I’m a college student who has unrealistic dreams of being a famous authoress who writes mystery novels. Either that or a goblin... haven't decided which. I live on a farm up on a hilltop where the wind likes to mess up my hair and the trees sway poetically in the wind.
A fairytale but told in reverse. This could mean a many number of things. You could reverse the roles or the events, either works. It’s good practice and helps you move past figuring out what to write.
An excerpt from your life but told in a dramatic, over the top fashion. We’re all drama queens and you know it. This not only allows you to write what you know, but I’ve found it’s a wonderful way to expand your vocab because it forces you to look up big and fun words. And while these words are pretty frivolous in this specific context, these words will come in handy the next time you take on writing a story where they wouldn’t be so out of place.
Get inspired by history. Write short excerpts from the point of view of old historical figures. There are tons of interesting people to be discovered in the past.
Get inspired by art. Art and writing have a common purpose… to create a picture, so the two are clearly linked in one way or another. Perhaps this is why I find inspiration in the lovely paintings of the past. To do this yourself, pick out an interesting or unusual painting and use it as writing inspiration.
Write an over the top conspiracy theory. The more ridiculous, the better. This also can be tool for building your vocabulary while you have fun writing the worst lies you’ve ever conjured.
Write a piece specifically for mocking a cliche.
Write down a list of three aesthetics or objects that you really like for some reason or another. Now try and incorporate them into a story.
Take a fable or fairytale The primarily stars animal characters and humanize them. Or, if you’d like, take a human based fairytale and make all the characters forest animals.
Take a work that you really like and give it a mood shift and tell it in a fashion completely opposite of what it was originally but while keeping most of the main events. For example, you take a work of Edgar Allan Poe and give it a sunny, happy, comedic spin.
Challenge yourself to write a story where the narrative and events are completely confined in one room.
Pick a specific year to inspire your work.
Pick a historical figure to inspire your work.
Have your work center around a specific object. Like a mirror or a pen for example.
Have your work be inspired by a game. For example, chess, checkers, poker or just playing cards and their suites in general, Clue, monopoly, Candy Land, Shutes and Ladders, Mastermind, or Battleship to name a few. Think outside the box.
“Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment.”
“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.”
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece”
“the more I live, the more I regret how little I know”
“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.”
“What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.”
“I can only draw what I see.”
“I don’t think I’m made for any earthly kind of pleasure.”
“No one but myself knows the anxiety I go through and the trouble I give myself…”
“I get madder and madder on giving back what I feel.”
Once upon a time there was a lovely princess who lived in a lovely castle with a lovely library and a lovely king who was her father.
This princess lived her days out happily, reading in the library, playing in the gardens, and (her most favorite activity) playing chess with her dad.
But alas, a time came when the king died, leaving the queen behind to take care of the kingdom. Now the queen was a beautiful woman but she wasn’t necessarily a leader. There were enemies eyeing them and their land with greed. Now would be a decent opportunity to strike. The queen had to do something fast. So she arranged a political marriage between the princess and the prince of another kingdom, uniting them both under one banner. Soon there after, the queen died some say if heart break and some say of just plain stress..
Now the daughter was very sad at the loss of her parents and her arranged marriage, but she soon realized this is what fate had in store for her. So the coming year, she was married, and then the next year, was crowned queen alongside her husband who was crowned king.
They went on to have a daughter, named Iris. The king was disappointed, hoping his wife would have a boy, therefore producing an heir. However, after the daughter was born, the queen had miscarriage after miscarriage. It soon became obvious that this was to be their only child and heir. The king was very saddened at this however the queen did not mind, loving her daughter with the purest love a mother could ever offer. So while the king attended his kingly business and largely ignored his daughter, the queen would spend time with her in the tower playing chess with her and read her stories. She wished to give her twice the amount of love to replace her father’s.
But tragedy then struck yet again. Iris’s mother grew ill and quickly died not long after the princesse’s 15th birthday. This hit Iris very hard, Locking herself away in the tower for days to mourn. But she soon found strength through memory of her mother.
“Remember,” she used to tell her during their usual chess game. “The Queen is the most powerful piece in the board. You are the most powerful piece on the board Iris.”
And so, after a three days of solitude, Iris walked out of the tower, standing tall and brave. But still very sad.
Her years leading up to her 18th birthday were lonely ones, only gaining joy from her occasional trips to the town market, her daily rides, and of course her chess matches. She played nearly every single person of the castle staff, and beat them too. She had perfected her game it would seem.
Solemnly, Iris walked the courtyard of the tower she would soon be living in in the coming weeks. It was a tall, towering building, casting a dark shadow across it’s mosaic stone courtyard. It was once part of a old castle but now only a few crumbling walls and the tower remained.
Inside, the tower was rather plain with no decorations in its room but had some of the most beautiful architecture she had ever seen.
Iris decided she would not mind living here that much. Especially if she got to redecorate. But she supposed that hardly mattered as she would be only here as long as it took a prince to complete her test.
So she began to think. But her thoughts began to swirl of her looming future marriage to a stranger and her controlling father so she stopped and opted to hide in the castle library and stare at her chess set, wishing horribly that her mother was there. She fiddled with the lovely stone pieces, tracing the shape of the knight’s arched neck, the pawns round top, when she was suddenly struck with an idea.
“Always be the strongest piece on the board,” her mother’s voice echoed.
“Don’t worry, mother,” iris whispered. “I will be.”
All night iris worked feverishly. Sketched after sketch she drew of her idea for her test. So when the morning came her eyes stung and she was utterly exhausted. But she did not rest- time was awasting!
She hurriedly ran down the castle stairs and into the courtyard where she met the black smith. She showed him her blueprints and sketches and of her idea. She asked him if he would help (she would pay him handsomely of course she added)
The black smith complied and began work as she requested. As the week dragged slowly on, the Princess was scarce, checking on the black smith constantly and sometimes even rolling up her sleeves and helping with the work herself. They were loosing time. The end of the week was near.
Part of her doubted that they were going to make it. But on the fifth night her handmaidens and servants told her that they knew what she was up to. They told her to not to worry- they had not alerted her father of her activities. Not only that, they had heard through the castle gossip that they had fallen behind and they all wished to help.
So That evening a group of young servant girls showed up at the black smiths forged with aprons and their sleeves rolled up and ready to work. And that night they finished. And early!
And then the seventh day came.
The king demanded to see his daughters test for he had suitors waiting already.
Iris led the king to the tower’s checkered tile court yard and gestured for him to look.
Set up on opposing ends of the court yard arranged on the alternating squares were giant, metallic chess pieces. The pieces were giant, roughly about a head taller than most men though hollow so they could be pushed and moved with ease. There was a set of white pieces on the end closest to them and a set of black further away.
“What on earth-?” The king began.
“It’s my test,” iris explained. “Whichever suitor can beat me in chess may get my hand in marriage.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” the king responded.
“It’s my test,” the Princess pointed out, refusing to back down.
Finally the king agreed, thinking that surely some prince would beat her. But he was very very wrong
Game after game iris would crow those wonderful words, “checkmate!”
A week went by and the suitors began loosing interest and went to find other princesses with easier tests.
Iris’s father was angry at first but there wasn’t much he could do. He had to abide by his family’s tradition.
And so iris spent the next 10 years in her tower, and sometimes venturing out into the forest and generally led a peaceful life.
It wasn’t long after those ten years that the king opted to retire and step down from the throne, becoming sick in his old age.
And so iris, now completely grown and ambitious, volunteered to take over. The people agreed unanimously- she was to be their queen.
Being so wonderful at chess led to her being a excellent tactician during war time, defending and conquering when needed. So the kingdom knew an era of peace beneath the chess princess.
I, my dear friends, am a project bouncer. All too often I’m struck with a lightning bolt of creativity that fuels me roughly for a week only to dissipate as quickly as It came.
And so I’m left with a story concept that is pushed to the back shelf that is already crowded with other dead ideas and concepts that I l tell myself I’ll get to later. And of course, later never comes.
I think the most frustrating bit about this aspect of personality is that fact that I always feel like I’m overflowing with ideas and yet I don’t actually get anything done. After the end of a creative jolt I’m left with nothing but a vague character description and plot outline and a blank word document. It’s like I’m encountering writers block before I’ve even started. I can’t focus on one idea long enough and everything feels like it’ll result in a dead end.
But, as I’ve come to figure out, my problem isn’t necessarily the time that I have with an idea that’s giving me issues. It’s the way I use it.
You see, if you’re anything like me, your creative eureka! Moments happen often frequently but they are fleeting. Generally what I do with this time is… well nothing. And that, my dear friends, is my problem. I squander my creative bursts on… daydreaming? Nothing productive anyway.
So here’s how I combatted this issue. The solution was really simple actually.
Every inspiring idea and concept that comes to my head revolving around this topic, I write down. Everything. All the random bits of dialogue, all the random character details, the scenes… all of it.
And needed to put to use my creative energy right away. I needed to stop “letting it simmer” because that leads to me burning out. I learned that I needed to take advantage of this flash of inspiration and actually WRITE. There’s no room for perfection. I just need to DO it cause pretty soon I’m going to loose steam and that’ll be the end of it.
And, so, by the end of a weeks time (and my creative high), I should have the hardest part of the story out of the way; the beginning. And if I can get that down, I can run with it and see where the story takes me.
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
“Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.”
“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
“Art is to console those who are broken by life.”
“I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.”
“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
“I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”
“I wish they would take me as I am.”
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
“Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.”
“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”
“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.”
“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.”
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
By the Brooke 