Weekend Writer: September Prompts

Hey all, Sam here.

It’s Friday again, and honestly there’s a lot going on right now…and sadly a lot of it is stuff I’m not talking about in my weekly wrap-ups because it involves shows I’m watching, and I’m not talking about those until the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike has concluded. So I guess I’ll just say that there are a couple recent streaming releases that I am absolutely loving right now.

But I also ended August and started September with reading some manga, and I have a really cool stack of books that I’m starting to dive into, so things are looking pretty okay for me at the moment. I’ll have my Spooky Season TBR post up tomorrow, as well as my August reading wrap-up post. So it’s a full weekend of blogging goodness.

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.

Oh…and since I missed out on sharing my August prompt writing last week because I burned out and skipped several days of blogging, I will be sharing that on Sunday, so you’re getting a double dose of Weekend Writer this week.

September Prompt Time

All right…I currently have six different creativity generator tools in my collection/arsenal, but I haven’t really had the time to play with the Deck of Worlds from Story Engine just yet, so I’m still just using five tools for making prompts right now. 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 Guardian Wants to Find Redemption In/For A Shape-Shifting Forest But They Will Have to Learn Something Difficult

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

Prompt: Isolation, Community, Balance

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.

I saw this post on social media the other day and it basically said that by age 30 everyone should have an animal that they like and will collect, so if anyone is ever stuck on a gift to get them they can just get something with that animal and they’re good to go. I’m a crow…well, technically any of the corvids are great. Of course, my people all basically know that gift cards for books are also always a good idea.

Roll & Play

Prompt: A long, jagged portal appears in the air. A raiding party from another world burst forth and furiously attack!

This month I decided to roll the dice on the Corrupted Encounters 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 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

Prompt 1: Side Effects – The party’s foes have used them in a summoning ceremony. But spiritual forces raise them from the dead as a way to balance the scales.

Prompt 2: The New World – The party discovers that the “afterlife” is actually an entirely different world, and that souls are born into it as adult beings who, if killed, return to their original world to be reincarnated.

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 After the Total Party Kill 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.

And apparently Inkwell Ideas has a Kickstarter going live soon and it will add a couple more Sidequest Decks and a couple more NPC decks to their arsenal. I’m pretty excited about it, because it adds Desert Adventures, Tavern Quests, Castle Quests, and Mini-Lairs. I’m most likely going to be backing it

The Oracle Story Generator

Prompt: A Celestial Will Dominate A Realm To Become a Ruler But They Will Be Undermined by Their Most Dedicated Followers.

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.

Deck of Worlds

((Coming Soon to the monthly prompt post))

I have finally gotten my hands on a physical copy of the Deck of Worlds from The Story Engine, and I’ve just been overwhelmed with everything else around me, so I haven’t really spent time playing around with it. Hopefully I’ll be adding these prompts into the mix soon…perhaps in October.

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All right, I don’t know which of these prompts I’m going to choose. I honestly like the sounds of a few of them.

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