Examples:
“Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Moulin Rouge and Call of Duty. The story should use tornadoes as a plot device.”
“Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Super Mario Bros. and Sherlock. The story should use a sex change operation as a plot device!”
“Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining South Park and Stephen King’s IT. The story should use getting sucked into the “real world” as a plot device.”
Excerpt:
”First step: either dump or spread out the description.
That’s right. If you’re all tense and in a battle, do you notice little details? Or would you notice that they’re about to hit you with their sword? I think it’s the latter…-. Tons of description will bog down your action. Use more description in more relaxed, lazy times! I’ll bring up the sunrise again. With that, if you want to paint an awe-inspiring scene of the sheer beauty and wonder, description is your uttermost friend! But in action, it is your worst enemy.Second step: better choice of words!
If the action is quick, use words that imply speed or rapidness! Fast-paced words are crucial in fast-paced action, because without them, there won’t be such a rapidness implied when the actions are done. Instead of hit, try strike. Glint – flash. Turned – whirled.
Third step: shorter sentences.
Subject – verb sentences are better for action. They’re faster than other sentences. Like your action should be. anis leapt into the air. He cleared the boulder easily. Eyes caught a flash of metal. Janis whirled to see a huge troll swinging a sword straight at the boy.Janis leapt backwards. His rapier countered the sword. Amazingly, the blade held up to the strength of the beast.
Next: short paragraphs!
If there’s something you wish to stress, make it into a teeny tiny paragraph of its own, usually one or two sentences. Doing that puts more tension and makes the short sentences work better. Attention is drawn to whatever you put into a small paragraph.
Next: congruity.
The short sentences don’t flow together well yet, because of so much repetition. It could be enhanced by changing the subject-verb pattern in a couple places, but don’t do it often, or you may ruin the effect.
Last: structure and fragments.
Sometimes you can have good wording, but if you change the word order, or make it a sentence fragment you will get the effect more. Yes, it may not be proper English, regrettably, but it can totally change your scene for the better. That is, if you do not overuse it. If you do overuse your fragments, your congruity will be totally ruined and the scene will be stumbled over by your readers.”
Examples:
- Growing up – pain or pleasure
- Hazards of passing judgment
- Heartbreak of betrayal
- Heroism – real and perceived
- Hierarchy in nature
- Identity crisis
- Illusion of power
“OneLook’s reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be a few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word. Just type it into the box above and hit the “Find words” button. Keep it short to get the best results. In most cases you’ll get back a list of related terms with the best matches shown first.”
Werewolf-lovers, eat your hearts out! Details for every full moon that took place, between the year 1900 and now—and for every full moon that will take place, between now and the year 2100.
Also try the Moon Phase Viewer—find the phase of the moon for any date from the 1800’s to the 2100’s or check out this page for fun moon facts.
“Our mythology encyclopedia features over 3,700 weird and wonderful Gods, Goddesses, Supreme Beings, Demons, Saints, Spirits… Browse the pantheons of the world, explore ancient myths, and discover Gods of everything from Fertility to Fluff with our Holy Database of All Known Gods…”
Learn about African, Australian, Aztec, Caribbean, Catholic, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnish, Greek, Incan, Indian, Japanese, Mayan, Mesopotamian, Middle-Eastern, Native American, Norse, Oceanic, Roman, Slavic and Baltic, South-American, South East Asian, and Tibetan gods.
(via ilovereadingandwriting)
Coolest writing-prompt resource on the web.
Shakespearian Insult Kit
Combine one word from each of the three columns below, prefaced with ‘Thou’:
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 artless base-court apple-john bawdy bat-fowling baggage beslubbering beef-witted barnacle bootless beetle-headed bladder churlish boil-brained boar-pig cockered clapper-clawed bugbear clouted clay-brained bum-bailey craven common-kissing canker-blossom currish crook-pated clack-dish dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb droning doghearted codpiece errant dread-bolted death-token fawning earth-vexing dewberry fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench frothy fen-sucked flirt-gill gleeking flap-mouthed foot-licker goatish fly-bitten fustilarian gorbellied folly-fallen giglet impertinent fool-born gudgeon infectious full-gorged haggard jarring guts-griping harpy loggerheaded half-faced hedge-pig lumpish hasty-witted horn-beast mammering hedge-born hugger-mugger mangled hell-hated joithead mewling idle-headed lewdster paunchy ill-breeding lout pribbling ill-nurtured maggot-pie puking knotty-pated malt-worm puny milk-livered mammet qualling motley-minded measle rank onion-eyed minnow reeky plume-plucked miscreant roguish pottle-deep moldwarp ruttish pox-marked mumble-news saucy reeling-ripe nut-hook spleeny rough-hewn pigeon-egg spongy rude-growing pignut surly rump-fed puttock tottering shard-borne pumpion unmuzzled sheep-biting ratsbane vain spur-galled scut venomed swag-bellied skainsmate villainous tardy-gaited strumpet warped tickle-brained varlot wayward toad-spotted vassal weedy unchin-snouted whey-face yeasty weather-bitten wagtail
“Solution: Be precise.
Examples:
Before: She had a bit of a crush on Johnny Depp.
After: She had a crush on Johnny Depp.Before: The tree was approximately ten feet tall.
After: The tree was ten feet tall.Before: She was kind of interested in seeing the movie.
After: She was interested in seeing the movie.”
“….Deranged- Mentally decayed. Insane. Crazy. Mad. Psychotic.
Disloyal- Lacking loyalty. Unfaithful, perfidious, traitorous, treasonable
Disability- A disadvantage or deficiency, especially a physical or mental impairment that interferes with or prevents normal achievement in a particular area. (List the disability or disabilities. Exp blind, missing limbs, deaf, color blind, no sense of smell, etc)….”
(via ilovereadingandwriting)
