Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Prompts

I've been thinking about prompts this past week. I never really "got" them before now. I found it slightly baffling that - instead of getting an idea and writing it - you asked somebody else to give you their idea and then you tried to conjure up something to fit. It just didn't seem to make sense to me, (although I did once produce two short pieces from a couple of suggestions. Fandom & context were left up to me just a single word was the prompt) surely it has to be much harder writing somebody else's idea??. Oh I wouldn't belittle the idea of prompts or anything. They really work. Some people work brilliantly that way, and produce great stories. I just couldn't seem to. Mostly I just didn't get it. (Hey - I never said I was very bright!!)

Then last week I was reading through a prompt community I used to check on. I haven't been there for a while - mainly because it died. It's been nigh-on a twelve-month since anybody posted there - and even then it was only the one writer. Prior to that it was one story two years earlier and a year's gap to the one before that. Anyway there I was on Even Angels Fall and I read some of the prompts. As I did so I felt it - a plot-bunny nibbling at my brain. I thought "I can do something with that, In fact I think I can use that line and write a fic for a picture in a photo-challenge".

As it turned out I didn't write for that pic. (I'm still working on the prompt though). What happened was the prompt got me thinking and I looked at the photos - and wrote four fics for other pics.

Now I get it. *g*. Prompts kick-start your brain. I think I became a fan of prompts this week.

On to your updates. Nice bit of variety tonight - lots for you to read.

Ze

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