#writerbrain

[brainstreams]

Can someone make an app that’s basically Duolingo, but instead some passive aggressive cat yells at you if you didn’t write today?

[tricking-and-ghosting]

vague seeds of fanfic ideas that have been floating around my head:

kamila's school friends (possibly incl. amelie?) decide to drag her out ghost-hunting--a proposition which is very alarming to sissel, who only knows about hunting in a cat way

ghost-hunting in general actually. the grickverse equivalent of buzzfeed unsolved shows up or smthn.

lynne and sissel have to get yomiel to hack into something for an investigation (for some reason they can't trust any of the normal police guys for this case?) (vague images of lynne showing up at yomiel's doorstep late at night with a pc tower in her arms)

yomiel ends up mentoring kamila in engineering somehow?

alma and sissel (human) run into each other in the new timeline by coincidence and end up becoming friends. this of course eventually leads to comedic hijinks relating to the identities of their respective partners

[firerose18991]

My show is on...(sobs quietly)

[adrenaline-whump]

I realized something recently. Sometimes, I get writer's block from having too many options.

The first two Whumptobers I did, we had one word or phrase per day, plus a few alt prompts. But for the last few years, each day has had a theme and three related prompts, plus alt prompts.

I'm not complaining, not at all! It's awesome to have choices, especially when everyone's working in different media and so on.

But consider that (31*4)+15 alternate prompts makes a hundred and thirty-nine separate prompts. Honestly, I think that was part of what was blocking me.

Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that. Everyone's process is different. This is me realizing that my process gets bogged down in decision paralysis. Back when I had just a few choices, I had to get super creative to come up with whumplets for the more unusual prompts. It was hard, but those were some of the best ones I wrote! Anyone remember Hallucinations? I love that one, and I never would have written it without the prompt.

This Whumptober, part of my strategy goes like this: I'm trying to use just the song lyrics, in order, as inspiration for the story scenes. If I truly can't figure out how to work them in, even with a vague reference, even a vibe...then I'll fall back on one of the three related prompts. If that doesn't work, I'll go with an alt prompt.

So far, so good...I've got 7000 words covering the first 20 prompts, with only one alt in there. Not bad for starting on October 2nd, lol.

[theleafthatfelloff]

to busy cities and peace

Cars honking, street vendors yelling, people talking amongst each other, the quick and noisy trains and buses, wailing sirens of the police cars and ambulances, loud pop songs played at the half shut bars and pubs, dogs barking along the streets and if all of that was less, the pitter-pattering of the rain on the gravel to add to it.

The street lights flickering from yellow and white, the eerie headlights of the cars and buses, the neon signs outside the street vendors’ stalls, the lights from the mobile phones of all the people, the billboards and the display boards on the street advertising in bright and bold hues of red and yellow, the disco ball lights outside the already enlightened bars and pubs, the lights in the adjoining park and the lights below the monument in the centre of the city, the twinkling lights of the aeroplane high up in the sky and if all of that wasn’t enough, the startling lightning at the horizon somewhere far off.

Noisy and bright, much of an eyesore and an ear-biter ain’t it ?

Nah !! I beg to differ. Ask me, and I will tell you, there is peace in the otherwise incessantly busy city. Come, join me and I will show you the aesthetic the haphazard city has.

There is questioning in the blaring horns of the cars, they carry a plea of someone who wants to rush home; of someone who is hungry and wishes to go have some delicious food someone lovingly cooked for them; of someone whose pet is waiting for them to return and smother them with licks and hugs; of someone who has no one to return to, but just wishes that he/she gets moving from this little jam and fall asleep on their couch, with an ache that reminds them of someone’s arms or someone’s cuddles; of someone who just wishes that they could get somewhere quick enough.

There is a soothing effect to the flickering yellow white street lights, at least they make one look up and realise that its time, its time they have walked slowly along those very lanes, its time they have checked their phones to see if they missed a call or two from someone they call home, its time they have looked out for that little guitar hanging in the instrument store on the next street, by the very lamp post opposite the bus stop, its time they have stopped to think of things.

There is the sound of love and care in the sound of ambulances and police cars, some rushing to the hospital carrying somebody else’s loved ones, not because they get paid, but someone relies on them to save them; some rushing to a scene to take hold of some ousted person and drive him to the

There is warmth in the billboards' and street stalls' lights. The light of accomplishment and fulfillment, from seeing someone excel in something they invested in and are doing well with; from seeing someone eat to their heart's content and put out that gleaming smile on their face; from seeing someone earn money they worked hard for; from seeing that the exhibition in the city is still open; from seeing that the antique piece she wanted to gift her father is still out for sale; from seeing the twinkle in the eyes of the toddler after he got his large balloon and cotton candy.

There is the sound of love brewing and hearts breaking, and all of it over the sound of the peppy songs playing in the bars and pubs. The sound in the little looks shooting across the bar, from that young boy who wants to ask the girl in the corner out; from that serene woman holding her whiskey high reminiscing some days she spent with the girl she loved in her 20's, grooving to the music there; from that old uncle who sits at the same stool for the last 20 years brooding over life and scribbling onto the little pocket notebook he has in his pocket. The sound in the tinkling of the glasses; as a raised toast for someone who is making a new venture, as the tapping of the glass at the drinks' table demanding a refill to lose themselves into their emotions, as she slammed the glasses on the table, because she couldn't take the rejection. The sound in the silence, with which he stares into the crowd dancing in the centre, with which she fiddles with her glass, because she didn't speak in time, with which they look into each other's eyes because they finally accomplished their huge dream.

There is a lot of light and sound in the busy city. But I guarantee you, break it down and there lies the peace and the aesthetic. The pitter-patter of the rain and the thundering high up in the sky, the whooshing of the aeroplanes and their little lights you see from below, the dogs on the street and the lights at the monument have their own aesthetic, huge enough to not fit into words. 

The city has loads of dreams and stories, care to open that chapter and it will seem less polluted, less adulterated and less dirty from what it looks like now.

As for me, I am the little leaf fallen in the midst of city, that came from some 'dim' and 'peaceful' town, floated on the pavement and now looks at the city from that girl's diary, in the shelf, that overlooks the window onto the road and into the city, sending wishes to busy cities and its peace.

[primelle]

must I type? is it not enough to think passionately and have it appear as a finished page like Athena from Zeus’ head

[isolatedwriter]

Prompts for your otp (scene and a twist)

I got bored one day and decided to just come up with a random prompt selection because I know I have been struggling with prompts lately, so here it is

Prompt selector (you can either use your the first letter of your first and last name or the names of the people in your otp) (or just pick two or more, I don’t care)

The scene:

A - Relationship reveal

B - Reunion of established relationship after a long time apart

C - Friends to lovers, confession of feelings

D - Coming home after a bad day

E - Having a snowball fight

F - Long car trip

G - Person B gets jealous of the S.O. Person A has been describing, not realizing A is talking about B

H - Anniversary celebration

I - Meet the parents (or friends)

J - Jealousy at a party

K - The blind date but they are already friends who have been pinning for each other and their friends are tired of it

L - Stargazing

M - Insecurity about relationship

N - Protecting the other from physical harm

O - Person A hates camping, Person B seeks to change that

P - Drunk confessions

Q - Friends on a kiss cam

R - Game night

S - Exs caught in a stuck elevator

T - Snowed in with crush (huddling for warmth)

U - Sharing an umbrella

V - walking up next to the person they love

W - Kissing in the rain

X - Person A getting Person B to try a new food

Y - Seeing a friend differently for the first time

Z - Person A and Person B are rivals, but B has a problem only A can help with

The twist:

A - Person A has something they’ve been meaning to give Person B

B - Person B has something they have been meaning to tell person A, and now is the time it finally comes out

C - They are making up after a fight

D - Person A admits to Person B that they were their first kiss, or that they have never kissed anyone (depending what makes sense in context)

E - One of them has a secret that they think could change their relationship

F - Person A overhears Person B saying that they regret doing a recent action to Person A, which Person A did not expect them to regret.

G - One of them was recently in an accident and has amnesia, they are in post-recovery now but don’t remember everything (How long ago was the incident? What do they remember? Will they ever remember? Did they have a prior relationship? Up to you)

H - Blood has a part to play

I - Put your music library on shuffle. The third song to come up is what you are basing this on

J - It is told from the perspective of Person C who has a crush on either person B or person A

K - Someone walks in during a key moment (possibly a friend, ex, parent, current partner if you want to make it really spicy)

L - They are living together and in the middle of a multiple day long domestic dispute about the dishes

M - They find out they are soulmates

N - One of them is secretly terrified of something happening (and it is not a super common fear), and they refuse to admit it to the other person

O - The last thing they said to each other before this starts was “don’t talk to me until you’ve figured yourself out”

P - One of them made a promise, and this is them making good on that promise

Q - I don’t know where, I don’t know how, but there is time travel

R - One of them had a really weird dream last night about the other person

S - One of them is injured (the severity is up to you)

T - It ends in them making out, not much of a twist

U - Meeting themselves from an alternate universe

V - Getting caught wearing each other’s clothes

W - At least one of them is famous

X - Someone has a new tattoo that is very meaningful

Y - Number 12 on the iTunes chart is your inspiration (haha have fun)

Z - Character asks themselves, how do I find the other person doing this attractive?

[swordsforwriting]

Me: *stares at empty page dumbly*

My brain: *whispers* w r i t e

Me: *blinks*

My brain: *a bit louder now* write!

Me: *yawns*

My brain: *yells* WRITE YOU COWARD!

Me: Hm? Did someone say something? *shrugs* *closes computer* That's enough writing for today!

My brain: