As the title says. I actually completed a full version of this prompt yesterday and decided to scrap it and start over. I like this version more. I may have a “rejects for your amusement” post after I’ve gone through all ten prompts.
I can’t draw horses or unicorns, so I did this really quickly to cover. Also, I couldn’t decide what colour a two-headed unicorn would be and settled on dusty pink!
UPDATE: I found the original art appallingly amateurish and have removed it. That’s what I get for using my imagination only!
UPDATE #2: Added the manes, which I originally forgot. I’m not a unicorn expert, what can I say.
Here’s a new version, using an actual horse as reference, done in my Bird Art™ style:
UPDATE, October 1, 2023. This has not yet happened, but I’m thinking about it again less than a year later, which is less hopeless than usual in terms of “Will this actually happen?” So there’s that!
Yeah, nearly every promise I’ve made about writing I’ve broken in some way or other, but every time I come across some goofy old story I’ve written (usually based on a prompt or ridiculous high concept) I’ve always found things that delight me. Perhaps I’m just excellent at delighting myself.
But I’m going to try to write more of these. Plus, I think writing is just a good way to keep my mind nimble, to constantly force myself to write “its” when the entire internet is writing “it’s.”
What made me think of this was recalling that I had written a short-short story about that classic concept: Going back in time and killing Hitler, but imagining it from the perspective of a not-incredibly bright barista.
When I finally also do that other thing I always promise to do but never quite pull off, namely the redesign of this very blog, I’m going to collect all these short stories and fiction bits (mmm, fiction bits) so they can be easily accessed and enjoyed and/or wept over. Stay tuned!
I started doing the #makingarteveryday prompts again in January, but took a bit of a break when I was spending a lot of time on art for game projects. By the time I was ready to come back, I found that the prompts had gone off in a wacky new direction, with some kind of journal thing (see here for details). I think this is great and shows some real creativity (and hard work) on the part of Lisa Bardot–but it’s just not what I want to do right now.
And so I have resumed my DDP1Daily Drawing Prompt quest once again. As you may or may not know, certain commercial interests have basically turned any web search for “best of” lists into a blasted, apocalyptic wasteland of sites designed only for SEO and serving ads to you, in the same way Homer was served donuts in Hell. Except if Homer didn’t ironically turn out to enjoy it.
For reference
Trying to find a decent prompt site can be challenging.
There is a site not surprisingly registered to drawingprompt.com. This is what I first saw:
And now I have the image of a Toast Human stuck in my head.
Which might not make for a bad prompt, really.
The site has you click on subjects to generate prompts. It’s like a game where everyone wins or something.
(I don’t know what an Instagram Posers prompt would look like. I’m not sure if I want to know.)
I’ve checked a few other sites and there’s always the weekly Inktober prompts, though weekly is not daily, unless I just draw a tiny bit of the prompt every day over the course of a week. I could always just come up with my own prompts (my brain hurts just having typed that out), or devise a method for generating random prompts, which feels like work and is therefore yuck.
I’m going to give myself a deadline to come up with a plan. That deadline will be:
Sunday, March 20, 2022
This is also the first day of spring, so a good time for fresh commitments!
I did not do a writing prompt as promised. I am bad. But I did read a bunch more of the prompts, so that’s progress of a sort. Let me amend my original goal to “I will do a prompt in the next few days and then every day after for a total of two weeks.”
That seems reasonable. I think I can do it. I just need to focus. Focus focus focus. Focus. And not be a liar.
I’m about to find out. I just picked up the book 5,000 Writing Prompts (Goodreads link) by Bryn Donovan, in an attempt to grease the wheels or whatever metaphor you prefer to get my writing rolling/moving/something other than very still and quiet again.
The book is divided into convenient sections and so far I like the little tidbits she adds to a lot of the prompts, noting stories that have used the same ideas, which are especially popular (and why) and more.
She suggests an exercise to pick a random prompt every day and spend 15 minutes writing something based on it, then repeating this for two weeks, to better build or rebuild the writing habit.
I’m going to try this starting today because why not? Because I’m reading the ebook version, I’m going to go with a high-tech solution for randomly picking a prompt, since they are numbered, by using a random number generator. It’s almost like having the internet write the story for me, or something.
Anyway, the first result will be ready later today, or else I’m a big fat liar.
Ever gotten sick and wanted to complain endlessly about being sick to everyone around you, but realized that no one wants to hear you complain, you big loser baby and keep back, I’m going on vacation in two days?
Here are a set of writing prompts just for you. Enjoy!
There are 500 words for “desert” in Swahili or something. Maybe it’s snow? Whatever. Make up 500 words for all the phlegm caught in your throat.
Write a day in the life of a cough drop. Make it a noir thriller.
Who doesn’t love lists? Very bad people, that’s who. Write a list of all the fun, crazy things you would be doing if you weren’t so sick no one wants to even call you, let alone get anywhere near you.
If you could cure one common virus, which would it be? Write your response as a PowerPoint presentation.
Flu is not a four letter word. But if it was, what word would it be? Keep it family friendly.
You’re the body guard for the Queen and you have to keep her from catching a cold. Write your adventures in keeping Her Majesty healthy using iambic pentameter.
Write a love letter to your favorite head cold. No, that’s dumb. Don’t do that. Write a poem about your worst head cold. Use the words “I”, “wish”, “was” and “dead.”
Hospitals are a great place to pick up germs and get sick. Ironic, ain’t it? Write a short story about one person’s attempts to stay healthy while in a hospital. Make it a Broadway musical.
Apparently Vancouver set a record for low temperatures in February and I can vouch that it was pretty chilly for this particular patch of the planet. What better way to celebrate (?) than a bunch of questionable cold weather writing prompts.
It’s said there are 500 ways to say “snow.” Come up with another 500.
Write an action adventure about a snowman caught in a hothouse. Throw in some vampires, too.
Imagine you were caught up in the mountains during a raging blizzard. That would really suck. You’d probably die or lose all your hands and feet or something. So write a romantic comedy featuring anthropomorphized raccoons instead.
List 10 things to do with snow and hard liquor
Write a story where one night a magical frost gnome appears and grants you anything you want, as long as it rhymes with frost
The first time Betty went ice skating she fell and fell and fell. She just couldn’t skate. Everyone laughed! But Betty wouldn’t let others get her down. She practised and practised and got better and better. Then she got got run over by a Zamboni on the night of her Olympics competition. Write the story as a safety brochure on Zamboni driving.
Actually, Canada, I just like riffing on “French Kissing in the USA” whenever possible, because it’s a goofy little song.
It’s been awhile since I’ve done any real brainstorming, but I love lists, I have a brain and it’s often stormy in these parts, so I have all the ingredients in place.
The goal here is to plant a few (dozen) seeds and see if any of them grow into big beautiful stories or writing exercises while I ponder other projects.
Here we go.
a story based on the song “Eat to the Beat”
what if they really are lizard people?
three wishes/Invisible Weekend redux: getting to try out as a shapeshifter or some kind of shapeshifter story
worst superpower ever
a talking duck (walks into a bar?)
when the line between waking and dreams blurs completely–how risky do you become in your actions?
a monster that feeds on hope and optimism (no, not Trump)
angry trees
the world is suddenly depopulated by 99.6% (30.4 million people–about 7 million less than the population of Canada)
getting stuck in the past
a bar walks into a man
a haunted playground
a Stage 4 cancer patient acquires a time machine–can traveling to the future lead to a cure?
seeing a person on the train, but only as a reflection in the window
The next task: pick one of these and turn it into a lovingly handcrafted tale of thrills and adventure that tugs at the heartstrings (which sounds pretty unhealthy when you think about it).
