Writing exercise:
Write about a character that has one of the following occupations: a. Parrot Trainer b. Clock Radio Salesman c. CEO d. Writer of vampire fiction e. Plumber
I originally thought I would be all cheeky and make the subject matter all dark and noir-ish. But it didn’t really turn out like that. Perhaps the brothers in question are just too cheery and shiny to really twist in such a fashion? This may be a good example of how video games are a unique art unto themselves, not easily translated into other medium. Further proof can be found in nearly every video-game-to-movie adaptation.
Avoiding the names was pretty awkward.
Either way, oof, not sure I want to post this. It’s kind of embarrassing. Oh well. That’s what this blog is for. Wouldn’t be the first time. About 530 words of fail. Maybe I should have gone with parrot trainer. (more…)
It’s interesting how versatile the Western genre and the Western Hero archetype can be. You can put them in space, of course, and that’s been done very well on numerous occasions, from Outland to Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. I still have a bit of an itch to write one of those. But you can also do a lot of fun stuff with westerns right here on Earth. Western comics were big back in the ’50s, when nobody was really making superhero books, and of course that was their heyday on the big and small screens.
I wonder, has anyone done a western underwater?
Westerns have kind of made a comeback recently, with some fantastic movies and a few comics. I’m loving the new Lone Ranger comic, and I hear Zorro is quite good as well (both from Dynamite). There’s the fun Daisy Cutter series from Viper, one of which I picked up at a Free Comic Book Day a year or two ago. DC has Jonah Hex, supposedly one of their best titles at the moment. Marvel has a history of old western comics, like the Two-Gun Kid, Rawhide Kid, and Kid-Colt (sensing a theme here?), that they don’t really use anymore. It’s good stuff.
So here’s mine, the Dallas Damsel. No doubt her adventures will include aliens and steam-driven robots and mad scientists. Making her a red head kind of feels cliche, or at least wrong. I may change that. I dunno.
This was my first writing prompt of the month, and as I was chugging through it I realized I was revisiting my time traveling supervillain. I wrote a couple of little exercises about him a while back, then totally forgot about his existence. I changed his name (though I’m sure I’m not the first to use “Epoch” for a time-hopping bad guy), but otherwise he’s very similar, even hanging out with the same incompetent henchman. I realized when I reached the end that I should have written it from an entirely different point of view, which would have allowed for a really great ending and actually explained why Epoch was there to kill her to begin with. Oh well.
Prompt: Create a story using
- one of these settings: Luau, western bar, funeral, big city, construction site
- One of these people: comic book villain, DJ, poet, damsel in distress, business tycoon
- And one of these things/objects: nail polish, magic door knob, cancer, samurai sword, banana
(I played it a little loose with the requirements. About 600 words.)
(more…)
In my second semester of college, I took an International Human Rights class. That was a huge mistake, as I was in way over my head. But I liked the teacher, and really learned a lot throughout the course. Something we talked about quite a bit were NGOs, Non Governmental Organizations. These are the people who go in and actually get things done when some disaster strikes a country or something. One particular set of NGOs we looked at were human rights groups that embed someone in a fascist state with a likely political target. The idea is that having a foreign observer there, preferably with a camera, will be enough to deter the authorities from disappearing the target. I’m totally blanking on the names of these organizations at the moment.
This always seemed like a concept rife with story ideas. Why hasn’t anyone ever made a movie about this? So it’s always been an idea hanging out at the back of my mind. Of course, I’m an completely unqualified to write it using any sort of real places/politics, so I put it in space. Luckily, I think science fiction is versatile enough to handle it. No aliens, though, I would want to keep this as grounded and gritty as possible.
I really like this beginning, so I hope to expand this at some point. Just over 500 words. (more…)
I missed yesterday! I fail!
It’s cool. I was exhausted last night - we had the misfortune of coming across this lost dog, and, well, long story short, the evening ended with an epic chase for a good five or six blocks, which is way more running that I’ve done at one time in decades.
If I get a chance I’ll post about The Incredible Hulk tomorrow. I still need to write a Kung Fu Panda review for the newsletter at work.
Here’s a portion of today’s offering. (more…)
Whew!
This is a little piece that may turn into a Simon Temple, aka, Tenebrous, adventure. Tenebrous seemed pretty popular with my writing group, and I do have a certain fondness for him. But until now I haven’t really put much thought into more Tenebrous stories. What sort of villains would he normally face? What are his nightly patrols like? What drove him to his crusade against crime? I’ll want to address all these questions. I really enjoy writing about him simply interacting with his civilian peers.
Saw the Hulk today. I may chat about that some tomorrow.
EDIT July 1: Evidently someone who goes by Tenebrous (an online name I assume?) stumbled across this and suddenly I’m getting a tons of hits on this particular entry. In case any of you are curious, this Tenebrous character is featured in my superhero story “Shades of Red,” available over at the journal “A Thousand Faces.” (more…)
Whew! Just under the wire! I didn’t actually think I’d get anything done today. This was Hope’s birthday, so we were pretty busy.
I had a lot of fun writing this, though it is a bit rushed. I didn’t have time to research and come up with good names, so these are just what popped into my head. Here’s an excerpt; who knows, I might clean this one up and submit. (more…)
Not much to say about this one. I might expand it sometime. I like the whole concept of cities in unusual places, be it the moon or Mars or deep under the ocean. Simply setting a story in an exotic place like that forces your mind to come up with a whole new set of aesthetics and technologies.
As such, I’ve always thought the concept of Atlantis was awesome. I’ve never actually bothered to do much research into the actual Atlantis (though I think there’s not much to research, right? just a couple of references in ancient Greek texts or something?), but the possibilities are a lot of fun. Friend Erin has a good Atlantis story.
This is right at 500 words. (more…)
Did my writing early today. Weekends are always crazy busy around here, and this weekend is no exception. We’ll be having a little Mystery Science Theater Birthday Party for Kevin tonight (I don’t believe it is his 3,000th, though).
A few posts back I mentioned a new character for my superhero universe, Astro Jack. I envisioned him as a Superman-type hero from the ’40s and ’50s. So I thought I’d give him a little chance to breathe. I may expand this into a full-fledged story. It’s only a little over 500 words at the moment. (more…)
Just under the wire on this one. Inspired by some show we saw while waiting for Battlestar Galactica to come on. ~540 words (more…)
The year before last was my first attempt at NaNo. I jumped into NaNo with no real concept of what I was doing - I’d never even tried to write a novel before, and joined on pretty short notice. It was a fantasy steampunk sort of thing. I did a little world building and dove right in. I forget how much I wrote, maybe 8-10,000 words or so? I haven’t really thought about or done anything with the concept since then, so I thought I’d revisit that world just a little tonight. I had to dig up some old notes to try and remember some of the geography and names.
I still think the setting and concept has a lot of potential. Maybe sometime I’ll work on it some more. A little under 700 words. (more…)
