Help?

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

This should be okay to post...

As everyone knows, it's November - NaNoWriMo time. I usually do a shorter version, mini_nanowrimo, and this is my fourth year participating there (really?). Rather than writing an entire novel, I write bits and snippets of different things. Sometimes they turn into bigger stories - like the Big Bang...

This year my job has been beyond a bear (and in fact I'm beginning to wonder about legal issues). As a result, some of my prompt sources aren't working so well.

So: I'm inviting people to comment with some quick prompts. I am doing a few hundred words a day (well, I am getting home at about 11:30 pm), so just some basic ideas will do.

I also invite anyone who's a little NaNo-blocked, or anyone who is just looking for some inspiration, to feel free to use the prompts as well. Anything that generates more Pros fic in the world is a good thing in my book.

ETA: to clarify - a prompt can be a concept, a couple of words, a picture. Maybe a photo of the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao will send Bodie and Doyle on a babysitting journey with a world-renowned artist being threatened by persons unknown; maybe the word "autumn" will have Older!Doyle pondering how the reds, yellows, and brown leave him feeling empty each year. (I was looking at mattresses today: now THERE'S a land of promise.)

Just some random observations of the world will do. :D

Comments

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know what prompts should look like: single words, images, or "this person and that person, in a boat". Nor do I know whether you want these all to be Pros possibilities. So, um, not too helpful possibly...? But if you can point at examples, I am sure we can come up with stuff.

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

Snowball fight - getting WET!
Maybe with some getting ill after and - well, I guess you should write the rest really....*G*

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

UUps, sorry - should´ve been a real comment....I hope you don´t mind?

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

I do that all the time, so of course not - and now I have an idea what they are supposed to look like, so thanks!

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, no, that´s just what I think they COULD look like...

Thanks for saying such sweet things!

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

LOL, all the stuff you two just posted? Will work. :D

But I'll be a little clearer about it.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ack - don't know how I missed responding to this post, though you guys all seem to have done a good job between you... *g*

A prompt is anything that someone might be able to use to make a story - they can look like anything that might fire up someone's imagination! If you go back through some of the old discoveredinalj challenges, for instance, you'll see that most of them ask people to comment to the challenge post, in return for which they'll be given a prompt - the prompts come in all sorts of shape and forms, depending on the challenge.

Another good place to look for examples is way back in the_safehouse, when queenbamfie-that-was posted weekly challenges with prompts... oh rats, I forgot that she thoughtfully deleted all posts she'd made to the community when she got rid of her queenbamfie lj... But if you start around here, and see the notes people included with their stories (http://the-safehouse.livejournal.com/2005/07/), you'll see the sort of challenges and prompts she was giving out.

And I would expect anyone who posts asking for prompts here at ci5hq to be asking for Pros prompts - it's a Pros comm! I expect one or other of us mods would probably ask them to post elsewhere if it was something else they wanted prompts for... we're mean like that... *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

This is totally okay to post, and I'm sorry I didn't comment at the time - it's been a weird month... as usual... *g*

Shout out if you'd like more prompts, any time... *vbg*