Weekend Writer: April Prompts

Hey all, Sam here.

All right. I’m going to keep today’s post short and sweet. I didn’t want the post to become overly long, and so I’m doing a bonus Weekend Writer post this week, and that will be the Chapter 6 deep dive of The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings by Paula Munier. So that will be up on Sunday.

Okay, welcome back to Weekend Writer, and if you haven’t been here before, every Friday I do a post focused on creativity and writing. The first Friday of each month I will be sharing a few different random prompts to hopefully spark some inspiration that will lead you towards creative endeavors for the month. Then, on the last Friday of the month, I share some of what I’ve been working on through the month, and I invite you all to share some of what you’ve been working on as well.

The other Fridays of the month, I dive deep into an element of creativity and inspiration and creative writing, or I go through a section of a book on the craft of writing. For the past month or so, that has been The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings by Paula Munier. But I’ll be moving into a new book starting next month…and I’m still trying to figure out which book will be next.

So if there’s any particular book from these that you’d like to see me dive into next, let me know in the comments.

All right, let’s jump into today’s post.

Prompt Time

Story Engine Deck

For this month’s prompt we have: An Honest Elemental Wants To Protect An Enchanted Staff But Their Homeland Will Be Put to The Torch.

This prompt comes from this storytelling deck from The Story Engine, which is a prompt and idea generating tool that I adore for both creative writing and for TTRPG plotting.

Tarot/Oracle Deck

April’s prompt is: Wrath, Dominance, Battle

Once again, I used my Urban Crow Oracle Deck by MJ Cullinane for this prompt. I really like using this oracle deck, because the card names are different from a tarot deck. I do have a few different tarot decks as well, and I might use those at some point for future draws, but for now I’m really enjoying my crow deck.

Roll & Play

I rolled a 13, which gives us this prompt: #13) Well, I heard women wearing red hoods have been spotted at night more than once.

 This month I decided to roll the dice on the Rumors & Gossip page in the Roll & Play book. You can use the die I rolled, or if you have your own d12, you can roll on the chart yourself. Or heck, if you want to then you can just choose whichever option sparks your interest. 

Sidequest Decks

Finally, the Sidequest decks from Inkwell Ideas are another wonderful accessory designed for TTRPGs, but can easily be used for writers as well. This time around I used the After The Total Party Kill deck, and again, I went with two options as prompt inspiration.

Option 1: The Courts of Heaven and Hell – Death gives the characters the option to stand trial and argue for their fates. Success will restore them to life, but failure will consign them to Oblivion.

Option 2: Misty Forest – The characters find themselves in a dark and misty forest, inhabited by those souls lost on the way to the afterlife. Will they find their way out of there, and back into the world of the living?

Since these cards are designed for TTRPGs, you’ll see even more details on the card, such as how to get the player characters involved in the adventure, and encounters they can have while working through the problem. You can use these to aid you in ideas for your writing, use them as is or as inspiration for your own beats along the path of the story, or ignore them entirely.

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I’m going to try to fit in writing based on one of these prompts, but I’m also participating in Camp NaNoWriMo and trying to write at least 25,000 words on Tale of Blood and Mourning this month…so I don’t know how much other writing I’m going to accomplish.

Basically I don’t know if I’m going to be sharing something from one of these prompts or if I’m going to share something from Camp NaNoWriMo or from my other non prompt-based writing and editing. I admit that there are several of these prompts that intrigue me, but I haven’t decided which one to use for writing just yet. The Urban Crow Oracle Deck prompt obviously fits in very nicely with my Harbingers of Death story.

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.