Inspiration from Reddit 3

I never knew how fun writing these prompts would be, sometimes they are even more exciting to write than the writing exercises...

After you caused the crash that left your son in a coma, you turn to the bottle and start falling apart. One day you come out of a drunken haze just long enough to hear your ex-wife on your voicemail, "I've been calling you all week. Today, we're taking him off life-support."

Submitted by Jibberling

This one caught my interest mostly because of the harsh setting. It's already gone to hell and it's up to the writer to decide what happens next. I thought a bit how I should write it, if I should make a happy ending or if it could become anecdotal but after a bit of a struggle I simply started to write in the first-person view how the father feels and just continued from there.

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It’s all hazy, but that’s how it should be. Hazy and misty are what I want. If it turns clearer I will start to see things more precise again. I don’t want that.

I like it here in this unfocused place, where I can’t see the sharpness of the world.

I don’t want to see the eyes of Oliver widen as our car gets closer to the other vehicle when it gets too close.

I don’t want to see Oliver in the bed, like he was sleeping only if the tubes and apparatus weren't attached to him.

I don’t want to hear the heart monitors tone followed by a heavy silence which repeats endlessly.

I don’t want to see the eyes of the doctor and nurse looking at me.

I don’t want to remember.

The numbness feels good. The dizziness is great.

I want to stay here.

Ring, Ring

Somewhere far away, I hear the sound of my cellphone. It sounds like it’s in the other room. I reach forward with my right arm towards the sound only to topple the chair and fall face first on the floor. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.

I got up slowly and headed once again towards the sound, but when I finally reached the cellphone the sound stopped. Squinting with my eyes I see the name of my ex-wife on the missed call. Before I even manage to call back I get a notification of voicemail.

I pick up the phone towards my ear while shutting my other ear to remove the banging sound inside my head. But it didn’t work.

“I’ve been calling you all week. Today, we’re taking him off life support,” said a cool female voice from the other side.

The sound of her voice was clear. The message was clear. Oliver won’t be sleeping on the bed anymore.

I throw the phone away. It was too sharp.

Tears starts to well up and I head towards the kitchen to dull my mind. To make it hazier before it becomes too sharp again.

Before it hurts again.

Writing Exercise 4 - Horror

Take a character, and from that character’s point of view, describe their reaction to something horrific and awful, but do so without describing the thing itself.

[From Writing Excuse 10.3: Lovecraftian Horror - Link]

Hmm...the instructions were a bit unclear for me, does this mean that I shouldn't describe it at all, not mentioning smells or sensations that relate to the thing? Should everything be internal for the character? If I want to mention the character to vomit because of the stench, does that count as describing the thing? So many questions...

For this one I think I will allow myself to indirectly describe the thing, the character reacts in a certain way because of the things certain traits. I guess I could tease the reader with some vague descriptions.

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Senan couldn't believe what's happening before him. He convulsed into a pile while emptying his stomach, an attempt from his body trying to reject the whole thing.
The young man gasped for air and crawled with difficulty away from the scene, squeezing himself to the floor intent to become one with it.

His eyes would occasionally dart back and then snap to the front, focusing on the cold hard ground, the wooden door, the desk. Anything that wasn't...that.

"Don't notice. Don't notice. Don't notice." Senan silently whispered the mantra to himself. 

During middle-school he would repeatedly chant "Don't hurt me." when crowded by the bullies, it took some time but after a while, the pain would stop. Maybe the same thing would happen here.

Too close to the ground can be unhealthy, especially a dusty floor like the one Senan was crawling through. His coughs echoed through the room and his pale blue eyes widened in fear. He covered his coughing mouth quickly with a bony hand and held his breath, listening for any sound behind him while shutting his eyes to enhance his ears effect.

Nothing.

Breathing out slowly he continued to crawl towards the door and opened his eyes, only to see the thing looking down on him.

There was no escape. Tears formed in Senans eyes and only one sentence quivered out from his trembling mouth.

"Don't hurt me."

Inspiration from Reddit 2

Another writing prompt from Reddit!

"Ok, time to confess, who opened the gates to another dimension?"

Submitted by user /granthinton

This one was a fun since it's so vague in the genre and you had a lot of freedom to write. It could be a fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi or anything in between.

When I saw the prompt, I knew exactly how I wanted to write.

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There were shuffling in the group, no one dared to look the manager in the eyes. Well, it’s understandable since there was a big round shimmering circle next to him and you could see hideous monsters inside trying to crawl out. Each time a tentacle tried to dart out of the circle, the manager would hit it with his iron rod and a squeal would erupt as the tentacle quickly contracted.

The office was a mess. The walls had claw marks, desks were either flipped over or cut in half. At least the lamps were still intact and gave clear light to the four persons standing in the middle.

“Once again, who was it?” asked the manager. His stale green eyes pierced through his three employees and locked sight onto the one that was fidgeting the most, the youngling with disheveled brown hair and poor posture swaying dangerously back and forth. You could breathe on the boy and he would crumble. “Valko, got anything to say?”

The young boy named Valko started to, if possible, tremble more. His gaze shifted to the other two workers for some guidance or support but both of them ignored his plea for help, preferring to stare up into the office lamps.

“Well, sir…” said Valko slowly while licking his dry lips, buying time to collect himself. “Our client was dissatisfied with the product we presented to her. And as a last resort to show something more…exotic, I suggested opening the dimension to Ubhizh where she could pick and choose what she liked.”

The manager looked down on the ruined floor covered in papers and blood but also a single pile of torn clothes.

“Did our client find something that piqued her interest?” he asked as he bent down to collect the outspread papers while occasionally swatting a claw or extremity trying to get out from the portal.

There were once again shuffling in the group. The other two employees gave a look to Valko who nodded hesitantly.

“Ehm, yes,” said Valko carefully. “She was thrilled when she saw a Kosd’ Hosh and demanded that we brought it before her.”

“Which you did?” asked the manager.

“Which we did,” said Valko staring at the ground not daring to meet with those stale green eyes.

The manager gathered the scattered papers into a pile which he gave to one of the other workers and turned once again to the portal with a pondering look. 

“Why Ubhizh?” asked the manager.

Valko swallowed once again before he answered.

“Well, Mrs. Thora is an avid fan of the occult, she has occasionally mentioned about her love for Lovecraftian horrors and that she would love to see beings that resembled those monsters before she died, to paraphrase a bit. That’s why when she wasn’t happy with the dragon hatchling I thought maybe a being from Ubhizh would suit her since I heard from my seniors mentioning that they looked like cosmic horrors.”

The manager nodded in understanding and collected the torn clothes which seemed to have been part of a dress and found a sandal underneath the pile of fabric.

“I guess she was thrilled over the void beast?” asked the manager.

“Ehm, yes,” said Valko fidgeting a bit more. “The thing is...as soon as Mrs. Thora paid for our services she demanded to take a walk with the Kosd’ Hosh…and since she was the customer we could only oblige…”

The manager nodded and went back to the portal with the torn clothes he previously collected and dumped it through the gate. He closed the portal with an incantation and prepared to leave the office but not before he patted Valko on the shoulder.

“Atta’ boy.”

Writing Exercise 3

Take a story and change the ages and genders of everybody you had in mind for it.

You see, a problem with doing these exercises are pretty much that I need to think up something new every single time. Creativity for me is a limited resource and I can feel my tank going empty, and it's only my third exercise...which is problematic. 

For this one, I had to actually take a walk to find some inspirations. Reasons are mostly because the ideas that first appear in my mind are niché subjects, like a certain cartoon or a specific novel. But that's not fun to read for the general population. It should be about something that everyone knows about. So...what famous stories are there that I haven't used yet? There's obviously tons of them, but I haven't watched so many of the classics to be honest. I haven't for example seen "The Godfather" which makes some of my friends really angry.

During my walk, I passed a cinema and simply glanced at some of their biggest posters which were about Marvel or DC super heroes, and Disney.

I already touched on super heroes before, so why not try Disney?

Which one should I write about? Which one would be the most fun to switch around the ages on? Well...why not Moana? Imagine Moana as an adult in search of Maoi the legendary hero only to find out that Maoi is a small and curious child that often communicates by pointing and saying one word at a time?

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"Maoi. Dont!" said Moana with a stern voice while once again removing the chicken from the child. It was the third time in a span of an hour and the chicken with no self-preservation skills looked as oblivious as before.

When Moana removed the chicken from Maoi's mouth the baby's face turned sour and the rosy cheeks puffed up unsatisfactory. 

"Taste like chicken," Maoi said accusingly.

"Yes Maoi," answered Moana with a sigh. "Heihei taste like chicken, but Heihei is a friend."

"Chicken is food." said Maoi matter of factly.

"Not all chicken is food," responded Moana and tried to think up something that could help her arguments. "You know that some chicken lays eggs?"

Maoi closed his eyes in deep concentration, and when the answer dawned upon him he squealed: "HEN!"

"Exactly, the chicken that lay eggs are called hen," said Moana while applauding. "If you eat the hen, you won't get eggs. Do you like eggs, Maoi?"

"Yes!"

"So if you eat Heihei, Heihei can't lay eggs. Then no eggs for Maoi," explained Moana sadly.

"Heihei is hen?" asked Maoi.

"Yes, Heihei is hen." said Moana.

"Then Maoi wait for eggs," said Maoi with a nod.

"Very good Maoi." said Moana with a smile and gave Maoi a pat on the head.

It's been four days now since Moana found the legendary warrior, the thing is that the legends seemed to have a few details wrong. The heroic feats are certainly right, especially the shape-shifting. But the age was...problematic.

Moana heard a zap and when she turned around a small squid greeted her with gusto by jumping up to her face and spraying ink on her.

"Maoi, stop!" screamed Moana enraged which the squid responded with laughter.
This is going to be a very special journey...