Weekend Writer: August Prompts

Hey all, Sam here.

It is Gen Con Day Two! We have quite a bit on our schedules, between panels and game playtests and of course wandering the exhibit hall, and there’s a few game drops that we’re really hoping we’re lucky enough to snag, so we’ll see what happens. Obviously, since I’m writing this up ahead of time (it’s actually Thursday night as I finish up this post), I don’t know how successful our game collecting will go.

Anyway, welcome back to Weekend Writer, a weekly series I host here on Free State of Geek that is fully dedicated to creative writing. On the first Friday of the month (like today), I use several story generator tools to create various creativity prompts for both you and I to use to help kickstart your creative projects (your choice if you want to write something or draw something). Then, on the last Friday of the month, I share snippets of what I’ve been working on over the month…it could be from the prompt generation, or it could be from some other project I’ve been working on…or it could be from both. I’ve had a couple months where I’ve shared a couple passages from different writing projects.

For the rest of the Fridays of the month, I do a deep dive breakdown that focuses on some aspect of creative writing. That has mostly been deep dives into sections of books about the craft of writing, but sometimes might be a deep dive into a lecture or an episode of a podcast or a YouTube video or just a general discussion about some sort of creativity/writing topic.

August Prompt Time

All right…I currently have five (well, maybe six if I’ve already picked up the Deck of Many Worlds from The Story Engine Deck booth at Gen Con) different creativity generator tools in my collection/arsenal. Some of them are technically aimed at TTRPGs, BUT I’ve found that for the most part they work for creative writing just fine as well, which is why I include them all. With each prompt, I take a photo of the prompt randomization (whether that is dice rolls, card draws, or whatever), type up the prompt below the photo, and then I include a paragraph where I give you information about the generator tool I used.

If you know of any other useful tools like these, please let me know. I’d love to keep expanding my collection. It’s cool to see what sorts of ideas can be generated when you use a randomization method for creation.

Story Engine Deck

Prompt: A Hired Knife Wants to Find the Path Home and Their Only Lead is an Evil-Repelling Shield But it Will Mean Paying Someone Else’s Debts

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.

I do have the Deck of Worlds and all of the expansions now…but I’m not going to try and toss that into this month’s post too. I’d like to play around with the deck for a little bit on my own before I start generating micro settings for these Weekend Writer prompt generation posts.

And I will point out that the wonderful folks at The Story Engine, as well as many other creative folks out there are so so skilled at putting together incredible prompts using these decks. I just go with the most basic options for these prompts, but these cards are set up so that you can make some wonderfully complex options for characters and plots and worlds.

I truly love these decks. I was happy to buy The Story Engine Deck, I backed at the digital level for the Deck of Worlds, but have now finally gotten my hands on a physical edition, and I also eagerly backed the upcoming Lore Master’s Deck, which I am SO LOOKING FORWARD TO. If you thought I was excited about their first two decks, the third one is just going to be outstanding. I can’t wait to have it join my collection.

Tarot/Oracle Deck

Prompt: Insight, Bond, Warning

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. What can I say? I just like crows.

Roll & Play

Prompt: 1) You own a small shop, and customers love what you sell OR 2) You sit in a field, and feel a deity smiling down on you

This month I decided to roll the dice on the Sweet Dreams page in the Roll & Play book, and there are two different dreamy options to choose from. You can use the dice I rolled, or if you have your own d20, 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

Prompt 1: Treasure With Teeth – Survivors on a shattered ship are found, describing a giant shark’s attack. The shark is actually the deity of the robbed island’s people.

Prompt 2: The Regatta – A harbor town or island sponsors an annual regatta (a boat race).

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 went back to the Political and Urban Fantasy deck, and again, I went with two options as prompt inspiration. You can use either option, and you can either use the basic concept at the top of the card, or you can use the various encounters at the bottom of the card to expand upon the adventure/story further.

I definitely need to find the Inkwell Ideas booth and see if there are any more Sidequest Decks I need to add to our collection. If so, then perhaps I’ll be rotating into these prompt generators.

The Oracle Story Generator

Prompt: An Explorer Will Discover a Religious Relic to Summon a Being But the Item Requires a Worthy User.

Finally, we have a new addition to the prompt generation: The Oracle Story Generator by Nord Games. They have a Character Generator as well, but that one won’t be shipped out for another couple months. I’ve enjoyed playing around with these cards the past couple months, and look forward to doing even more with them in future. With this prompt, you can make it even more specific by either rolling a four-sided die for each card, or by simply choosing which option you like best.

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I have no idea which of these prompts I’m going to use for my writing this month. Honestly, who knows, perhaps I’ll swing by The Story Engine booth again, and see if they’ll generate either a Story Engine Deck or Deck of Worlds prompt for me to add to this month’s offerings. If they agree then I will totally add it to the Tabletop Tuesday: Gen Con Wrap-Up post in a few days.

As always, when we reach the final Friday of the month, I’ll be sharing some snippets from what I’ve been writing over the past weeks. If you choose to create anything based on these prompts (or even if you don’t), feel free to share your creative projects with me for the last Friday of the month too. I’d love to celebrate whatever creative progress you’re making too!

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