official website of Erin M. Klitzke, historian and author of Awakenings and Epsilon: Broken Stars
Another Sunday, a new week dawning. Today’s prompt is another using Kim Freimoeller’s Inspiration Dice.
Prompt type: Genre, setting, character, and plot seed
Prompt: A children’s (or young adult) story where a villain’s gift proves…surprising.
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Happy Saturday!
Today brings a new prompt type (a character–specifically, your antagonist/villain–development prompt) and this one’s got a little bit of a backstory.
When I wrote the original (and I mean the original original) draft of what became the main line of the Epsilon universe (the stories with Aaron Taylor and Caren Flannery), I had put together a really awful villain. The only thing interesting about him was that he was Aaron Taylor’s father and Aaron hated him with every fiber of his being. He was a cardboard cutout of a mustache-twirling villain you see in parodies and bad B-movies. As I matured as a writer (and an individual), I got to thinking: how the hell did Aaron Taylor’s sweet, loving mother end up having her son with a man that turned out to be some kind of monster by the end of my original story? The more I thought about it, the deeper I had to climb into Daniel Taylor’s head–and the more I learned about my “villain.” As it turns out, everything Daniel does is motivated by love.
I had a similar arc in developing the Drilin Imperium for the same universe. The more I explored their history and development and moved away from the simple “evil empire” concept, the more I began to realize what motivated the people at the very highest levels of power and the deepest levels of conspiracy inside of what used to be the Earth Federation. E-Fed was transformed from a Federation of worlds to a shell of its former self because of simple fear.
These types of thought processes bring me to today’s prompt, which is designed to help you develop your antagonists/villains for your own novels and stories.
Prompt Type: Character Development
Prompt: Think about your antagonist/villain and what motivates them. Boil it down to one vice or virtue–love, greed, envy, fear, hope, etc.–that drives what they do.
Now change it up. How would your villain be different if love motivated them? Write a character sketch or scene detailing how love motivates the actions of your antagonist/villain.
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Happy Friday, folks!
Time for another prompt.
Prompt Type: Image
Prompt:
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
I don’t know about all of you, but I spent a lot of time in high school and college being exposed to historical documents, both in their original languages and in translation. One of the documents that I spent a lot of time with during both of those periods of my life is where today’s prompt comes from.
Prompt Type: Craft a scene
Prompt: Recreate the passage below in a new context–or in the same context, with characters imagined into the scene. Feel free to modify any gender, terminology, or name as needed.
The next day, early in the morning, he sent both foot-soldiers and horse in three divisions on an expedition to pursue those who had fled. These having advanced a little way, when already the rear [of the enemy] was in sight, some horse came to Caesar from Quintus Atrius, to report that the preceding night, a very great storm having arisen, almost all the ships were dashed to pieces and cast upon the shore, because neither the anchors and cables could resist, nor could the sailors and pilots sustain the violence of the storm; and thus great damage was received by that collision of the ships.
Text is from Caesar’s Gallic Wars, translation provided by The Internet Classics Archive, http://classics.mit.edu/index.html
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Happy Hump Day to all the 9-5ers in the world. Time for another jolt to your creativity.
Prompt type: Music prompt
Prompt:
Song is “Building a Mystery” by Sarah McLachlan. Video courtesy of YouTube.
This particular song is near and dear to my heart because without it, I never would have come up with Hadrian Bridger, one of the main characters in the Lost Angel Chronicles.
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
It’s Tuesday, one day closer to Friday.
Prompt for today is something new, something to help you with character development. Hopefully, it’ll be helpful for some (or all)!
Prompt Type: Character History
Prompt: Take the main character from your current project (if you have multiple projects or multiple mains, pick the one you feel like you know the least about right now) and imagine what they were doing ten years ago. Write a scene set in that time period and see where it takes you.
With any luck, you may be able to incorporate what you’ve just learned about your character in your current project.
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.
Happy Sunday! Another image prompt for you today. I have loved this picture since I snapped it a few years ago. Hopefully, you’ll find it inspiring!
Prompt type: Image
Prompt:
Got a suggestion for a prompt? Contact Erin at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.