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    3 Years of Ideas
    3 Years of Ideas
    3 Years of Ideas
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    3 Years of Ideas

    By Graham Barr and Katrina Barr

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    About this ebook

    Whether it's writer's block, tiredness or a good old-fashioned lack of ideas, every writer at one time or another goes blank. These prompts are designed to help you overcome that problem, to get those fingers or that pen moving once again.

    In this book, you'll find an idea a day for three years (including a leap year!), covering the genres of horror, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, comedy, mystery & crime, kids & YA, plus poetry and non-fiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGraham Barr
    Release dateOct 14, 2015
    ISBN9781519915634
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      Book preview

      3 Years of Ideas - Graham Barr

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior permission of the authors. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information in this book, the authors assume no responsibility for and errors or omissions, or liability for any damages that may result from the use of the information contained within.

      ––––––––

      This edition first published 2015

      Dedicated to M.

      Now get on with it!

      Introduction

      Once upon a time . . . there was a writer who didn't know how to complete their project. Sitting in front of their computer or tablet, or maybe they had a notebook open on their lap, tapping a pen on their teeth. For hours, they'd thought: how do I fill this blank space?

      That blankness becomes a void, a trap for the brain, sucking thoughts into nothingness. The writer starts to hate the blank page. Why is it just sitting there? Doesn't it know it's meant to be filled with words? And, for that matter, why are their hands doing nothing? Those fingertips should be dancing over the keys easily; that pen or pencil should be scratching on the paper as if possessed.

      Whether it's writer's block, tiredness or a good old-fashioned lack of ideas, every writer at one time or another goes blank. These prompts are designed to help you overcome that problem, to get those fingers or that pen moving once again.

      There are enough prompts here to give you an idea a day for three years (including a leap year).

      We hope they inspire you!

      Using This Book

      Within the following pages, you'll find groups of ideas designed to give you a starting point for various genres and types of writing. Even though this is how we've chosen to present them, don't feel bound or constrained by the section headers.

      If you see a prompt designed for a horror writing project, why not give it a twist and see how it would apply to a romance story, or a poem? You might be asked to write as yourself, but there's no need to if that's not your style. There are no hard and fast rules for how to apply these prompts to your writing, just browse at your leisure and see what you can use, in your own way.

      The same goes for any current projects you might have – turn a poem into a screenplay, give your news article a fictional angle to see if it changes your writing style for the better. Ideas are fluid, so drink of them deeply, as someone once said (probably).

      And above all else - good luck!

      Graham & Katrina Barr

      Somewhere in the wilds, 2015

      Horror Prompts

      1) Your dying aunt hates animals, but there's a cat living in her house and it doesn't want to leave. What is it doing there?

      2) The bus stop at the end of the cul-de-sac is out of use, but two old people keep waiting there, every Sunday. Write from the bus driver's perspective as he/she finally comes to pick the couple up. Is it a real bus? Where is it going, and why?

      3) You survive a terrible plague, only to discover that you were the cause, and the other survivors want to kill you for it.

      4) A scraping sound wakes you. There's nothing at the window. Nobody at the door. You take a drink of water from your glass. Something scrapes against the side as you tilt the glass to your lips.

      5) Some of the trees in the forest are brown; soft and rotting. Some look healthy. The branches reach out. Nobody goes near them, unless they don't know the story.

      6) Two teens can't stop listening to their favourite song. What happens when they do? What was it doing to their brains?

      7) A Punch & Judy show owner loses the baby puppet for his show. He needs to replace it, but has no money for a new one. What else can he do?

      8) Three children go into detention, but the teacher never arrives. They find her body in the hall. The doors are locked.

      9) Trapped inside your own brain, you try to fight against another consciousness that's invaded your body, making you do terrible things.

      10) An all-organic restaurant is actually serving human flesh. Where do the owners get their meat supplies from?

      11) A spirit haunts three friends. They believe it's the ghost of a man they killed, but it's something worse. Something that wants them to kill again.

      12) Your eyes won't close. Describe the moment you discover this.

      13) A robot designed to perform surgery malfunctions during a heart transplant.

      14) Werewolves attack a lunar landing mission.

      15) A victim of alien abduction is brought in and tested by the government in a secret facility. . . which is exactly what the aliens wanted to happen. Once the human is cut open, the spores inside silently infect the scientists.

      16) Each exorcism Lily goes through just opens the door for a newer, more powerful demon to invade her. She's on her third exorcism now, and the thing that waits for her body to be empty is growing impatient.

      17) Nobody remembers your name. Just like that, overnight. Nobody will believe that you're who you say you are.

      18) Standing on the ledge of a building, feeling the wind trying to shake you loose, you reconsider suicide. But someone else is on the roof with you, and they want you to die. Can you talk them out of killing you?

      19) Worms are feasting on your body. They buried you, but you're not dead! You're a zombie, but you can feel everything! Describe everything; your hunger, your escape from the grave.

      20) Two siblings go to a comic book convention as their favourite characters. Another pair of convention goers become obsessed with them, stalks them all the way home. They like how the siblings look out of their costumes. They want to be them.

      21) Mummies in a museum come to life after artifacts from their tomb are stolen. They want to take back what is theirs, and will kill anyone who gets in their way. Write from the perspective if the thieves, learning about the oncoming horror through other people's encounters and news reports. How do the thieves plan to stop this supernatural horror?

      22) A late night TV show airs only once, and is banned from the airwaves due to thousands of complaints. As the people who watched the show begin dying in complicated ways, the police track down the director, blaming him for the atrocities. What they discover is a band of evil cultists, bent on destroying humanity in the name of their dark master.

      23) A young husband finds that for every good thing that happens in his life, another must suffer. With each piece of luck, the suffering gets closer to home.

      24) Doctor hears the voices of his patients, kills them to keep them quiet, and himself sane. But the voices keep talking.

      25) Addicted to

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