead Darlings” file :-)

Novelists don’t always know where their stories are headed. In fact, some of us never know. One way of writing is to imagine a good ending and then work out how to get your characters there. Another way (my way), is to hang on for dear life while your characters take you where they will.

Yes, this is the fun part of writing for me. The problem is that often the characters want you to tell parts of their lives that don’t have much to do with the story! “Let me tell you this funny thing that happened to me …” So, you let them ramble. You get to know them a little better. Then you quietly delete it later. ;-)

They say a sculptor views a block of marble, imagines a statue, and then chips away every bit of stone that isn’t the statue, thus revealing the work of art. That’s how I write. My “block of marble” is the first draft of my story, which tends to be at least thirty percent and often fifty percent longer than the 55,000 words my editor wants. But that’s fine. I take that draft and patiently chip away everything that isn’t my story. I am a ruthless scene-killer, an unremorseful conversation condenser, a wild-eyed wielder of the Delete key. I used to save some of the better quality material that I cut, just in case I wanted it later. But I never did want it, so I no longer save it. There’s plenty more good stuff where that came from. If I change my mind and want to reinsert a deleted scene, I just write it again and make it even better than last time.

Is it a waste of my time to write so much more than I know I’m going to use? No, because all writing is practice for more and better writing.

I tend to think of myself as a very mundane writer, with mundane ideas, so when I come up with something that sparks my interest, it feels like it will never happen again. So how could I delete it? But she’s right, as she says in another post. The more ideas you come up with, the more ideas you have. Often it doesn’t feel like it! Often it feels like the well has dried up and you’ve used up your last idea. But the more you stretch your imagination, the stronger it gets.

“Killing your darlings” is what many writers call deleting paragraphs, scenes, and even chapters that they’ve spent hours creating–all for nothing, they often believe. But a writer who can’t stomach killing any of her darlings is not focusing on the big picture: her story as a whole. You may hate cutting scenes that are hilarious or poignant or suspenseful, but to be a good writer, you must do exactly that. If anything that you’ve written, no matter how beautifully, doesn’t move your story along, it will bog your story down. By saving your “darlings,” you might be killing your story.

Here’s a writing tip some of you might be able to use: After finishing your first draft, find the highlighting tool in your word processor and then start reading, using the highlighter to indicate all of the sentences, paragraphs, and scenes that are absolutely essential to your story. (I use a yellow highlighter to remind myself that those parts of the story are “golden.”) When you finish, delete everything that isn’t highlighted. Save it in a Dead Darlings file if that makes you feel better, but I predict that after a while you’ll stop bothering with that.

Now you’re left with nothing but story. Your manuscript is still in very rough form, but there’s not a boring bit in there because you’ve taken all of the irrelevant stuff out. Now you’re ready to revise and polish. I go through many drafts on a book, so I do a highlighting pass after finishing my first draft, then do it again when I’m nearly finished with the manuscript. After some more tweaking and polishing, I use the highlighting tool a third and final time. When the manuscript is all golden, I’m finished. (Two notes: First, the highlighter is invaluable to me because except during that first pass, I’m not starting at Page One and progressing to the end of the manuscript. I jump around, working on whatever scenes and chapters I’m in the mood to work on. The highlighting tells me what I’ve finished and what still needs to be looked at. And second, on the last highlighting run I’m just deleting words and sentences, not whole paragraphs and scenes. It’s all pretty painless by that time.)

I love every part of the writing process, but bringing a story home–making that final pass with my yellow highlighter and assuring myself that every sentence, paragraph, scene, and chapter is “golden” satisfies my writer’s heart on the deepest level. This is the best that’s in me–at least until my editor points out something that I’ve missed!

Brenda Coulter, writer of inspirational romance books.

Creative writing often generates flabby writing. That’s okay! You *should* be sending your editor on vacation while the creativity flows. Getting out the ideas is way more important than proper grammar.

Ah, but afterward, when it comes time to edit, how do you get out the flab? Check out Autocrit.

Paste in up to 800 words and click Analyze. Autocrit returns with a check list of weak words. If you click on the check box it highlights the words in the text you pasted. Here’s a list of weak words it identifies:

could
feel/feeling/felt
generic descriptions
had
have
hear/heard
initial conjunction
initial ing
it/there
just/then
knew/know
look
ly adverbs
maybe
see/saw
smell/taste
that
was/were
watch/notice/observe

Fixing them is another story, of course! But just knowing they’re there can help with your editing. (Initial ing, Initial conjunction, it/there, just/then ;-)

(They also offer a subscription with more critique and some free courses and writing articles.)

Monica Wood, author of Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing and Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration, both of which are full of ideas and pictures to inspire, has been gathering writing tips since 2000 at her website.

Here’s a sampling to get you inspired to click the link :-)

• For the “cruelest month,” [April] write about an act of cruelty that yields the opposite of the intended outcome.

• If you’re feeling anything like me today, the words are coming very hard. Try a word-association game with yourself to get the creative flow back. Start with an ordinary word: “tree.” Then start associating like crazy until you come up with something that interests you. Tree, bird, sky, plane, hijacking. Try it again, with “road.” Road, asphalt, steam, engine, battery, assault. I’ve just talked myself back into writing.
• Think of two objects that are seemingly unconnected — a house for sale and a model plane; a storm drain and an office window; a mantel clock and a yellow slicker — and make a connection. Any connection at all, no matter how vague, will get something going.
• A good scene–in fiction or nonfiction–contains layers. In other words, more than one thing is going on, no matter how straightforward the scene might appear. To find those layers, keep asking yourself, “What else?” For example, you might think the scene you’re writing is about a man discovering his wife’s affair. He’s furious that she’s been unfaithful. What else? He’s a bit smug that his suspicion turned out to be right. What else? He’s disappointed that his wife didn’t choose a more attractive, interesting lover. What else? He’s insulted that his wife didn’t choose a more attractive, interesting lover! What else? He wonders, maybe a little, whether he himself might be unattractive and uninteresting, exactly the sort of man to whom his wife seems to be attracted. What else?
• Why not take advantage of having been forced to listen to forty thousand versions of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” last month? Write something that exploits one of the twelve lines. Begin a scene with nine ladies dancing, or write about somebody who is missing five gold rings. A partridge in a pear tree might be a bit much, but you could make a little hay with twelve guys on drums.
• CRAFT: Some writers have a terrible time with titles, so here’s an extremely subjective primer on choosing titles.

  The best titles, in my view, contain a noun–not an abstract noun like gratitude or restitution, but a muscular, concrete noun like lawn mower or blanket or streetwalker. Often, the noun has a modifier: “The 500-pound Lawn Mower”; “The Last Green Blanket”; “A Streetwalker’s Bible.” In short, pick something that puts a picture in the reader’s head, along with a mystery. Think The Virgin Suicides. Think The Bluest Eye. Think The Sweet Hereafter.

  Verb forms make for uninteresting titles, I think, especially gerunds. “Disappearing” is my worst title ever, to an early short story. Gerunds strike me as too thematic, too calculated to announce the story’s intentions. Titles like “Telling Lies,” “Leaving Home,” “Knowing the Score” (not actual titles, to my knowledge) don’t draw me in. There is no picture to hang onto. Waiting for Godot is terrible, if I may be so bold; The Bald Soprano is great. Verbs can work well, though, if used as an imperative–for example, Come To Me by Amy Bloom; Read This and Tell Me What It Says by Manette Ansay.

  I also love possessives in titles: My first published story was called “Alison’s Hair,” and I still like this awkward, young story, partly for sentimental reasons, but mostly because the title still pleases me. One more thing about titles–often they will come late in the writing process, as a sign that you finally “get” what the story’s about. What a feeling!

Did your NaNo novel finish the month titled “NaNo 2007″? Except for my first NaNo which was always called Flight, the other two were named at the last moment before I uploaded. If you still need a title, here’s some title naming strategies.

• Use the name of a character, place or significant object
• Name plus some element from the story
• Phrase from the novel
• Line uttered by a character
• Play on words (common in the mystery genre, often indicates a lighter tone) (Tea and Curses, No Time or Treason)
• Play on a recognizable title (War and Pieces, Withering Heights)
• There’s a good brainstorming process to use at Write a Good Book Title and Greatly Increase the Marketability of Your Book!.

  The author suggests writing a paragraph description of your book. From that paragraph list all the nouns and verbs. Then for 5 minutes make combinations of the two. Don’t worry if some don’t make sense together! If you don’t like any of the combinations together, then spend 5 minutes brainstorming words related to your nouns and verbs then repeat making combinations. When you find a verb and noun pair you like, then spend 5 minutes brainstorming phrases using that pair of words.

• Alter phrases, epigrams, cliches, aphorisms, idioms: Cliche Web and CLICHÉS: AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE
• Use phrases from Shakespeare, Bible, and Nursery rhymes:

  A short Shakespeare list
  A longer Shakespeare list
  More extensive list (with links to sources)
  Several thousand (with links to sources)
  Probably the most extensive (listed by play)

  Bible
  Old Testament extensive (Bartlett’s)
  New Testament extensive (Bartlett’s)

  I want Bartleby’s results to be better displayed, but there’s a wealth of searchable books there (Bartlett’s Quotations, Columbia Encyclopedia, Brewer’s Phrase and Fable, Bullfinch’s Mythology, author’s works in the public domain and loads more.) (The books have nicer formatting. It’s just the engine that searches all the books that returns some ugly results.)

• Be inspired by titles in your genre. The most likely part of your book to be changed by an editor is the title. Readers expect genre titles to conform to a certain feel, that is The Elemental Fire Queen of Goronji probably isn’t a mystery. ;-) Here’s some lists of books:
  

  Fairy tales
  Fantasy novels
  Science fiction
  Horror
  Fictional (not fiction!) books
  Best sellers

  Also try Amazon. Type in some key words from your book and see what Search turns up.

• And finally, here’s a Fantasy Novel Title Generator. You can generate from 1 to 50 titles at a time. Here’s some examples:
  

  Child’s Discord
  Desert of the Shining Stone
  Eladian’s Lady
  Dalisrte’s Emerald
  Demon’s Discord
  Heart, Autumn and Stone
  Hirorte’s Winter
  Mistress of Pride
  Secret Hero of Enijil
  Spell Sea of Ortanor
  Spirit Citadel of Redudiel
  Storm’s Fate
  The Destiny of Quainill
  The Elven Master
  The Faerie Demon
  The Fire of the Citadel
  The Illusion of Hirotanor
  The Iron Faerie
  The Trisimene Winter
  The Legend of Reduldas
  The Night of the Spirit
  The Pillana Master
  The Prophecy of Pilmene
  The Orbar Wizard The Repetidian Sun
  The Rogue and the Master
  The Rune Ruby
  Unholy Heart of Egibar
  Valdiriel’s Spirit
  Winter and Prophecy

A plot ninja is a person, place, thing, idea that you drop into your plot when you get stuck. Started on the NaNoWriMo forums from the suggestion that every NaNo book should include a ninja jumping out of a wardrobe, they’ve expanded to be anything that pops into someone’s head.

These come from the Take a Prompt, Leave a Prompt folder at the forums.

Cut them up and put them in a bowl to draw out a random idea when you get stuck. If you’re not doing NaNoWriMo, pull out and idea and start writing. When you get stuck, pull out another.

• start your writing with a description of wet feet
• Dreams
• crumpled clothing
• a llama
• pink post-it notes
• three uneaten oranges..
• overhearing a conversation of a tourist and a local
• a pet curled up in a chair
• tumbleweed
• some moldy cheese
• a disgruntled landlord
• an antique quilt
• a picture of a gorgeous man
• an unusual locket
• an unusually detailed, oft-repeated doodle
• a Rubik’s cube
• Your MC gets a headache
• frosted strawberry pop tarts
• old ugly wallpaper on a grandparent’s bedroom wall
• a Halloween bucket full of candy wrappers, with one piece of candy still left at the bottom
• A water proof safe, Full of water, left in the middle of the desert
• a pair of gangly teenagers with braces, making out
• a mannequin
• a battered dart board
• a homemade birdhouse hanging from a street sign
• a one-eyed chicken
• a slimy slug trail
• Finding a stranger in your bathtub
• Getting caught in the rain
• A child with a pink ice cream
• The couple in the apartment next to you having an argument about a mysterious person called ‘Phil’
• the sound of a prom dress being thrown away
• A notorious thief finds a baby in a boat on the Thames
• An unopened love letter from twenty years ago
• A broken doll
• A handful of sugared violets
• An angel on a park bench
• And a duke box
• a soggy cardboard box that has sat out in the rain all night
• a perfectly round rock with an X drawn across it in crayon
• Three people from the same office thrown together under canvas for one night. It’s raining. There’s no booze. There’s only two sleeping bags
• one woman who sits next to you on the bus with her ipod turned so loud you can hear Christmas Carols, and it’s still November
• A motorcyclist zooming by, wearing a helmet cam and a microphone
• two people walking down the street wearing a horse costume
• a piece of broken, dusty yellow-orange glass
• a camera with everything intact except the film, which is melted
• a row of empty seats with one in the middle occupied. Then another person comes along and takes a seat right next to that person, instead of an empty one further down
• a book in a foreign language with the covers ripped off, found in a public place
• a necklace with the cord snapped, beads bouncing every which way on a tile floor
• A lone operator working by herself all night in a deserted building
• A homemade lasagna falling as the cook is knocked over by a large Rhodesian Ridgeback (breed of dog)
• One very expensive hairless cat (cannot remember the breed) being held for ransom
• 2 people dressed up for Halloween — one as Santa Claus, the other as the Easter Bunny
• A pet dog with a phobia of anything smaller than him!
• a chewed up pen in the parking lot (you decide whether it still works or not)
• a book in a foreign language with the covers ripped off, found in a public place
• a cell phone that fell into a toilet
• weapons, elements of battle
• The sound of sobbing coming from the attic
• someone finding out there is no water coming out of the tap on a given day (while they wanted to take a shower, for example)
• Several strands of hair stuck together with sticky tape
• Highlighters that have run out, but smell nice
• A cracked, glass statue
• a candy bar wrapper
• a broken timepiece
• a teddy bear with (detachable) bunny ears
• a puddle of water on the floor
• a penguin where it doesn’t belong (say, in a house)
• A painting of a snowboarder, with a dinosaur hidden within the background
• a goldfish swimming in the toilet
• A palm tree oasis in the middle of the desert
• an old Underwood typewriter with the ribbon stuck somewhere between black and red
• a three legged cat, (you decide how he lost his leg, or if we even know)
• a bloody razor blade found in a public restroom
• A smell which reminds your MC of their mother’s home cooking
• A dusty trilby lying abandoned on the pavement, and no one else around
• A frog that squeezes under a gap in the door when it’s raining
• A wallet filled with money in an empty car park
• a purse - shaped necklace that can open and close
• a lighted train rushing by at twilight
• a pizza delivery guy delivering a pre-paid pizza to the wrong address
• a pair of mismatched flip flops
• a set of four spoons, all bent out of shape
• a maroon moose that sings Christmas carols. (can be a stuffed moose, if you like)
• the landscape of Cocoa Puffs…go nuts
• the moon as a consolation prize
• a broken doll
• Mindscape
• A doll missing one of its limbs
• The dog barks at midnight
• A shoe impression was left in the tomato
• A platinum ring found in the bottom of a bargain bin in a music store
• three rusty lug-nuts
• an old gas lamppost
• a throbbing headache
• a thrift store shopping spree
• a dollar bill with writing on it
• pumpkin pie
• An ornate clock on a wall
• the futility of sweeping potato chips off the side of a mountain
• A paperclip lost in the septic tank
• a half-finished crossword left on the train, that must be returned
• a cold, clear mountain stream
• a Chinese pagoda
• a shovel stuck into a mound of dirt
• a mislabeled lollipop–it’s a flavor you don’t like or weren’t expecting
• a plastic green dinosaur whose head is a staple remover
• A pangolin
• A moderately rainy day
• A flamethrower
• Miniature Robots
• three old batteries and a change purse
• an unexpected strip of duct tape
• a strangely addictive song
• a purple permanent marker
• a barrel of monkeys
• a field full of talking flowers
• Three glow-in-the-dark Troll dolls
• Whenever I think of Paris, I think of..
• Fur-dyed poodles! (either pink or blue or green… I’ll leave that up to you)
• a forgotten sock
• watching TV from a safe position behind the sofa
• a Mysterious Stranger (abbreviated sometimes to AMS)
• a strange cloud formation
• the sound of a baby crying, or laughing
• a facial expression completely at odds with what a character is saying
• an extreme temperature change, you decide how or why
• a dead body, killed with that shovel (the traveling shovel of death)
• a case of identify theft
• the feeling you get when you are in the house on your own, and you could almost swear that there is someone behind you, and it gives you a weird burst of speed, and you run into the next room, slamming the door
  1,000 baby turtles gone missing
• An egg that cracks open and nothing is inside
• A horse named Albert with OCD
• A girl named Doug
• A one hundred on a test that you paid the teacher to get
• The smell of the keyboard
• Ten chickens that have no idea that they are chickens
• ginger beer
• a fight/action scene at a zoo
• the last leaf on a tree
• Dwarf tossing
• a rescued turtle
• a British phone booth found anywhere except the UK
• three gold star stickers
• a mallard duck
• A cape
• a pitcher of eggnog
• a pair of mismatched curtains
• an experience that fills the MC with both joy and fear
• a dozen cigarette ends floating in a wine glass
• a man wearing fingerless gloves
• a dead shark
• a house with peppermint-themed interior decor
• a villain who loves pie
• a broken computer on a doorstep
• a trophy tarnished with age
• a ceiling full of mold
• a cry for forgiveness
• twenty ancient unopened jars of apricot jam
• a blue stuffed elephant named Trunky
• your MC suddenly finds him/herself in possession of a prized racehorse
• A very wet dog on the couch
• A cozy fire on the hearth
• a Dixieland jazz band
• A funeral where everybody’s laughing and cheering about how the deceased will not be missed
• A black kitten named Matt
• a broken wine glass
• a repair bill
• a half empty Coca-Cola
• an old grandfather clock set to the wrong time
• the making of a salad
• a very old bloodhound
• hot peppermint tea with little mini biscotti from a boxful bought at Shoprite
• two blue ballet shoes and a claddagh ring (which have a relation to one another, a tied significance)
• a pair of fairy wings
• a stove timer that always adds five minutes onto the time inputted
• an unjust accusation
• the scent of freshly baked bread
• the taste of a lie
• a red haired girl with one blue and one green eye
• an ingrown toenail
• squirrels in the attic
• A flower pot getting thrown off a roof
• a dog kennel that washes up on shore
• a TV show involving robots
• a river without any fish
• a baby with colic
• the number 7
• a roaring fire
• a burning bush
• a dead rose in a vase
• a frozen pond with the ice broken in the center
• An impromptu dancing lesson
• A parakeet that can only say, “Schpedoinkle!”
• A single glove found lying on the sidewalk
• A car catching on fire
• a white tank top
• ceramic dwarves
• blue highlighted hair
• a nightgown in a washing machine
• a cat sitting on feet
• the ending of a video game
• multi-hue eyed girl!
• an illicit affair
• A horse named Albert
• A purple spotted toad
• A grandmother who thinks that she is a fish
• needing badly to go to the bathroom in the middle of a meeting
• a plastic carnation painted green with nail polish
• A red wedding dress
• Afternoon nap when it’s raining outside
• A purse filled with brown leaves
• Tangles headphone cables
• The salt cap falling off while salting a dish, and all the salt falling in
• A train ride
• Getting pizza for the mixed herb packets
• Playing cards all night
• another character’s perspective
• voices in the attic
• “I can’t sit still.”
• an over-enthusiastic nude photographer
• a pair of papier mâché clawed hands
• a midnight snowfall
• a selection of brightly coloured boxes in an empty room/house
• a light-up, plug-in, green gnome
• a well-preserved dinosaur skeleton
• a missing iguana
• gypsy dancing bears
• your character’s reaction to running over something on the road
• someone wearing mismatched socks
• a niggling memory that you can ALMOST remember, but not quite
• “Of course I’m fine. I’m more than fine. Who wouldn’t be with someone like you landing on me??”
• a messed up judicial system causing an arrest and detainment in jail
• fine, realistic costume jewelry
• a rickety, creaking white gate that gives someone away
• a spy who catches a bad cold at just the wrong time
• A hair ribbon flying with the wind
• a nearly-empty jar of peanut butter
• No two snowflakes are alike
• the lifetime of a $5 bill
• A toad under a rock
• a fake potted plant
• a vast array of staples
• an umbrella left in the park on a sunny day
• a strange light in the sky
• a sudden burst of laughter
• a knife with a dull, nicked blade
• Mug shot, toe tag and broken bridge
• blowing up an air mattress with a hair dryer
• a car stuck in mud
• A cat lying in the sunlight
• Odd eyes
• An unpainted dollhouse
• The last book in a series
• A dusty globe of Saturn
• The sound of thinking
• a consistent beeping noise
• a nightmare about a horse
• an earthquake
• celebration of a feast
• performing a ritual
• MC must taste chocolate, cacao, or similar substance
• a music box that won’t open
• glass figurines
• a plastic lizard
• purple nail polish

Go to your refrigerator and write down 10 random or oddest items in there. Write the introductory paragraphs of a character who only has those items in his or her refrigerator.

(Alternatively, go to the grocery store and go hog weird wild to choose 10 items.)

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I was searching for a weekly tip and came across a page on creating characters. It’s a pretty good page actually but one piece of advice made me realize why so many character questionnaires feel flat to me: it’s because the questions ask what rather than why.

The author suggest reverse engineering a character. Go through a favorite book and write down the characteristics of your favorite characters. Write questions that would prompt the descriptions as a response. Then use those questions to interview your own character: create three response for each question.

One of the responses was, “Hagrid is a large man, so big he must be part giant.” A very interesting answer! But the question the article’s author came up with is, “What is this character’s physical size?” Um, large? It just doesn’t lead your mind down interesting paths.

But a question like “Why are you the size you are?” can bring out rich details from a character’s past. “Because I’m half giant,” is a much more interesting answer than “Really big.” Though “15 feet.” or however large Hagrid is, is intriguing, it obviously leads to “Why are you 15 feet tall.” Might as well begin with the why!

The page is Creating Characters from Scratch.

The reverse engineering process is described towards the end of the article.

While conflict makes the story run, before conflict your character needs a passionate yearning to be conflicted about.

Brainstorm some passionate yearnings. Don’t worry if they’re cliche. It’s the passion your character will bring to that yearning that will set it apart. (The yearning for a husband or wife has certainly fueled plenty of stories!)

After you’re done brainstorming, pick your favorite yearnings then brainstorm some reasons why your character wants that. Make it personal and make them want it passionately.

Here’s some examples if you’re having trouble getting started:

• To protect a brother. Why? Younger or older? How and why is the brother in danger? What did he do? What events made the siblings especially close?
• To be the first to Mars. Why? To achieve something no one else has? Passionate love of Star Trek? Return home?
• To win the dragon riding tournament. Why? Why dragons? Why this particular tournament? To prove something to someone or self? To honor an ancestor or mentor? To prove something to the dragon(s)?
• To end the war. Why? Ancestral home is threatened? Brother is on the other side and it’s only a matter of time before character will have to kill him? The cost to loved ones has been too high?
• To find peace and quiet. Why? Stressful life? Surrounded by grasping people? Surrounded by idiots?
• To regain family treasure. Why? Awaken inherited powers? Crush the power of the rival who stole it? Rebuild family that was destroyed?

Look over your list and circle your favorites. Keep asking why for the ones that intrigue you to gain greater depth for the characters and the problem and the world.

Pick your very favorite. Brainstorm a list of 25 obstacles to place between the character and their yearning. (The first few that come out will probably be cliche. That’s okay. Sometimes you need to run the tap first until the water is clear :-) The conflict can be personal (fear, being handicapped, family opposes) or external (aliens invade, it rains).

This could be the foundation for your NaNoWriMo project coming up in November. Choose one or a few of the yearnings and conflicts that feel like they could be in the same story. Put them together to see what happens.

Here’s an extensive list of character traits. You can pick a couple or three to form the basis of a character. Then create a character with the opposite traits to form a friend, enemy, sibling, mentor … ?

While there’s a great deal to be said about nature forming our characters, it’s a lot more interesting for a story if there’s a background reason! :-) So ask yourself why the character developed those traits. What happened in the past, recent or childhood, that moved them in that direction. And perhaps they display the trait only in limited contexts. A low energy character could be forceful when the one thing he cares about is threatened. A frugal character could have a massive collection of manga. Someone could dole out their compassion just to those who are trying hard and have little sympathy for those who are letting themselves be weighed down.

Pick all from one list or all from different lists or mix them up and choose completely randomly. There are plenty of positive traits that aren’t normally paired together and could make for interesting characters, for example, cultured and easy going, or inept and cocky, or feisty and dainty so it isn’t necessary to mix them up.

If you love lists, there’s another list: Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors. Again, feel free to pick all “Low Range” or all “High Range” factors since shy and practical, or sensitive and lively, or competitive and solitary aren’t usual combinations but could make for some nicely complex characters when you dig into their lives and figure out why they’ve become who they are.

Positive traits

Accommodating
Accomplished
Adaptable
Adventurous
Affectionate
Agreeable
Amusing
Appreciative
Approachable
Articulate
Artistic
Audacious
Authoritative
Bewitching
Brave
Carefree
Careful
Charismatic
Charming
Chaste
Cheerful
Classy
Compassionate
Composed
Confident
Congenial
Conscientious
Considerate
Consistent
Content
Cooperative
Creative
Cultured
Curious
Dainty
Debonair
Decent
Determined
Dignified
Disciplined
Easy-going
Educated
Empathetic
Energetic
Enthusiastic
Exuberant
Faithful
Feisty
Flexible
Focused
Forgiving
Frank
Friendly
Frugal
Fun-loving
Gentle
Glamorous
Good-natured
Graceful
Gracious
Gregarious
Honest
Honorable
Hopeful
Hospitable
Imaginative
Impeccable
Informed
Inquisitive
Insightful
Insouciant
Intellectual
Intelligent
Intelligent
Introspective
Intuitive
Inventive
Kind
Knowledgeable
Logical
Loving
Mature
Merciful
Modest
Noble
Observant
Open-minded
Optimistic
Organized
Outgoing
Outspoken
Passionate
Patient
Perceptive
Persistent
Pert
Philanthropic
Polite
Practical
Prosaic
Quirky
Rational
Reliable
Resilient
Respectful
Romantic
Saintly
Savvy
Selfless
Sensual
Serene
Serious
Sincere
Smart
Spiritual
Supportive
Sweet
Sympathetic
Tactful
Thoughtful
Thrifty
Tireless
Tolerant
Trusting
Unassuming
Virtuous
Vivacious
Well-groomed
Wholesome

Depends on the context whether they’re positive or negative

Aggressive
Ambitious
Aristocratic
Assertive
Boisterous
Brazen
Conservative
Conventional
Delicate
Direct
Dramatic
Eccentric
Elusive
Enigmatic
Exotic
Fearless
Flamboyant
Flirtatious
Holy
Humble
Idiosyncratic
Impulsive
Innocent
Irreverent
Liberal
Loner
Macho
Meticulous
Nonchalant
Nostalgic
Obedient
Obsessive
Opportunistic
Persuasive
Pious
Private
Proud
Quiet
Religious
Sensitive
Sentimental
Soft-spoken
Subtle
Talkative
Tough
Unconventional
Uninhibited
Worldly
Zany
Zealous

Generally negative descriptors, but not aspects that make you want to keep your distance

Absent-minded
Accident-prone
Aloof
Anxious
Apathetic
Apologetic
Apprehensive
Bewildered
Clumsy
Cocky
Compliant
Compulsive
Confused
Crafty
Cranky
Cunning
Cynical
Daffy
Defiant
Detached
Disorganized
Distant
Distraught
Dowdy
Downtrodden
Dull
Dumb
Emotional
Excessive
Excitable
Extravagant
Fanatical
Fatalistic
Finicky
Flippant
Flustered
Fragile
Frigid
Frustrated
Gaudy
Gloomy
Grandiose
Haggard
Hesitant
Hysterical
Ignorant
Immature
Immodest
Impatient
Impudent
Incoherent
Incompetent
Inconsiderate
Indecisive
Indifferent
Indiscreet
Inept
Infantile
Inhibited
Insecure
Insensitive
Insulting
Intimidating
Introverted
Irresponsible
Irritable
Jealous
Lazy
Lethargic
Materialistic
Melodramatic
Messy
Miserly
Moody
Naive
Neurotic
Non-committing
Opinionated
Ornery
Paranoid
Passive
Pessimistic
Petty
Presumptuous
Pretentious
Prim
Pushy
Rebellious
Reclusive
Remote
Resentful
Reserved
Righteous
Rowdy
Rude
Sarcastic
Sassy
Self-absorbed
Self-conscious
Self-effacing
Self-righteous
Senile
Shallow
Sheepish
Shy
Silent
Silly
Simple
Sloppy
Sluggish
Snobby
Spiteful
Squeamish
Stern
Stingy
Stoical
Straight-laced
Strict
Stubborn
Submissive
Surly
Suspicious
Temperamental
Tense
Tentative
Timid
Trivial
Unclean
Uncommunicative
Uneasy
Unmotivated
Unreasonable
Verbose
Vulnerable
Withdrawn

Quite negative, people you want to have as little contact with as possible

Abrasive
Angry
Annoying
Antisocial
Argumentative
Arrogant
Belligerent
Bossy
Calculating
Callous
Conceited
Condescending
Controlling
Cowardly
Critical
Crude
Deceitful
Despicable
Disgusting
Dogmatic
Domineering
Egocentric
Egotistic
Embittered
Greedy
Grotesque
Hypocritical
Intolerant
Judgmental
Lascivious
Lewd
Maniacal
Manipulative
Mean
Nasty
Obnoxious
Obscene
Overbearing
Perverted
Pompous
Profane
Promiscuous
Selfish
Sleazy
Sneaky
Unapproachable
Unscrupulous
Vain
Vindictive
Vulgar

Pretty darn evil

Abusive
Cruel
Dishonest
Hateful
Inhumane
Masochistic
Psychopathic
Psychotic
Ruthless
Sadistic
Traitorous
Tyrannical
Vengeful
Wicked

Randy Ingermanson at The Snowflake Method of Writing a Novel suggests three steps to help get a handle on your novel’s (or story’s) structure. I prefer writing first and then figuring out what the book is about when it’s done ;-)

But his techniques could work well when you’ve completed a story and are heading into the editing phase.

Step 1: Write a one-sentence summary of your story. For one thing he says this will serve as a ten-second selling tool, a hook to sell your story to an editor. But it’s also a good way to get a handle on what your story is about to help you focus on what to cut and what to expand on as you’re rewriting.

Some hints on what makes a good sentence:

• Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words.
• No character names, please! Better to say “a handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”.
• Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now tell me what he or she wants to win.
• Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is an art form.

Step 2: Expand the sentence into a full paragraph. He suggests one sentence to give the backdrop and story setup. Then a sentence for each turning point. [He calls them disasters.] And one sentence to tell the ending.

Step 3: Then for each character write a one page summary sheet. He suggests:

• The character’s name
• A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
• The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?) [Someone suggested using the word yearn. What does the character yearn for?]
• The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
• The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
• The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?)
• A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

This may give you more insight into your story and you may realize you need to rewrite your one sentence summary or your paragraph. That’s a good thing! As he says “it means your characters are teaching you things about your story.”

If you’re doing this before you write it’s okay to go back and change your descriptions as the story evolves. In fact expect to.

From Writer’s Digest Free Writing Prompts

Character questionaire (below). Though only a few of the questions get beyond the mundane, what’s great about this is that about 75 people (so far) have responded on the message boards. There are some interesting answers as well as surprising ways of answering:

Coffee Drinker: only when awake. 
Current Location: Molly Pitcher’s Pub, over on Cranston Street [most people answered current residence.]
Current Location: Padded cell
Eye Color/Hair Color: He has two looks; his human look with sepia hair and autumn brown eyes and his true Sidhe look of sea sky blue eyes and naked white hair.
Favorite Alcoholic Drink: Guinness (It’s a meal in a glass) 
Favorite Meal: anything he doesn’t have to cook himself 
Favorite Meal: Cereal and Milk
Favorite Meal: His ma’s corned beef and cabbage.
Favorite Meal: She’s not picky. Food doesn’t really interest her. She eats because her mom places food in front of her. Otherwise, she would forget about it altogether.
Favorite Meal: Toast 
Fears: Being responsible for the end of the world.
Fears: Going bald, losing his teeth, dying too young and living too long, and spiders. 
Fears: people finding out who she really is 
Fears: The Dark and things he can see that others cannot.
Fears: The evil that man has against his fellow man, closed in tight spaces, old school witches 
Has Character Been in Love: Yes But he’s more likely to be in lust.
Has Character Been in Love: yes, but he denies it 
Is Character Attractive: When you look at Max, you can see her mind spinning at full speed. This makes her beautiful.
Is Character Attractive: Yeah. I wouldn’t dare to date a guy that doesn’t have character.
Life Goal: To die fighting 
Life Goal: To do something meaningful
Life Goal: to keep breathing
Life Goal: To live, man, to live!
Life Goal: to piss off as many people as he can 
Major Strength: Wit, sailing skills, and a head for mathematics without paper and pencil. 
Major Weakness: Cystic Fibrosis
Major Weakness: Explosive Temper and brunettes with blue eyes and he is seldom on time. 
Major Weakness: Guys who play in bands
Major Weakness: never backs down from a challenge, no matter what the cost
Major Weakness: The Sims 2 
Number One Regret: That in the end, he had to turn his back to his people because it was the right thing to do.
Tattoo(s)/ Piercing(s): “Piercings?! What’m I, a girl?”
Tattoo(s)/ Piercing(s): A colbalt blue rank tattoo across the bridge of his nose that looks like a scar in his human form 
Tattoo(s)/ Piercing(s): scared of needles
Tattoo(s)/ Piercing(s): Shocked that you should suggest such a thing. 
Vices: Staying up after lights out completing one sudoku puzzle after another. 
Vices: writing on things esp. her shoes and the bathroom stalls at school

---

4/24/2007: Create a background for one of you characters by filling out this list:

Full Name:
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Current Location:
Heritage:
Eye Color/Hair Color:
Right or Left Handed:
Major Strength:
Major Weakness:
Fears:
Life Goal:
Dream Profession:
Actual Profession:
Favorite Meal:
Coffee Drinker:
Favorite Alcoholic Drink:
Has Character Been in Love:
Is Character Attractive:
Does Character Think of Self as Attractive:
Healthy Habits:
Unhealthy Habits:
Favorite Movie:
Vices:
Tattoo(s)/ Piercing(s):
Number One Regret:

You can post your response (500 words or fewer) here:

This idea comes from Holly Lisle’s website, a successful fantasy writer, who has a some excellent essays on writing. In Quick Plot, she walks you through the process of coming up with the essential characters, essential problem, brainstorming scenes of a novel when you need to turn one out immediately.

“Here’s the scenario. You find yourself in a situation where you have to do a book in a hurry. Could be you got a letter back from an editor or agent telling you that, while they can’t use the book you submitted, they would like to see your next project. Could be you took on more contracts than you have time to complete. Could be you forgot about a pending deadline, or put it off because Real Life intruded in a big way.
In any case, now you’re faced with a book that must be done to a professional level in a severely limited amount of time, and, for real fun, let’s say that you don’t even have any idea yet what the book is going to be about. Maybe you know most of the characters, if it’s a book in a continuing series. Maybe the whole thing is just a vague, nebulous blur in your mind — you sort of know what you’d like it to be about, but beyond that, you’re in the dark.

Maybe you haven’t a clue. You are as blank as the page in front of you. Maybe you simply have never been able to plot out a novel in advance and would like to try it.

No matter what your situation, don’t panic. This workshop will teach you how to create plots out of thin air, with nothing but work, and more work, and maybe a bit of work after that. Sound fun? Well, actually, it is.”

Create a Character: You’re given several boxes to fill in and it adds some background and personality (determined by Enneagram Personality Type).

Here’s an example:

Your Character
Zeni, age 35, is a very perceptive and intellectual person, interested in understanding the world. Most consider him/her a genius, but Zeni knows he/she has a lot to learn. Originally from Willowbrook, Zeni now lives in Fan Hamish to get a tip on the whereabouts of Vengorth and holds a job as a vampire slayer. Zeni is separated from a spouse and has a child. She’s rangy, with a scar running down the side of her face.”

As a child, Zeni lived among others with incredible skills, perhaps his/her father or mother was a brilliant scientist. Zeni’s parents were probably neglectful. As a result, Zeni learned to look to the outside world for answers. Combine this with a more recent loss or disappearance of a loved one, and you get an overwhelming urge to understand and correct some social problem or to eliminate an evil force. Zeni’s flaw is the belief that experiences are for learning and not for fun. He/she may not have a lot of fun, but secretly wants to. She wants to defeat Vengorth.

(Their software, Character Pro 5, is a more in depth version.)

Also at Typing Chimp is Character 101.

And articles on character development.

Science of a Good Character.

Simple Motivation–What Would YOU Do?

Define What’s Missing.

Relating Character to Story.

Is Your Character an Adult or Child (not age)?

Creating Adult and Child Characters for Juvenile and Adult Fiction

Beginning to Understand Great Dialogue

Fluffing up a Boring Secondary Character

Give Every Character a Theme

What Exactly is a Character Arc?

Finding the Perfect Tragic Past

Tips.

Top Ten Character Tips.

How to Differentiate Characters.

Using Stress to Reveal Character.

Giving a Minor Character Life.

The Seven Deadly Sins and Character Motivation

And a page about how Enneagrams are used in their character development software. (Which ties in the the post here on Enneagram of Personality)

(There are also two software writing programs: Character Pro 5 & QuickStory 5 for sale.)

When your novel gets to the saggy middle, that’s the time to drop in some random colorful characters! This was posted by Fenix on the National Novel Writing Month forums for 2005.

---

Found some stuff online…

I [Fenix] found a list of possible side stories online, many different sites, decided to put them into categories that I thought would work best:

Outcast:

• Is on a personal quest for vengeance.
• Is paranoid and over-protective of the town that cast him out.
• Cannot stop complaining, and will complain to anyone near them but knows key information hidden among the complaints.
• Is an outcast in the community for no good reason.
• has a valuable treasure but does not know who to turn to and trust for the sale
• Fears being alone because of a recent incident.
• Is heavily in debt and is fleeing/hiding from creditors.
• Is a fan (to the point of fanaticism) of a spectator sport of the time (jousting, cockfighting, bearbaiting, whatever) and has gotten into gambling/stalking trouble.
• Fears he’s being watched and is looking for someone who he can trust to recover a valuable object buried nearby

Trader:

• NPC has invented a new piece of equipment and is looking for a test subject.
• Wants PCs to ‘lend’ him the main plot item after they retrieve it, before they hand it over to the main plot instigator. The motivation could be pure (i.e. item needed to lift a deadly curse) or nefarious (i.e. item used to raise an army of undead).
• Sells rare and unusual spells.
• Sells magical equipment that looks fake or non-magical.
• Has a craving for rare herbs and spices that unknown to the PCs are used to create a powerful narcotic.
• NPC is a merchant looking to open trade with other races and spot a non-human PC.
• Is looking for a business partner.
• Is a pacifist who tries to convert the party to the ways of non-violence.
• Wants the PCs to promote her business by wearing or using her product prominently whenever possible (fashionable cloaks, very tasty trail rations, a specific musical instrument, etc.).
• Is an artist trying to sell his works.
• Is collecting parlor games from across the lands.
• Acts as a local guide to the PCs.
• Desperately needs an item only available through the Black Market.
• Acts as a representative for the Black Market.
• Sells rice cakes with magic rings inside.
• Is a wandering amateur chef looking for new recipes and ingredients.
• Is a pacifist who tries to convert the party to the ways of non-violence.
• Is a writer trying to sell his works.
• Tries to pass off lousy equipment as magical.

Wanted man:

• Is in disguise (for reasons real or imaginary).
• Has had an operation to change his/her race, but still manifests cultural mannerisms of his/her original race.
• Is an outcast for forgotten crimes
• A ‘wanted man’ sought by a particular non-human good race (i.e. Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, etc.) for some past misdeed or misunderstanding.
• Has a racial enemy or is banned from racially dominant areas.
• Is deadly terrified of shadows. He’ll only meet with the PCs in places completely devoid of shadows.
• Was recently injured in a random attack and seeks his attackers for revenge.
• Is a vigilante who kills in cold blood convinced that the ends (i.e. eliminating a criminal element) justify the means (using excessive force, killing hostages, etc.).
• Has been falsely accused and has just posted bail and is now looking for proof of his innocence.
• Is trying to ditch the city guards, who are chasing him for a minor crime.
• Is a skilled amateur gambler looking to break into the pros or find the ‘big game’.
• Greedy — always demands first dibs and/or larger shares when dividing treasure troves based on exaggerated contributions to the party’s success.

Secretive guy:

• Has been given a task by his boss and his boss would punish him if it was known he was ‘wasting time’ with the PCs.
• Wants the PCs to ‘accidentally retrieve’ an item while they are investigating clues.
• Is searching for a lost family heirloom — the heirloom may not have any value other than sentiment.
• Is on a secret military mission.
• Is a worshipper of a death god(dess) or a necromancer who wishes to serve as a mortician of the city but needs documents proving his/her good intentions/standing.
• Is secretly recruiting for the military or a special guild.
• Knows of ‘lots of great adventures’ that are, unfortunately, all dead ends.
• Is quiet, brooding, and short tempered due to medical problems.
• Is an informant for the local thieves’ guild with nothing to report and is ready to make something up.
• Is tainted in some way and tries at all costs to keep the taint a secret.
• Is a failed adventurer with much emotional baggage who seeks to sabotage other adventurers.
• Is a binge drinker who tends to get in trouble due to violent, drunken bouts.
• Is trying to find out how to join a certain secret cult.Is a failed adventurer with much emotional baggage who seeks to sabotage other adventurers.

The Genuine Haiku Generator

Genuine? It’s not about nature. Haiku? It does have the structure of a surprising observation at the end. Generator? It does generate some pretty nifty dark fantasy images of 5-7-5 syllables that have peculiar haiku rhythm and feel :-)

Here are some examples:

rainstorms juggle, hard
demoness descends, owl jumps
apprentice shines, fierce

  . .. … …. … .. .

happily entranced
determined deaf chimera
rises evilly

  . .. … …. … .. .

careless river rusts
hatefully, rainmakers lurk
mirthfully, flesh snarls

  . .. … …. … .. .

plowshares replenish
coolly, reflection murmurs
careworn lizards choke

  . .. … …. … .. .

boasting moodily
wife softens, unaided sad
mournful devils break

For those who brought you National Novel Writing Month, now comes Script Frenzy!

30 days to a finished script. If you know nothing about writing scripts, and my few-days-ago prompt wasn’t enough, there are tips and essays on script writing at the website, a plot machine (with some very bizarre plots that would be a true challenge to adopt ;-), a young writer’s program, forums and some other goodies. :-)

From Chris Baty:

Thanks to Earth’s slouchy axis, NaNoWriMo’s contingent of Australian and Kiwi authors get to take part in NaNoWriMo in the summer. It’s always sounded so nice to us—warm weather, cold drinks, and a few pages of prose between laps in the pool—that we wanted to share the experience with the northern hemisphere.

Which is why we’re proud to announce the birth of a second major event in the Office of Letters and Light family. Script Frenzy—in which first-time scriptwriters and old pros get together to write feature-length movies and plays in June—has launched.

Like NaNoWriMo, it’s free to participate. And also like NaNoWriMo, we’re going to spend a great, hilarious month pushing our creative limits, getting in over our heads, and churning out pages of brilliance and embarrassing drivel. In Script Frenzy, you can even write with a partner!

Do you love watching movies? Ever been moved by a play?

It’s time you wrote one. Come join the Frenzy. You can even sign into the Script Frenzy site using your NaNoWriMo username!

Write your memoir in 6 words and submit it to Smith magazine for potential inclusion in a book to be published in 2008 by HarperCollins.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. The result was “For sale: baby shoes, never used.”

Since SMITH [magazine] celebrates the personal side of storytelling, our twist on this classic concept is the six-word memoir–the short, short true story of your life.

It could be the title of your autobiography, or maybe your epitaph. Shorter than haiku and meatier that a one-liner, it truly makes you take stock of who you are. Try it.

Here are some examples from the website:

Barrister, barista, what’s the diff, Mom?
– Abigail Moorhouse

“What? Lemony Snicket? Lemony Snicket? What?”
– Daniel Handler

“My spiritual path is 100 proof.”
– John House

“He wore dresses. This caused messes.”
– Josh Kilmer-Purcell

“Yes to every date, met mate.”
– Maria Dahvana Headley

“Shy Jersey kid, overcompensating ever since.”
– Ariel Kaminer

“Take a left turn, then fly.”
– Hillary Carlip

“Haunting dad, spotlight mom, retrieving marriage.”
– Nell Casey

“Big hair, big heart, big hurry.”
– Larry Smith

Eight thousand orgasms. Only one baby.
– Neal Pollack

I still make coffee for two.
– Zak Nelson

“On the seventh word, he rested.”
– Stephen J. Dubner

Sounds like some wizard or wise man.

The Enneagram of Personality is a theory that our personalities derive from how “nine principal ego-archetypal forms or types of human personality … are psychologically connected.”

Yeah. Well, regardless of the wonky science, it does come up with the foundations for some interesting characters (and some nifty cryptic figures to represent each of the nine.) :-)

Here are brief descriptions of the nine personalities from Wikipedia. (There’s also a test you can take. Scroll down below the list of characters.) If you click on the link above to go to the page the descriptions came from, each of the personalities links to a longer article to get even more inspiration for your characters.

Ones: Reformers, Critics, Perfectionists - People of this personality type are focused on personal integrity. Ones can be wise, discerning and inspiring in their quest for the truth. They also tend to dissociate themselves from their flaws or what they believe are flaws (such as negative emotions) and can become hypocritical and hyper-critical of others, seeking the illusion of virtue to hide their own vices. The greatest fear of Ones is to be flawed and their ultimate goal is perfection.

The “deadly sin” of Ones is anger in the form of resentment and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Perfection.

Under stress Ones express qualities of Fours and when relaxed qualities of Sevens.

Twos: Helpers, Givers, Caretakers - Twos, at their best, are compassionate, thoughtful and astonishingly generous but they can also be particularly prone to clinginess and manipulation. Twos want, above all, to be loved and needed and fear being unworthy of love.

The “deadly sin” of Twos is pride and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Will.

Under stress Twos express qualities of Eights and when relaxed qualities of Fours.

Threes: Achievers, Performers, Succeeders - Highly adaptable and changeable. Some walk the world with confidence and unstinting authenticity; others wear a series of public masks, acting the way they think will bring them approval and losing track of their true self. Threes are motivated by the need to succeed and to be seen as successful.

The “deadly sin” of Threes is deceit and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Law.

Under stress Threes express qualities of Nines and when relaxed qualities of Sixes.

Fours: Romantics, Individualists, Artists - Driven by a desire to understand themselves and find a place in the world they often fear that they have no identity or personal significance. Fours embrace individualism and are often profoundly creative and intuitive. However, they have a habit of withdrawing to internalize, searching desperately inside themselves for something they never find and creating a spiral of depression.

The “deadly sin” of Fours is envy and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Origin.

Under stress Fours express qualities of Twos and when relaxed qualities of Ones.

Fives: Observers, Thinkers, Investigators - Fives are motivated by the desire to understand the world around them, specifically in terms of facts. Believing they are only worth what they contribute, Fives have learned to withdraw, to watch with keen eyes and speak only when they can shake the world with their observations. Sometimes they do just that. However, some Fives are known to withdraw from the world, becoming reclusive hermits and fending off social contact with abrasive cynicism. Fives fear incompetency or uselessness and want to be capable and knowledgeable above all else.

The “deadly sin” of Fives is avarice and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Omniscience.

Under stress Fives express qualities of Sevens and when relaxed qualities of Eights.

Sixes: Loyalists, Devil’s Advocates, Defenders - Sixes long for stability above all else. They exhibit unwavering loyalty and responsibility, but once betrayed, they are slow to trust again. They are particularly prone to fearful thinking and emotional anxiety as well as reactionary and paranoid behavior. Sixes tend to to react to their fears either in a phobic manner by avoiding fearful situations or by confronting them in a counterphobic manner.

The “deadly sin” of Sixes is cowardice and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Faith and Strength.

Under stress Sixes express qualities of Threes and when relaxed qualities of Nines.

Sevens: Enthusiasts, Adventurers, Sensationalists - Sevens are adventurous and busy with many activities with all the energy and enthusiasm of the Puer Aeternus. At their best they embrace life for its varied joys and wonders and truly live in the moment but, at their worst, they dash frantically from one new experience to another, too scared of disappointment to actually enjoy themselves. Sevens fear being unable to provide for themselves or to experience life in all of its richness.

The “deadly sin” of Sevens is gluttony and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Wisdom”.

Under stress Sevens express qualities of Ones and when relaxed qualities of Fives.

Eights: Leaders, Protectors, Challengers - Eights value their own strength and desire to be powerful and in control. They concern themselves with self-preservation. They are natural leaders, who can be either friendly and charitable or dictatorially manipulative, ruthless and willing to destroy anything in their way. Eights seek control over their own lives and destinies and fear being harmed or controlled by others.

The “deadly sin” of the Eight is lust (in terms of being ‘excessive’) and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Truth.

Under stress Eights express qualities of Fives and when relaxed qualities of Twos.

Nines: Mediators, Peacemakers, Preservationists - Nines are ruled by their empathy. At their best they are perceptive, receptive, gentle, calming and at peace with the world. They also, however, tend to dissociate from conflicts and to indifferently go along with others people’s wishes. They may also simply withdraw and act via inaction. They fear the conflict caused by their ability to simultaneously understand opposing points of view and seek peace of mind above all else. Nines are especially prone to dissociation and passive-aggressive behaviour.

The “deadly sin” of Nines is sloth and their “holy idea” or essence is Holy Love.

Under stress Nines express qualities of Sixes and when relaxed qualities of Threes.

---

The Triadic Enneagram Test

This only takes 5-10 minutes and pretty much nailed one of the characters in the current story I’m working on. This is what it came up with:

Seven
Primary Intelligence: Mental
Coping Style: Positive
Social Style: Assertive
Hierarchical Style: Ideals

Sevens use their mental intelligence to create a positive spin on life by coming up with various utopian possibilities about how things could be. They can be very inspirational as they assert their utopian ideals about how people can live better lives or make the world a better place. Robin Williams is a well-known Seven, and his character in the movie Dead Poets Society is an excellent example of this. By regularly imagining how things can be good or made better, Sevens tend to be very optimistic, and their optimism gives them the confidence to assert themselves in the world, going after whatever it is they want.

Like your goth tongue in cheek? Check out Dead Lounge where resides the Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator

From the website:

Interested in birthing your own bastard of diabolically morose proportion? There’s nothing simpler. Choose one of the classic topics of Darkly Gothic poetry below, then you’ll be taken to the Goth-O-MaticTM Poetry Generator. Construct the opus by making the selections that best fit your tormented desires, and choose an appropriate image to loom ominously over your creation. Tap the “Create Your Poem” button, and you’ll be able to cut and paste your new expression of pain and angst into your own Web page!

Care to create a Darkly Gothic poem? The Goth-O-MaticTM awaits the touch of your agonized mind:

• Create the The Supernatural Violence & Horror Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Feeling Very Sorry for Yourself Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Fear of Religious Persecution Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Eternal Love of Vampires Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Black Abyss of Righteous Hatred Darkly Gothic Poem

Here’s the one I made from “The Eternal Love of Vampires”:

It is a night of ethereal pain, a song of dark desire,
wolves vent their loneliness. The thirsting one
wakens.

Curling, icy wisps of death shrouds her gaunt form,
an everlasting desire.

Her midnight hair cascades over
translucent ivory shoulders, and her
full really very deeply crimson lips part slightly, to taste the
red tears streaming from the
pale flesh beneath her.

Now a night of ecstasy,
I hunger.

Tips, also from Dead Lounge, if you’d like to try writing your own Darkly Gothic Poetry without the generator:

You’re probably wondering how such tormented and artistic individuals pen such magnificently dark epics, where they got their expressive names, and how you can crank out the same self-pitying drivel, uh, create your own shadowed and unearthly opus. Read this list of handy tips for the proper creation of Darkly Gothic Poems. Then choose an appropriate subject from the page of poems, and the Goth-O-MaticTM will help you express your inner angst!

Darkly Gothic Tip 1: DarkRaven’s probably already taken

Choose an appropriate gothic moniker by which you wish to be addressed. Feel free to throw a couple of appropriately dark and wicked words together to form something mysterious with which to impress your nonpoetic friends. Adding a color to a predatory bird is still reasonably popular, as is naming yourself after one or two of the notable entities in Hell.

Darkly Gothic Tip 2: Choose an appropriate subject

Things such as darkness, loss, pain, grief, madness, death, night, and the bloodthirsty undead make good topics for darkly gothic poems. You cannot create a darkly gothic emotional abyss about how hard your Spanish class is, or how Mom gives you grief for wearing black eye liner.

Darkly Gothic Tip 3: Read Edgar Allan Poe

If you don’t know Poe…

Darkly Gothic Tip 4: Feel free to hurt!

Go ahead and let that emotional turmoil draw you into depression. It makes you create better. You can always pull out of it, right? You don’t want to commit suicide, but you want to make everyone think you do. Oh, and don’t be that person that goes to schools and starts gunning down innocents; those people have some sort of weird revenge or God complex, and they never write good poetry.

Darkly Gothic Tip 5: Don’t try to create a darkly gothic poem at 2:15 on a sunny Friday afternoon in a hip artsy coffee house drinking a decaf mocha espresso

Enough said.

Darkly Gothic Tip 6: Go ahead and chop it up

Don’t worry about how short the lines of your darkly gothic poem are. Feel free to devote every line to a scant few words or even a single word. Remember, solitude makes something stand out by itself, um, well, by definition. Consider the following:

“Falling ever darkly into
the ebon abyss of feral eyes,
screaming against
the groping fingers of your
black obsessive passion,
torment.”

…Wow! Did you feel that torment at the end? We know we did. Hey, entire outpourings of tormented souls have been contained within a couple of fingerspans on the left. The best poems will make you scroll down a Web page after only twenty words or so.

Darkly Gothic Tip 7: Yeah, yeah, dark, blood, heard that one before

Grab that thesaurus and rape it. The more methods you have of saying the same word over again will vastly increase your wordsmithing. Using little-known words like ‘eidolon,’ ‘inexorable,’ ‘vitae’ or ‘etiolated’ will give you a depth which not-so-darkly gothic poets will envy.

Darkly Gothic Tip 8: Blow it way out of proportion

Go off about that personal angst. Rant in a depressingly deep way about the heartless one who left you alone and barren in the world because you were too depressingly deep. Describe the vision of the ethereal path you have chosen; make sure there’s dark fog wisping through it. Display your broken and tattered soul for all to see. Occasionally stopping and reaching your arms out in the stigmata position helps stretch those creative muscles. Take minor everyday objects (a clock) and make them looming and malicious (a stark, cruel reminder of inevitable mortality, blank and accusing, every second drawing inexorably closer to oblivion).

Darkly Gothic Tip 9: Use those bleak images!

If you’re building a poetry Web page, or any goth page for that matter, it is imperative that you include any picture of an angel statue or gravemarker you can find. Those weeping Mary ones, or angels with heads bowed, make your poetry that much more painful to read. Ah, I mean convey your pain all the more. If you can combine it with images of dead roses and a few spinning-ankh bars, so much the better.

Darkly Gothic Tip 10: Get inspired!

Of course, one can’t always be at one’s utmost ghoulish. Sometimes, even the undead can get that pesky writer’s block (let alone the occasional artery block). Be creative! Go out to a local cemetery and read the tombstones. Find a large flat one and lie down upon it, reveling in your closeness to the dead. Lock yourself in a darkened room and read H.P. Lovecraft stories to yourself until you sob with horror. Got that feeling that needs creative writer’s block healing? The brave even move toward ancient Celtic, or even Runic manuscripts for that special surge of dark energy. Feel free to go to European cathedrals and sit through those Latin choir hymnals with a tape recorder. Practice saying everything in Vincent Price’s voice.

Darkly Gothic Tip 11: Get classy with some regional interest

For a special esoteric flavour that leaves the reader aching, er, moved to their centre, go ahead and spell using the Queen’s English. Go check out that great medieval literature, the ever-popular Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Use names like Ethelred, Morgoth and Vincegatorix for darkly powerful supernatural beings. Check out a medieval book from the library and write a poem about the torment of translating Middle English while blinking from the blood dripping into your eyes. Let your imbalanced humours bleakly shine!

Darkly Gothic Tip 12: Don’t be (that) afraid of sunlight

Every Darkly Gothic Poem need not be written about distant fogs rolling through twilight graveyards (but boy, do those poems taste good). Let the sun bring to light in your poetry your horrible guilt, your significant other’s hypocrisy, and your self-absorbed pity, I mean, your hidden meekness. Let that eye-searing daystar expose your naked insignificance, burning you to your angst-ridden soul.

Darkly Gothic Tip 13: Have fun with it!

Wait… no, forget that, I’m sorry. Don’t have fun with it. This isn’t about fun.To get you inspired to write your own, here is some non-automatically generated original Gothic Poetry.

When you’re done there, check out the Random Gothic Lyric Generator.

Here’s an example:

by Suspiria Malaisia

Devils shroud red glossolalia
Serpents feign mocking treachery
My solitude whispers blasphemous innocents
Blazing pinions run amuck through embittered effervescence

Hunger scoffs at crucified abattoir
Wolves recoil from dying sepulchre
Lonliness entangles sanguine soul
Serpents lock up trembling disillusionment

Evil kisses celestial fragments
Fire consumes severed poison
Vengeful cripples feign spectral torment
My Master howls hollow brilliance

Wolves hide under baleful fragments
Wolves languish luscious clutches
The stench unleashes mocking innocents
Terror whispers dark caresses

Here’s a fun poem I stumbled across one day. It’s best read out loud :-)

<> ! * ‘ ‘ #
^ ” ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * <> ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , system halted

Here’s how it’s read:

waka waka bang splat tick tick hash
caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash
bang splat equal at dollar under-score
percent splat waka waka tilda number four
ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash
vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma crash

Along the lines of the Periodic Table of Science Fiction, here’s the Poetic Table of the Elements: a poem — and for some elements several poems — for most of the elements.

It’s a collaborative project so you can submit your own :-) (It appears from some of the author comments that several were submitted as a school project so there are kids helping out too :-)

Here’s a couple for Calcium:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s chemists
And all the King’s chums
Couldn’t repair his calcium.

Picked up the pieces, each shard of shell.
Finished their work before it started to smell.
Cremated the albumen
Along with the yoke,
Believe it or not, it hadn’t even broke.

Placed all the pieces in a small Easter basket.
Humpty lay shattered on straw in his casket.
During the service
The mood was placid.
When it was finished, dissolved Humpty in acid.

by Rusty Myers

Calcium, an element that’s not unknown,
Is found in milk and helps build a strong bone.
It’s a chemical element that is solid;
With the symbol Ca it is not squalid.
Calcium appears as silvery white
And although it’s soft it puts up a fight.
It’s located in group two, period four
And is an element you cannot abhor.
Calcium, in Latin meaning Lime,
Was found by Ancient Romans early in time.
It was isolated in 1808
By Sir Humphry Davy’s natural fate.

by Jessica Abercrombie

This is a story built block by block rather than the “I’m stuck” kind of writer’s block.

At their website RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) posts the beginning of a story each month at Writers’ Blocks and anyone who wants to can contribute to it. It stays up for a week then then the final story is posted.

The next story begins April 2.

The past stories are all at Previous Writers’ Blocks. They all seem to have contemporary settings with some fantastical twist to them.

I haven’t seen it in action so I don’t know how they handle multiple entries for the next block or how they notify writers that the next block needs to be a wrap up. Each story ends up with five blocks in addition to the story starter.

Bill Zimmerman shared his Make Beliefs Comix! site on the UnschoolingWriters list this week.

It’s a comic strip generator. There are options for 2, 3 or 4 panels. You can chose from 10 characters, expressions for the characters, change their size and the direction they’re facing, then add word balloons and whatever text you want. If you’re stuck there are even some ideas to get you started. When you’re satisfied you can print it out or email it.

(I had some problems with the emailing and printing — the image the email linked back to wasn’t the same as on the final screen — which I wrote to him about. So if you can use screen capture, you might want to do that before depending on print or email.)