Melora Johnson's Muse

Camp NaNoWriMo Prompts

Here comes Camp NaNoWriMo! Are you participating? Are you going to try to win? Or, like me, are you just planning to write and see where you go? This July my plan, so far, is to write to a new prompt each day, shooting for a full story that is anywhere between 50 and 2,000 words. At the same time, I will be editing Biomalware, my work in progress, and plotting a novel that I want to write in August. Crazy, you say? Why, yes, thank  you for noticing. Care to join me? Aw, heck, here’s half my prompts for July, help yourself. I think they work whether you are writing short stories or just want to work one or more of them into your story. I’ll post the other half next week.

1. “Finally, a lie too big.” from Doctor Who – Write a story with a lie or series of lies and one that is simply too big to be believed.
2. A shaved bear is a scary creature, looks nothing like a bear and much like a werewolf in a modern fantasy/horror film. Have you seen that picture going around? Put one in your story somehow.
3. “In vain I have struggled, it will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must let me tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. Obsessive or passionate? You decide, then write it into your story.
4. “Why don’t guys ever look at me like that?” “Because, you’re never looking when they do.” Also, “The best feeling is when you look at him and he is already staring.” Two memes, don’t know where the quotes really come from. Perhaps lots of the first then the latter?
5. “Every villain is a hero in their own mind.” Write a story about a villain who truly believes he is doing the right thing.
6. “May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.” Irish blessing. Work forgetting and/or remembering into your story.
7. “Imagine meeting someone who understood even the dustiest corners of your mixed-up soul.” Is that good or scary? Put it in your story.
8. “Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology that you never got.” Sometimes people apologize without saying the words. Refusing to remember what they did so wrong, re-writing the past as in “I would never do that, or say that!” is agreeing with you that what they did was wrong and is an apology in a way. What other ways might people apologize without saying the words? Write it into your story.
9. “I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.” Write about a person who you never noticed or thought were one way then you find out they are totally different than you imagined. (Yes, I have someone particular in mind.)
10. “You and I are more than friends. We’re like a really small gang.” Thelma and Louise? Earl Had to Die? Write about two friends who decide to take the law into their own hands. Do they go too far?
11. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” Lena Horne. Two characters, same “load” – carrying it very differently. Go.
12. “I am the designer of my own catastrophe.” What mistakes can your character make? Make ’em BIG and messy.
13. “Always wear your invisible crown.” Someone attempts to humiliate your character but they hold their head high.
14. “Forgiving someone is easy, but being able to trust them again is a totally different story.” Can your character do it? Is the person worthy of being trusted again?
15. “I got hurt. Really hurt. And sometimes when that happens, something inside me shuts off.” I actually have had this experience, have you? Whether you have or haven’t, explore it in a story.