Dragon Writing Prompts

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

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.

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Cut words from the headlines in magazines and newspapers. Put them in a jar large enough to hold hundreds of them. When you’re stuck trying to think of a story idea or where to go next in a story, randomly pull out three slips. Use those three words in the next sentence you write.

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Well, I wanted to do some clever wrap up to NaNoWriMo, but I feel the pressure of all the things I put off during the month ;-) So here’s some more tips on getting unstuck:

Experiment — Try to write in different places, at different times, and with different writing instruments.

Freewrite — Choose one sentence in a paragraph and write a paragraph about it. Then choose one sentence from that paragraph and do it again.

Cluster — Choose key words and ideas; then write associated ideas and words in clusters around them. This process often forms new ideas.

Be flexible — Be willing to throw out sections of text that are causing problems or just don’t work.

Follow a routine — Follow a routine to get into the writing mood. Try activities like wearing comfortable clothing, using a certain pen, or listening to a particular CD or type of music.

Move — Physically move around, stretch, or walk.

Take a break — Get a snack or drink, talk to someone, or just relax for five minutes before starting to write again.

Concentrate — Focus on a different section or aspect of your paper. This sometimes leads to new insights in problem areas, while allowing you to get work done on another section.

Re-read — Read a print draft of the paper and jot down ideas while reading.

Relax! — The more you worry, the harder it gets to think clearly.

These are from Overcoming Writer’s Block.

This expands on the idea from last Saturday to help you get to know a character you’ve created better or flesh out one that seems a bit wishy-washy.

What would your character’s list of 7 Virtues be? They don’t have to be virtues he or she possesses, but ones he or she thinks are most admirable — in others perhaps! While he goes off and does the total opposite ;-)

Then do a free write on a different one for 15 minutes each day about your character’s thoughts and feelings on and experiences with the virtue. People he’s known who’ve had it and the good and bad he’s seen of it. Times he’s seen it put into action. Just let the words flow nonstop for 15 minutes.

Try making up your own list of virtues first. Then, if you want, you can look through this list compiled from various places around the internet to see if there are any your character might move to the top of his or her list.

acceptance
acknowledgment
assertiveness
beauty
bravery
caring
charity
cheerfulness
clarity
cleanliness
commitment
compassion
competence
confidence
consideration
contentment
cooperation
courage
courtesy
craft
creativity
curiosity
detachment
determination
devotion
diligence
discernment
efficiency
empathy
energy
enthusiasm
excellence
fairness
faith
faithfulness
flexibility
forgiveness
fortitude
friendliness
generosity
gentleness
grace
gratitude
helpfulness
honesty
honor
hope
humility
humor
idealism
insight
integrity
joyfulness
justice
kindness
love
loyalty
mercy
mindfulness
moderation
modesty
obedience
open mindedness
order
orderliness
passion
patience
peace
peacefulness
perseverance
perspective
playfulness
prayerfulness
pride
principled
productivity
prudence
purity
purposefulness
rationality
reliability
resilience
respect
responsibility
reverence
righteousness
sacrifice
self confidence
self discipline
self possession
self restraint
service
silence
steadfastness
stillness
tact
temperance
thankfulness
thrift
tolerance
trust
trustworthiness
truthfulness
understanding
unity
wisdom
wonder

Use free writing to build characters.

Make a list of emotions. Each day free write for 15 minutes — that is write without pausing, push the ideas out — about what your character thinks about the emotion, what emotions it elicits for him, experiences he’s had with it in himself and in others. Anything and everything that flows out nonstop for 15 minutes.

There are several lists of emotions on the internet. The one here is from Basic emotions - list of emotions.

Wikipedia also has a list of Emotions.

And at Burning Void: Passion (though some seem more akin to characteristics).

(From an idea posted by Sesselja on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) forums.

love
compassion
sentimentality
lust
passion
infatuation
longing
joy
satisfaction
ecstasy
enthusiasm
zeal
thrill
contentment
pleasure
pride
triumph
optimism
rapture
relief
amazement
aggravation
frustration
anger
hostility
hate
scorn
vengefulness
resentment
disgust
jealousy
torment
suffering
depression
sadness
grief
disappointment
guilt
shame
remorse
alienation
loneliness
insecurity
embarrassment
humiliation
insult
pity
sympathy
shock
fear
panic
anxiety
dread

Hack Your Way Out of Writer’s Block

by Merlin Mann
I recently had occasion to do some…errr…research on writer’s block. Yeah, research. That’s what I was doing. Like a scientist.

I found lots of great ideas to get unstuck and wrote the best ones on index cards to create an Oblique Strategies-like deck. Swipe, share, and add you own in comments.

• Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or cardboard cutout.

  [Joyce: This is a variation of the classic “What Am I Really Trying To Say?” Sometimes we get so lost in the details of the trees that we can’t see the forest we’re trying to write about. You can also try explaining your story to a friend in an email. (You don’t need to send it.)]

• Do something important that’s very easy - Is there a small part of your project you could finish quickly that would move things forward?

  [Joyce: In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamont suggests looking at a project one piece at a time. “Bird by bird” as her father suggested to her brother when he had to write a report about birds. A novel can be intimidating but you’ve “assigned” yourself just to write a description of the main character, that seems more doable.]

• Try freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you’re typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?
• Take a walk - Get out of your writing brain for 10 minutes. Think about bunnies. Breathe.
• Take a shower; change clothes - Give yourself a truly clean start.
• Write from a persona - Lend your voice to a writing personality who isn’t you. Doesn’t have to be a pirate or anything—just try seeing your topic from someone else’s perspective, style, and interest.
• Get away from the computer; Write someplace new - If you’ve been staring at the screen and nothing is happening, walk away. Shut down the computer. Take one pen and one notebook, and go somewhere new.
• Quit beating yourself up - You can’t create when you feel ass-whipped. Stop visualizing catastrophes, and focus on positive outcomes.
• Stretch - Maybe try vacuuming your lungs too.
• Add one ritual behavior - Get a glass of water exactly every 20 minutes. Do pushups. Eat a Tootsie Roll every paragraph. Add physical structure.
• Listen to new music - Try something instrumental and rhythmic that you’ve never heard before. Put it on repeat, then stop fiddling with iTunes until your draft is done.
• Write crap - Accept that your first draft will suck, and just go with it. Finish something.

  [Joyce: Pretty much the idea behind National Novel Writing Month. When the goal is to write 2000 words a day then what you write becomes less important than just getting words down on the page. And it’s amazing the stuff that comes out when the inner editor is on vacation.]

• Unplug the router - Metafilter and Boing Boing aren’t helping you right now. Turn off the Interweb and close every application you don’t need. Consider creating a new user account on your computer with none of your familiar apps or configurations.
• Write the middle - Stop whining over a perfect lead, and write the next part or the part after that. Write your favorite part. Write the cover letter or email you’ll send when it’s done.

  [Joyce: Another idea is to write something outside of the story: background of a character, a letter from one character to another.]

• Do one chore - Sweep the floor or take out the recycling. Try something lightly physical to remind you that you know how to do things.
• Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph. Limits create focus and change your perspective.
• Work on the title - Quickly make up five distinctly different titles. Meditate on them. What bugs you about the one you like least?
• Write five words - Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.

I’m going to collect some “writer’s block” tips. I don’t like the term writer’s block. It sounds like a disease that will stay with you until find a cure. Which only turns it into something worse than it is.

Stuck. Stalled. The point is to get moving again, often by doing something different, or off in a different direction rather than sitting there spinning your tires.

This is an idea from 3AM Epiphany, a book of writing exercises by Brian Kiteley.

He suggests writing 100 sentences about a character you’re stuck on. Or a place. Or a setting. Or an Idea. Don’t lift your fingers from the keyboard through the whole exercise. Let it sit for a day and then revise.

100 *short* — he lists the exercise as 800 words total — sentences. (Though 200 or 500 sentences he thinks would be even better but 100 is enough to be useful.) They shouldn’t connect. He says just relax and let your mind flow free to find new material. “It is unnerving to have to write so many sentences in a row, and after a certain point the pressure of creating character details overcomes the pressure to tell a story.”