Friday Fiction 500

Today our prompt comes from Writer’s Digest, who had a great one to follow on our discussion about worldbuilding:

Describe something ordinary in an unrelated genre style. For instance, you could describe your living room in the style of an epic fantasy, a pigeon in the style of a western, your breakfast in the style of a steamy romance, or an office building in the style of a sci-fi thriller.

Remember, be specific, and you can’t build more locally than your own living room. No more than 500 words, go!

Continue the Conversation: Worldbuilding

Tonight, we discussed:

1. Begin with your central ideas.
2. Talk to yourself about it.
3. If it looks like a rabbit, call it a rabbit.
4. Don’t make rules before you have to.
5. To be unique, be specific.
   • Harry Potter doesn’t just have a wand, he has a 11” long wand made of a holly with a phoenix feather core. Also, Molly Weasley’s clock. (Entire family in mortal peril 24/7)
   • A memoir set in Virginia doesn’t just have street names, it has streets named after English kings, Confederate generals, and lots and lots of Civil War cemeteries.
   • Han Solo doesn’t just have a spaceship, he has the Millennium Falcon.
6. Listen to your inner troll.
   • Question: If you have abolished all need, want, and poverty with replicator technology, who mines the dilithium crystals that powers it?
   • Answer: Obviously people who have dreamed all their lives of living on dark, forsaken asteroids at the ass end of nowhere.
7. Follow your decisions to their logical conclusion.
8. Be balanced. What you show of the world has to serve the story. You’re not showcasing your world. 90% of your world isn’t going to show up on the page, but you as the author have to know it.
9. Know when to stop. Your readers don’t need to know everything, and your characters can’t know everything.
10. Never make absolute statements.* If you make a hard rule early in the story, the odds are very high you’re going to have to break it.
11. Be consistent. All rules apply to all characters and all situations, that’s why they’re rules. If they don’t apply, there should be a reason.

What did you agree with? What did you disagree with? What rule do you think most applies to your own writing? Continue the discussion in the comments!

*There are some exceptions.

Friday Fiction 500 Prompt

Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

-Louis L’Amour

An image prompt for you all this week. Write whatever it makes you think about, but remember, no more than 500 words!

 

Friday Fiction 500 Challenge

To follow on from this week’s discussion, here’s our prompt!

Write a scene that includes a character speaking a different language, speaking in a thick accent, or otherwise speaking in a way that is unintelligible to the other characters. (Note: You don’t necessarily need to know the language the character is speaking—be creative with it!)

No more than 500 words, less is fine. Go!