Plastic Lions & Fantastic Phantoms

I have a few ideas brewing for the long fic for the writerverse Phase 5 Table of Doom challenge. The prompts I thought I wanted to use straight away were "diary" and "Blitz" with "mystery" and "lies" following close behind.

Now I have begun to write a character's diary but rather than being the diary of someone who might be about to witness the Blitz, it's the diary of Nell, my main character from my Nanowrimo novel from around 1954/5. I might also write diary for members of Nell's family during the 1940s. That might give me a chance to revisit Erica, the flyer stuck on the Channel Islands during last year's Nanowrimo, as, at the point where I've started her diary, Nell has just met Erica's sister and presumes she is going to find out all about her mother and her mother's family.

( Rough possible beginning - Nell's diary )

I think I'm beginning to climb out of my post-nanowrimo writing slump. This is definitely due to a new phase starting over at writerverse and therefore brand new challenges to sink my teeth into. So far there's the first "Weekly Quick Fic" and the return of "the Table of Doom".

The "Table" is actually four lists of 25 prompts this time round and you choose one of those lists to try and complete. I've picked a list which has among its prompts "style: diary", "genre: mystery", "lies" and "event: The Blitz", so there's plenty for me to go at even out of just that lot. The main goal for this challenge is to write as many stories from the 25 prompts that it takes to add up to 10,000 words. One of things you can get bonus points for is writing one story that's 10,000 words. I'm thinking of challenging myself to that. 10K over three months seems a lot less daunting than nano's 50K in a month, but then there's all the research, planning and editing to do over the three months for this one as well.

I'm also on the lookout for prompts from other places as well. There's one from stayintheroom that I've had my eye on for a while:
( It's a list of words that have me thinking 'steampunk' every time I read through! )

There's also plenty of the start with/end with prompts at the same comm that I'd like to try my hand at as well. Hopefully I'll be able to make some brain storming and planning posts once I've finished sorting out my room. (I've just finished moving all my stuff over so it is a lot of sorting out!)

One of the challenges on the go at writerverse involves making a story out of three random words gerated here. That site's good for playing about with and I might challenge myself to make a story from a generated title, scenario, character names and descriptions and first line. If I make a little game of that perhaps I can get away from Erica and company a bit and let them decide who they are and what they want and only write about them when it feels right.

Anyway, my words were:

Bus stop
Traditional values
Shout

A few ideas that I got from the words:

A bus stop that isn't a bus stop anymore but simply a bench, perhaps a rather fetching one donated by a Dr De la Mare. Erica would feel guilty about sitting on it.

What if the person extolling the traditional values is not traditional themselves. It's possible they are both having affairs with German officers during the channel islands occupation.

An ensuing argument, or imagined argument restrained. Or a shout of joy perhaps to be away from the hypocritical bus stop companions.

Responding to this exercise to generate ideas for NaNoWriMo: http://nano-writers.dreamwidth.org/69062.html

wordplay of all kinds
incongruous images
silliness
rudeness

feeling lonely or seeing or thinking of someone who is lonely or frightened
feeling that people I know have changed
perhaps feeling that I've forgotten how to relate to people
the uncertainty of the future (two years at university and now I may be forced to pursue a different path)

friendships and relationships (romantic, intellectual and physical)
-loss and end of friendship
-forging friendships

loneliness and isolation

lighthouses
labyrinthine houses (haunted, of course)
sprawling secret passages
mirrors and reflections (long ago dream of my mum threatening to send me to the mirror garden)
automatons, robots, artificial intelligence, sentient computers
black holes and stars and space travel imagined and possible
weird time effects and time travel
mathematical mysteries
escher
quantum cat