Friday Freewriting – September 10, 2021 – Megan

Posted on September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 by Epic Book Club

Is a story that makes you think, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” a mystery? Because that’s what I’ve got for you this week.

Character: Llama Rancher
Object: Deck of Cards
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy

In a moment of panic, as the timer counted down, I realized that I had a great set up for a murder mystery, but I had no idea how I wanted to resolve it. Then I remembered that the genre was mystery/fantasy, so I introduced magic. And a bit of nonsense. Well, I still like it.

How would you use these prompt elements in a story? Please let us know if you write your own!

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Friday Freewriting – September 10, 2021 – Robert

Posted on September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 by Epic Book Club

Llama — “You talkin’ to me?” Image by louiscrusoe

This week truly brought the “random” out of our random prompt generators:

Character: Llama rancher
Object: Deck of cards
Genre/Tone: Mystery/Fantasy

So, I’m really not sure what to make of this story myself. I’ll just say, Megan and I are thinking of making T-shirts that say, “All the llamas knew better than to engage in fortune telling or necromancy of any kind.”

If you feel like following this writing exercise yourself, feel free! Let us know what you come up with by posting the story (or a link to it) in the comments! And till then, well, keep focused on the present.

Ezekiel moseyed over to where her ranching partner Gerey was leaning on the twisted wood-and-vine fence that enclosed the small llama pen. She brushed the loose fleece from her vest and dungarees and coughed the musk of the llamas out of her lungs as she approached.

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Friday Freewriting – September 3, 2021 – Megan

Posted on September 3, 2021September 2, 2021 by Epic Book Club

The prompt this week was

Character: Psychologist
Object: Ketchup
Genre/Tone: Speculative

As much as I enjoy writing flash fiction, sometimes I just don’t feel like I click with the story I’m writing. And with the time limit, there’s really no chance to change tack and try something else. The moment I started writing this week, I just wanted to go back and make different choices, but that inexorable timer told me it was not possible within our agreed upon parameters. “I hate this, this is so bad,” and variations on that theme popped up between both Robert and me the whole time we wrote. Robert read his story out loud, and I love what he wrote! I wish that I’d written it! It’s charming and funny and unexpected. I dithered around, trying to avoid reading mine, and finally ripped off the bandage. And, well, Robert didn’t hate it. He even liked the ending. It just goes to show that you’re not necessarily the best judge of your own work. Or maybe, your feelings aren’t the best judge of your work. Be gentle with yourself, work with someone you can trust (if you can!), and be open to both critiques and to praise. Funny how both hurt sometimes.

If you join us in this prompt, or any of the others, please let us know! If you’re joining us for the first time, here’s t he primer on this prompt system. Happy writing!

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Friday Freewriting – September 3, 2021 – Robert

Posted on September 3, 2021September 2, 2021 by Epic Book Club

Condiments — Family photo by Steve Snodgrass

We almost wrote a “Thriller” this week, but that seemed too close to the “Action” of last week, so we pulled a new genre from the random generator and came up with the following:

Character: Psychologist
Object: Ketchup
Genre: Speculative (sci-fi/fantasy)

I immediately had an idea that sounded, at least to my mind, like something Megan might do. And because I enjoy her stories so much, I thought I’d give it a go. Humor is not normally my strong suit, so I’m hoping this works half so well as her stories usually do.

In any case, I hope you enjoy this! If you’re enjoying these exercises, feel free to join in yourself, and let us know what you come up with!

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Friday Freewriting – August 27, 2021 – Megan

Posted on August 27, 2021September 9, 2021 by Epic Book Club

We had some discussion about following the rules today. Neither of us has been great about keeping to the sentence limit that Mary Robinette Kowal recommends in her video. But we decided to wait until another day to pay attention to that aspect. It’s funny how it seems like you need more time to write less.

The prompt this week was

Character: Programmer
Object: Coat
Genre/Tone: Action

I feel like say this almost every week, but this is a genre that I’m not super familar with. I should look into composing a reading list that will help me fill in the gaps in my knowlege. If you have any favorite books in the action genre, let me know in the comments!

And, as always, let us know if you felt inspired to try out the prompt this week (or from any other week!). Happy reading, and happy writing!

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Friday Freewriting – August 27, 2021 – Robert

Posted on August 27, 2021August 26, 2021 by Epic Book Club

For once, Megan and I wrote stories along very similar lines: we both came up with a heist scenario of sorts, though hers was a “plant something” heist and mine was a “steal something” heist. I suppose that’s not altogether unexpected, given our prompt:

Character: Programmer
Object: Coat
Genre/Tone: Action

Neither of us are fans of explosion-heavy shoot-em-ups, so it makes sense that “Action” would send us both to a heist story.

I also couldn’t resist tossing a little sci-fi element in there. I don’t know why, but I always enjoy a story with a touch of the wondrous in it.

Hope you enjoy our stories this week! Please let us know what works, and what might be improved. And if you wrote anything with this exercise yourself, please share it (or a link to it) in the comments!

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Friday Freewriting – August 20, 2021 – Megan

Posted on August 20, 2021August 19, 2021 by Epic Book Club

Character: Fisherman
Object: Scarf
Genre/Tone: Historical Comedy

It’s not funny, but it’s a comedy in the sense that it ends on a hopeful moment for my main character. I love to laugh, and to make others laugh, but sometimes I just can’t think of a good joke in a time limit. I might have tried for some slapstick, especially near the end when someone nearly falls off the boat.

As usual, please let us know what you think! And if you try this exercise, we’d love to see what you come up with. Happy Reading! Happy Writing!

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Friday Freewriting – August 20, 2021 – Robert

Posted on August 20, 2021August 20, 2021 by Epic Book Club

In a form as short as this exercise, usually around five hundred words, it’s often hard to come up with any drama, and it’s easy to go for a punch line. So you’d think with a prompt like:

Character: Fisherman
Object: Scarf
Genre/Tone: Historical Comedy

it would be easy to find the humor. But both Megan and I took “comedy” in the historical sense of “having a happy ending” but not necessarily having a lot of jokes.

I think both our stories have some potential for further development. But the thing I particularly learned from today’s exercise was that drama really does arise from making a character take action. I was tempted at almost every sentence to make Bakala a passive character, but I’ve been working on making sure my characters are always doing something, and that those actions have consequences – at least, I hope it’s clear that the consequences follow his actions. I realize I didn’t exactly connect all the dots.

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Friday Freewriting – August 6, 2021 – Robert

Posted on August 6, 2021August 5, 2021 by Epic Book Club

video by Evan Cooper

Well, we’re going to need some content warnings this week. With a prompt like this, what would you expect?

Character: Monk
Object: Candy
Genre/Tone: Horror

To tell the truth, I’m not a fan of gore or slasher-movie horror. I’m more into the creepy existential and cosmic horror that Lovecraft made popular and that’s carried on today in books like T. Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places. But when you have a timed exercise, you sometimes surprise yourself with what comes out, and what came out of me was… the violent destruction of a human body. If that kind of thing triggers you, please check out Megan’s less gory and more creepy story based on the same prompts.

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Friday Freewriting – July 30, 2021 – Robert

Posted on July 30, 2021July 29, 2021 by Epic Book Club

Our prompts this week were:

Character: Politician
Object: Lute
Genre/Tone: Saga

As has happened before, I completely forgot one of the elements, in this case the lute. For some reason, my brain has trouble holding the entire prompt at once, and this time I fixated on a politician in a saga, and a lute – which would have been easy to include if I’d only remembered it – simply failed to appear.

Oh well, it’s only an exercise. But one of the points of an exercise is to recognize patterns in what you’re doing, both good and bad. So it’s good to notice my bad habit of ignoring part of the prompt. It means I need to (1) pay more attention in the future, maybe referring back to the prompts as a checklist; and (2) that I might do well to seek out simpler story prompts, and/or to give myself more room and time to develop stories.

On the plus side, I think I did a pretty decent job on the tone of the piece. I’m not sure how appealing it is to a modern audience (let me know in the comments!) but it has a few of the more obvious hallmarks of Icelandic sagas.

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