promptsforpoemproseandplay

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Marie Egner (Austrian, 1850-1940): Breaking waves in Istria (via Dorotheum)

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I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD.  If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?

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"the problem with booktok is that it romanticizes toxic relationships blah blah blah" NO!! the problem with booktok is that its a community that talks about, produces, and consumes published novels the same way people talk about, produce, and consume fanfiction. every issue with booktok (lowbrow subject matter, oftentimes poor writing and editing, a disproportionately heavy focus on erotica, books described via tropes (tags) instead of plot synopses, thinly-veiled misogyny) boils down to that. i don't give a single solitary shit if colleen hoover is writing toxic step-sibling incest romance! i've come across weirder shit this week on ao3!! what i do care about is the fact it reads exactly like an unbetaed oc-centric slash fic and this woman is expecting us to pay upwards of $20 for a copy!! girl i can read mid-tier fic for free any time i want i don't need you!!

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why are people so against negative character development? characters don’t need to improve and become better people they can get worse and make mistakes and end up in a worse state than when they began and it’s just as interesting and entertaining as characters developing positively

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Sometimes it's useful to look at your dialogue and ask yourself, "would a real human being talk like that?" But it's also good to ask the follow-up questions of "would the way a real human being talks sound good here" and "does this character actually talk like a real human being or are they weird about it."

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Pierre Bonnard, Cat, 1894

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Cooking Prompts

A asks B to do a quick grocery store trip for them since they forgot something they need for the recipe. Yet when B comes back, grocery bags in their hands, the one thing A asked for is nowhere to be seen.

A has spent all day cooking for a gathering planned with friends/B’s family, while B – never having tasted A’s creations before – has spent it looking forward to the meal. (That attitude changes quickly when they see the faces their friends/family members make upon tasting the food.)

A decides/agrees to finally share their well-kept secret family recipe with B.

“I never thought seeing someone cut up bell peppers could be so hot.”

A only left for two minutes, thinking the time window would be too small for B to ruin the food. (They were wrong. It wasn’t.)

To cheer up/etc. A, B creates – or at least tries to – something artistic with the food. (e.g. a pancake heart or an apple swan)

A wakes up in the middle of the night to B cooking in the kitchen.

“Here. Try this.”

When A arrives home, they find B making homemade pasta and drying it on the clothing drying rack/back of a chair/coat hangers/etc.

“Stop distracting me. (I can’t burn the food again because you can’t stay away from me.)”

A has had a long, exhausting day. So when they come home, no strength left to cook anything, and find B standing on their doorsteps and holding a plate with food they cooked just for them, their heart warms.

“I don’t know how you can eat that.”

A can’t cook, so B teaches them some basics.

A and B are so caught up in one another that they don’t mind their surroundings. When A leans backwards to make B chase their lips/etc., their hand lands on the (still) warm hot plate/moves so that cutlery falls to the ground/etc.

A helps B to cook something just to spend time with them/etc. They are caught off guard when B invites them to eat the meal with them.

“It’s not that good/bad/spicy.”

A catches B throwing spaghetti at the wall.

“Oysters? Are you trying to seduce me, [name]?”

A (tries to) surprise(s) B with a candlelight dinner at home. (Somehow, however, everything that could go wrong does.)

A watches B flip pancakes/etc. without a spatula. They too want to learn how to do it.

“Five-second rule!”

A and B are both convinced that their respective version of a certain meal is the superior one. So they make it a competition and invite over friends/etc. to play judge.

A is annoyed at seeing B cut the vegetables/fruits into the wrong shape. (Slices just taste better in/with this particular meal than dices do.)

The fridge currently houses A’s favorite meal, and they cannot resist sneaking into the kitchen and taking a couple of bites of it.

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Writing Prompt

A headband of beaten copper, dull and tarnished, worked into the shape of a crown of feathers.

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Writing Prompt: Dialogue

“I need a drink,”

“Any preference?”

“The strongest thing you’ve got.”

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Writing Prompt: Dialogue

“You’re still working on Project Zeus.”

“There is no Project Zeus, [——].”

“And I’m not the unwilling host for a crazy ass jinn that wants to genocide the entire human race. Don’t bullshit me, [——]. I don’t appreciate it.”

“…Even if there was, and I’m not saying there is, you know I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

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Writing Prompt: Dialogue

“From simple diviner mage to fateweaver in less than a thousand years… you have certainly come very far, very quickly [——].”

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Writing Prompt: Dialogue

“Secrets only have power if they stay secret,”

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Writing Prompt

Mercenaries don’t usually fight to the death; for them, the big question is “Are we getting paid enough?”, and for [——] the answer had just become no.

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Writing Prompt: Three Things

to see is not to understand, a thousand years were a blink, there is no revenge

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Writing Prompt: Three Things

ask the rock why it falls, to guide is not to wish, there is only the contract and the price

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Writing Prompt: Three Things

one life is a leaf, law is eternal, follow the path

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Writing Prompt

Mind magic isn’t a lie detector. A mind mage can read surface thoughts without being obvious about it, but to search memories they have to break through their target’s mental defenses first.