Category: Motus Impulsores

Writing prompts, thoughts on characters, and other such ideas about writing. Also news relating specifically to guiding role play on the server.

Fighting for your Author in a Coma

A writer slips into a coma, all of the characters in their head are fighting to keep them alive.

The prompt here is simple. The concept of an entire world taking place all inside the mind has been done in movies before. In particular the movie Identity from 2003 which explores one possible scenario. Another movie with this idea is Sucker Punch from 2011 showing an entirely different concept of the world inside the mind.

A writer slips into a coma, all of the characters in their head are fighting to keep them alive.

How would this work? What would this look like? Would the characters be aware? Where does your creative thought go with this?

Writing Prompt: Frozen Gate

We’re going to try to get back into writing prompts again; I do hope everyone likes it. There is no contest with this one, but I would like everyone to participate.

The usual applies; there are no limits on what can be written. This can be cute, funny, vulgar, dark, angry, or anything in between any of it. Whatever floats your boat to write and of any length everyone feels comfortable. This should be consider a rough-rough-rough draft as well so don’t try to make it perfect, just get some ideas out there.

This image comes from Deviant Art, see the image page itself for citation.

What’s going on here? – A Writing Prompt

I have really liked some of the text which has come as a result of our writing prompts!  This is a little different, this scene is (of course) from the 2nd episode of Star Trek the Original Series ever to be recorded, the so-called 2nd pilot.  I chose a scene that is intentionally ambiguous where many of the characters present are not present in the show as it was known or not formed into the mold which they later became.

For this writing prompt, I’d like people to answer the question:  “What is going on here?”

What do I mean?  I mean, I’d like people to consider what could be going on in the scene, who these people are, what are they thinking, saying, what are they about to do?  Is it a normal day?  How about the start of an adventure that will change them?  Perhaps it is the end after they’ve saved the day!  Maybe they haven’t made it out yet.

We’ve got some new players and I encourage them to submit something.  No approvals required here, for those that aren’t familiar with this — you may use any character from anywhere just be creative and have fun.  There are no wrong answers.

Ghostly Writing Prompt

So in coming up with the new monsters for the Embers of Soteria Setting and what they looked like I ran across a lot of images of ghosts and the like, most of which are clearly really bad photoshop stuff. The image here is no exception, but I like the image none the less.

I’m inviting everyone to look at this image and create a paragraph or more about it, what’s going on there? Who are the ghosts? Is someone watching them go down the paved road? Is another ghost watching them? Are they really ghosts or is this a Scooby Doo scenario? Just… Go fun places with it.

Writing Prompt – Resurrection City from 1968

So this photo is a bit different, it is historical rather than abstract or fictitious. I would like to encourage people to consider taking this photo both in and out of context. The original article from the New York Times is from February 18th, 2017 and is about an attempt by Martin Luther King Jr. to confront the power structure with the poverty of the country.

Now, there is a lot of context that goes with the image, beyond that there is a lot of power in the image itself. The painted words juxtaposed with the nature of what else is in the photo and plywood walls set up by tents. There is also context of the general time in history this comes from, the late 60’s while King was still alive. There are a lot of places to go here, I encourage people to think a moment and pick a direction and just write about it, see where it takes you.

Character Development Prompt

So rather than the usual image to do whatever with, I’d like to provide this image here and suggest that people write a short paragraph or two about who this person is from what they see. There is no setting or other parameters just, this face, and what do you think the person that has that face is like, who are they, what are they doing, what kind of personality do they have?

Writing Prompt Image

So, since the lyrical writing prompt didn’t really work I’ve switched back to an image as the writing prompt. Now there are a lot of obvious things that can go with this one, so I’d like to encourage everyone to respond but try to think outside the box and play around with the loads of information the image doesn’t specify.

As always, have some fun with it.

A Lyrical Writing Prompt

So rather than an image this time, I’d like to do a lyrical prompt, this comes from the song Off to the Races by Lana Del Rey, one of my personal favorites. I would suggest to people to not be tied to the song itself, the artist is clearly painting a vivid picture of a certain kind of relationship. However, don’t be concerned with straying away from that and into the realm of places one can take the verse itself on its own merit.

Because I’m crazy, baby
I need you to come here and save me
I’m your little scarlet starlet
Singing in the garden
Kiss me on my open mouth

For those that want it, here is the original song.

Successful Writing Prompts

So far my foray into writing prompts has been successful, so we’re going to keep doing it. As such, I’ve created a new category on the site blog, Motus Impulsores, which is Latin for “Sources of Inspiration” (at least according to Google Translate). Most everyone here has had substantial improvement in their writing and I’m so happy to see that taking place. Moving forward, this category is going to be used for when we’ve got news or other such information relating to writing and role playing as a method of collaboration.

I’m enjoying seeing what everyone comes up with and I look forward to seeing where the community goes moving forward.

Thank you all.