Why Would I Write

Category: Writing (Prompts)

  • Special


    Downtime by SeerLight

    The night is my escape. The cool breeze and moonlight my companions. Distant chatter, feet on pavement, wheels on roads – a soothing soundtrack to accompany the scene of my favorite movie, one I try to watch every night.

    I sit on this ledge. It is dangerous but it is also where I feel the most safe. Away from everybody out there. I enjoy this solitude. I don’t have to talk to anybody, and nobody has to talk to me. It is bliss.

    There is no reason to leave. Up here, I don’t have to worry about a thing. Nobody can see me. Nobody can reach me. Just a fly on a wall, watching the world go by. I like it very much.

    The funny thing is, this isn’t even my apartment. I don’t belong here. Maybe one day when I make enough money, I’ll buy this place. Then I can stay here all night long. However, a part of me thinks that if I could come here all the time, it wouldn’t be so special anymore. I wouldn’t treasure every moment out here. Are things special only because we can’t have them all the time?

    Oh dear, I’m starting to doubt the eminence of this place. That isn’t good. I thought I’d never find a lookout point better than this one. Now I’m starting to have second thoughts. What is wrong with me? I thought I was free from all those problems. I clear my thoughts and take a deep breath. I focus on the view again. I take it all in one more time.

    The night is my escape. I make my way down the fire escape and wander off into the darkness. It’s time to return to the world. It’s time to head back home.

    Writing Prompt from Reddit: Downtime

  • Peace of Mind


    Peace of Mind by andreasrocha

    I dropped my backpack and sword to the ground and fell to my knees. The view was glorious. Up here, the air was fresher. The leaves were greener. The rocks – rockier. The tranquil silence complemented by the sound of rushing water in the distance. The Waterfall of Ages was a sight to behold. After days of trudging through mud, sludge and feces, this brief respite was heaven-sent.

    I was on a mission to rescue a princess from a tribe of forest trolls, and it was taking a lot longer than expected. They had managed to escape with her when they abandoned their temporary camp after they heard that I was on their heels. Their tracks continued on towards the waterfall – a once sacred site for the forest elves, it had been abandoned for decades and was now known as a safe haven for the scum of the forest. Until today, nobody ever visited the area unless they were outcasts, on the hunt for drugs, or both.

    I drank from my canteen and got up to my feet. I wanted to make more progress before night fall, I had to find a place to rest before those nocturnal bastards came out looking for me. I picked up my backpack and slung my sword over my shoulder. It was time to make a move.

    writing prompt from Reddit: Peace of Mind

  • World Building

    There’s a reason why I usually write fiction set in our world. I’m not very good at creating new worlds. Somehow I find the task of creating a new planet/city/location an extremely daunting task. I mean, it’s alright if it’s realistic fiction – you don’t have to establish anything. But when it comes to a make-believe world, you have to establish rules for everything. Even things that might not directly appear in your story need to be fleshed out. Like for example, we want monsters in a world. How did these monsters appear? Were they creatures from another planet? If yes, what brings them? Are they hostile/peaceful? How do the characters interact with them? What are their abilities? How do they look like? Do they drive the plot? Are they just sub characters? If the monsters were from the planet, how did they come about? Did they evolve naturally from other creatures? Have they just been there all along? Are they tamed? Do they speak? What do they do in the story?

    There’s a lot of things to think about – and that was just one example. In a complete story you’d probably have way more elements than that. The name of the city. Its layout. The people living in it. The political/economical situation. The period. The characters. The food. The vehicles. They all need an explanation. If not written down, you should at least have some rough guidelines for them in your head. Because every time something monster-related needs to be written, those questions probably need to be answered.

    When writing realistic fiction, you don’t have to do any of that. Maybe you explain your characters and the situation/place that they are in. There’s really not much else to do, you can just tell the story. People are already familiar with how human beings work. It’s not something that needs to be explained. Which is why I’ve been writing realistic fiction, or at least fiction set in established worlds. Also, it’s much easier to draw from real-life experiences if the setting is realistic. I can easily retell a story of my life in a character’s perspective without worrying if it would fit the world.

    World building is something I need to work on. I have trouble coming up with fictional settings and names for those places (I faced those challenges doing my two Nanowrimos). I need to read more and pay attention to how people write their worlds. I could pick up a lot of tips.