Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 2 Comments

Writing prompt 26

“I’m trapped. This is where I had died.”
Jeremy twisted his head a little to the left. Nope, that didn’t help either. Strange how anyone had written a message in such a way. At least Miranda’s pocket mirror was good for something other than checking her eyeliner every five seconds. If only it were a decent-sized one instead of the tiny thing he had to work with; such a pain trying to read the mirror image of a backwards message through something half the size of his palm. He sniffed the air, crinkled his nose. What’s that smell anyway? Like rotten lavender. Damn; it was from the letters. The more of the message appeared, the more it smelled.
“Hey, Jerry,” Miranda said, “another line appeared on the far corner, I think.”

I’m actually quite intrigued by this now. I may actually sit down and write a story about it, hehe.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 2 Comments

Writing prompt 25

The doors slid opened. The short, sturdy woman walked in again, this time with a bundle of papers under her arm. She snapped her fingers and one of the guards brought her a wooden half-rickety chair. She shooed him away and placed the chair in front of the prisoner.

She studied him, brought a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket, took one out, tapped it on the stack of papers on her lap.

“Who are you?” the prisoner asked. “Why am I here?”

She was about to light her smoke when she paused and eyed him from over the flame. She took a long drag, blew it out and smiled at him. “Before we start, you should know you’ve already been here before, already had this conversation several times in the past, or in the future – depends on how you see it – and it didn’t go so well for either of us back then.” She shook the ash. “What story will you tell me this time?”

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspirational prompt 24

Last time I posted a prompt I added a poll asking your opinion on these prompts. Thank you all for voting. By the way, the poll is still open and you can vote if you want to. The more answers, the better it will be. So, most of you asked for a few lines of prose rather than images, so here it is.

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Brightness painted the inside of her eyes in orange and red. She winced, turned her head, focused on the dry rubbing her hair made on the pillow. A small groan escaped her. Someone mimicked her from her left. She whipped her head towards the sound, regretted it. Her head was swimming, and as if that wasn’t enough, there was a little troll up there, a troll with a hammer enjoying itself with the insides of her head.

Another moan from her left. “Garry?” She tried getting up, tried moving her arm to lean on her elbow, but something pinned her down, straps around her wrists, something across her chest. She opened her eyes; she was strapped on a bed.

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Inspirational prompt 22

So what do you think happened here? An accident? An argument that led to a fight? That’s one possibility. I like fantasy and sci-fi because I can “abuse” the what if question and go beyond the bounds of our real world. So, forget the curb of the pavement for a while and imagine him in the country. What if someone’s chasing him and the kid in the picture does what we used to watch in old western movies, the hero listening for vibrations through the ground? Why would someone chase him? Did he steal something? Something valuable? OK, but what if what’s valuable to him may be life-giving for those after him? What if he has travelled to a strange land, and the ground shakes under his feet? Ominous sounds or not? Maybe, if it’s a sound he hears, it’s a voice or a scream. Maybe the land is communicating with him, so he lies down and listens. What if he has overheard a secret, a word so powerful that whoever could utter it would control and shape the world around him? A word that is in the rainwater, and is the answer to everything everyone has ever wanted to know? Does he seek that knowledge for himself? To save his town, country, loved ones? To see through a task so difficult that entire armies have failed before him?

I’m sure there are other things you can come up with. Try 🙂

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspirational prompt 19

I’ll be taking the next few weeks off from blogging. The last post of 2015 is an inspirational prompt with an image I consider related to The Darkening.

Though I’ve never watched the show Ripper Street, from which the image is taken, I can not but feel captivated by that look on the girl’s face. Also, notice the body language, how tense she appears.

In The Darkening, my protagonist John Piscus, is a deranged survivor of an apocalyptic event. I envisioned John having this same expression on his face each time he looked inside him and his life, and of what he was capable of doing to carry on; of what lines he was willing to cross.

So, have you ever tried writing a story from the POV of a person like that? How would you tackle it? What POV would you use and why? Does it inspire you to write something?

Until the next time (sometime in January 2016), I wish you all a happy festive season, and a happy New Year!