Another week, another 7 micro-prompts and some thoughts behind them. Check ’em out, and if you missed last week’s, you can check those out here.
February 9th – Pride
“Your pride will be the death of you one day,” she had laughed. It was supposed to be a joke, but she’d a knack for the clairvoyant. As the tears streamed down his face onto her bloodstained chest, he wished she had been right.
Pride is such a great prompt word. So many ways to take it. “Pride goeth before the fall” is easy to play on, but I wanted to write about a character whose pride causes suffering to someone close to them. Their pride killing someone else is still a way for them to fall.
February 10th – Request
“I’m ready!” Cari grinned.
“Uh huh…” Todd’s eyes roved over her, not with desire but with concern. “Ok Boomer, one request.”
“Shoot, King.”
He did not need her blowing their whole stealth mission with her favorite toy. “Leave the bazooka.”
She pouted. “Aww man!”
Boomer is Cari’s squad name in my Galactic Empire story because she’s the demolitions expert and it wasn’t until after I posted it that I realized I’d written “Ok Boomer” and I’ve been laughing about it since. You bet your ass the whole squad is gonna say it to her all the time, now.
February 11th – Ally
“True, it’s better to have a friend at your back than an ally that could be an enemy after the fight is over,” Youko said.
“And which are you?”
“What do you mean?”
Mika watched him warily over her glass. “Do you really have my back or are you just in this for yourself?”
This is a condensed version of a conversation Mika and Youko have during her story. Actually, come to think of it, I posted this whole scene a while back. I have a lot of fun writing these two playing off each other and this particular exchange is one of my favorites.
February 12th – Judge
She folded blackened wings behind her, sighing relief as she let the battle axes slip from bloody, soot-stained hands to the scorched rubble of Earth’s last great city. The last of the gods had fallen. Her lips curved in a wicked smile. No one remained to judge her now.
I’d had an idea for “last woman on earth eating ice cream straight from the tub after wiping everyone else off it” but when I started to set the apocalyptic scene, it did not lend itself to the comedic and I went with a fallen angel character instead. Not sure what she was being judged for, but I liked the aesthetic.
February 13th – Empire
The Empress leads the Empire.
Veralis stares at the six-pointed constellation branded in her palms. The Mark granted her the power of the Mosari matriarchs. Her hands tremble.
It is not supposed to be hers. But the Empress had abandoned them all. Faelurion was gone.
Oh wow, I did two prompts this week with my Galactic Empire characters. That first line was part of a mantra Ral speaks that I wrote in another post here. It was the first time I wrote from her POV and it was enlightening to her character. In this tweet I came up with a slightly more concrete design for the Mark of the Empress, though I’m still not settled on what it actually looks like.
February 14th – Rookie
Cal sighs at me as we pack up. “What?” I ask, indignant.
“I think you’re being too harsh on them,” he says.
“They’re too soft. They’ll be eaten alive before their first mission!” Vampire hunting was not for the weak.
“You were a rookie once too, Trev. They’ll be fine.”
Had “I remember when you were a rookie” as a line in my head for this prompt and tried to work it in or up to it and somehow it turned into a Vampire Hunter AU. Must have Castlevania S3 on my mind.
February 15th – Parody
“Writing a parody requires at least a basic understanding of the source material.” Mr. King set the script down on his desk, neatly centering it to keep from massaging his temples. “Have you ever even seen Hamilton?”
The aspiring screenwriter laughed. “Not on my salary.”
This was another prompt that felt a bit restricting and not all too flexible to me. The screenplay could have really been about anything but the point was that the writer wasn’t even familiar with the source material and therefore should not have tried pitching a parody of said source. Obvious joke about tickets being expensive is what made this work, probably.
That’s all for this week! I’ll do another week of these and share them next Saturday! See you tomorrow with the usual Sunday update!
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Closet Full of Notebooks 