Quill And Ink Challenges

Hello, I'd like to show off one of my communities (don't want to SPAM too much, so I'm advertising only the community that's still pretty much alive ;)).
quote_inspired is a multifandom challenging community which is supposed to inspire fanworks by quotes from other fandoms. Prompts are posted few times a month so there's plenty to choose from. Everything is explained here in the first post and in the rules.

I hope you'll come and join us, especially since I just posted new and fresh list of quotes !

I really am trying to get back on track with posting prompts every two weeks. Sure, you wouldn't know it by looking at the community, but stick with me a little longer. I just bought a house and moved, so now that we're getting settled, I'm hoping things will get easier.

The Current Writing Prompts

1. Story Starters - Use the following sentence to start a story: Out of the corner of my eye…

2. Word Soup - Use the following words IN ORDER in a story: bemused, dexterous, cerebral, ciao, hotdog

3. Getting to Know Your Characters - Your character comes upon a fork in a road and has no idea where to go. How does he feel? Which road does he take and why? What's at the end of the road? (courtesy of Creative Writing Solutions)

4. Cliché Play - Today’s cliché is amnesia. Write a story around this cliché.

5. Keys to Plotting - Take a book you’ve recently read and loved, and create an outline based on the story that unfolds. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of how to plot out your own story.


Note: As always, if you have any prompts, feel free to email/comment. Also, if you know of any writing contests/challenges/etc going on, please share.

So, uh, maybe every other *Wednesday* will be the day I post the prompts.

Prompts & Exercises

Legendary Stories - Choose an urban legend from www.snopes.com and turn it into a horror movie. Think about your characters and the setting and write at least one scene from this movie.

Letters To-and-From Your Characters - Take one of your characters and have them write a letter home talking about an important event in his/her life and then write the response for his/her parents.

Plot Provided - Use the following plot in your story: Following the trail of several terrible murders, a London detective stumbles upon an unlikely clue when he makes an impulsive visit to Stonehenge.

Dialogue Only - Write a scene, in dialogue only, between two clerks working at a convenience store during a storm

Story Starters - Start a scene/story with the line, “I rarely get what I want, so I don’t know why I expected this to be any different.”


( Currently challenges-contests-communities )

I'm currently hosting a week of drabble-a-thons that's running Monday through friday, with different themes for each day. As it's open to any and all fandoms/pairings, including original fiction, I thought some of you might be interested.

It's multifandom and there are already a few prompts to get things started.

Today's theme: cliches

I'm a few days late with the bi-weekly updates and I apologize. Battling a stomach flu.

Current Prompts

1. Coloring In the Words - Open a new document (or a new page in a notebook) and write down a color at the top. For fifteen minutes write about the color. Don't worry if you end up focusing on your favorite red kite or go off on a tangent. No self-editing.

2. Memories... - Write about one of your character's memories of a holiday-gone-wrong.

3. Getting Started - Use the following line to start a story/ficlet: "For God's sake, don't touch that!"

4. Small Goals - Make the goal to write one good sentence.

5. Dealing With Description - Use shadows to describe ann action indirectly, through how it looks on the ground or against a wall.


Current Challenges

Fic Finishing - sign-ups until August 12th - for Numb3rs, Criminal Minds, Heroes, Blood Ties, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Bones, NCIS, Supernatural, Charmed, Blake's 7, Veronica Mars, Psych and Miracles.

Pirates of the Caribbean prompt fest - stories due by September 5th

Alter-Ego Ficathon: Wave 2 - Pick Your Genre - sign-ups until September 1st

Numb3rs Write Off: Round 10 - sign-ups until August 7th - Numb3rs

Villains Ficathon - sign-ups until August 15th - Farscape

I think we'll try Critique Week again in the fall, when more people are around. In the meantime, you're always welcome (and encouraged) to post writing for help or your work on prompts.

The Daily Prompts

1. Character Work. - What's your character's birthday? Take your character's horoscope for the day and write a scene around it.

2. Fill In the Blanks - Use this as a first sentence, filling in an event and go from there. Seven Days Ago,_________________________. Now, nobody will talk to me.

3. Plot Provided. - Write a scene/story around the following: A family disappaers while on family vacation.

4. Word Soup. - Use the following five words, IN ORDER, in a scene story: morning, horrible, soap operas, tangent, apple

5. Description Is In the Details - Grab a sheet of paper and write down ten words to describe an early morning. Then write the scene of an early morning WITHOUT using those ten words.

I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart
Paper roses paper roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation
Like your imitation love for me
Like your imitation love for me--Paper Roses by Anita Bryant

 

"I love you."

"I love him. I love him. I love him. I love him."

"I get it!"

"Sometimes, I lay on this porch and scream it. I sit on the rocking chair often and think about him. A lot, lately. Mostly, since you came around."

"Tabitha I-"

"He calls me Tab, you know?"

"No. I didn't know...Why do you make me waste my time then?"

"Sorry, to be wasting your time Robert."

"That's not right. You're not wasting it. You're just ocupying it. Oh, I don't know. I really like you. And-And it seems I'm just occupying your time too. Till he shows up."

"Oh, dont you mean if he shows up? If."

"My cousin was drafted. You wanna know what he said to me before he left? They'll get you too. Not 'Good-bye, I might never see you again', not 'I love you, man. I'll write a little.' Just, 'They'll get you too.' Bastard walked away after that. I hope his mother gets a box full of Tommy and an American flag. Don't look at me like that, Tabitha! I don't have anyone close like you do over there! Just Tommy and out of the 20 years I've known him I've only seen him 8 times!"

"I bet he's scared but won't let on."

"Who? Tommy? Tommy's an asshole."

"No. Not him. His father forced him to join, you know."

"Did he have a gun to his head? Much like what is probably being done to him right now."

"Do you know his father? Do you know? Do you?"

"No, Tabitha. But it-"

"No, that's right, you don't. Sometimes, my grandma talks about his family. How is parents were shitty to him. How they always forced him to do something or other. I bet the only thing they really didn't give him shit about was his job. But they spoke about it behind his back. I guess they didn't tell him to his face, 'cause they figured it was all he was worth. Just a bagger at the market. He was a good bagger though."

"The way you smile when you talk about him, it hurts Tabitha. More than a bullet, but then I guess I wouldn't know. He would though, wouldn't he?"

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe someone will set him on fire."

"..So are we going to stand on this porch all night long? We can still go to a movie, or maybe just out to eat. I heard-"

"Go home. Then call me."

"What will we talk about? Not about him...please. Anything, but him."

"Go."

"..."

"Robert. I love you."

"..."

 

 [offtopic=LJcut]Please excuse me, I don't know how to do LJ cuts. Help me, LOL
[ontopic=scene]Critique, freely. :]

 

 

So we can post whatever stories we like on here? Or do I have to follow some kind of weekly topic? 

So only one person has posted so far! let's get to posting (any type of writing) and helping each other out. I'm hoping to post a snippet of my latest original piece tonight. I figure if I take the plunge, maybe some of you will follow suit.

Also, if you get a few moments, please try to provide some advice/help to those who've put themselves out there!

Thanks!

Enjoy critique week and happy writing!

Hey everyone! Critique Week begins now and will end at approximately 8:30pm EST on Saturday, July 19th.

Feel free to post whatever you're currently working on that you'd like some opinions/edits/etc. on. Be specific about the sort of feedback you're looking for. For example, if you post a snippet from a novel you're working on and just want to know how readers respond to characters, etc. Let us know.

If it's lengthy, let people know ahead of time and be sure to cut-tag to spare everyone's friends list. If it's original work, be sure to friends lock the entry so that only members have access to it.

( a sample post... )

Trolls and flaming will NOT be tolerated. I'm not afraid to ban you and I have moderated membership for a reason. Plus, it's just not nice to try to stomp on someone putting themselves out there for help. On the flip side, writers, please remember that constructive criticism is what this week is all about. If you're not sure you can handle it, think really hard if you want to post yet (and if writing for public consumption is for you).

Leave any questions you have and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Happy Writing (And Critiquing!)!

P.S. - In honor of this week, I'm going to try to post some extra prompts so that people might want to share basic things like, "This is an example of my description...ideas for how to make it better." (That will be me.)