Before I present today's writing prompt, I wanted to share a couple of pictures from Saturday's Ready - Set - Write conference. It was such a success that we have already scheduled the event for next year. So, mark your calendars for October 22nd and plan to hang out with the rest of us as we get ready for the NaNoWriMo challenge.

If you have any suggestions for classes that you would like repeated or new topics that you would like us to cover please send me an e-mail or post a comment.

The first picture was taken during my presentation while I was helping eager writers with their elevator pitches. The second picture is of my wife and daughter as they manned the book store.

           The Ready - Set - Write conference on Saturday was a success. It looked like everyone had fun and most claimed to have learned something about writing.  I had a blast visiting with everyone who attended. We will be doing this again next year. 
          Let me publically say thanks to Stephanie Foster, with the Red Mountain library, did a tremendous amount of working setting up tables, placing the event on the Mesa event calendars, and buying lunch for everyone. The presenters: Brock Booher on plotting, Connie Flynn on characterization, Angela Morrison on world building, and the team of Laura L. Walker and Marilee Jackson on putting some romance into your stories. The representatives from NaNoWriMO, Shari Mickle and Matt Mesnard, who explained the NaNoWriMo contest and offered suggestions on finding time to write. Also my wife LuAnn who ran the bookstore and my daughter Lucy who helped run the registration desk.  

        During my presentation, Jumpstart Your Creative Juices, I had several requests to post the writing prompts I mentioned. I have decided to post them here for everyone to see. I will do one each weekday until all of them have been posted. And here is the first one. 


            PROMPT – TITLES
           
            I generated the idea for my first novel from a Title prompt. As a beginning author I worried about running out of ideas for stories—silly me. Just to see how hard it would be to generate more story ideas I scanned through a list of movie titles. Whenever one caught my attention I wrote it down. Once I reached a goodly number of interesting titles I took a closer look at the list. Death Race 2000 was on the list and started me thinking about what a race would be like for dead people and from that I wrote Hellathon.
            My example is based on movie titles, but any sort of title works. Movies, novels, short-stories, songs, and even band names can all be used to generate ideas. The trick is to let your mind wonder what kind of story you could write with that title. Look at it figuratively. Look at it literally. Look at it with whimsical eyes. Use it as a starting point for your creativity.
 
            Here are the ten titles. I hope you have fun with it.
 
            1. They Might Be Giants
            2. The Long Goodbye
            3. They Were Expendable
            4. Thunder Road
            5. Angels Die Hard
            6. You Only Live Twice
            7. Keeper of the Flame
            8. A Song Is Born
            9. A New Life
            10. Walk, Don’t Run
 
            Based on the list above, I generated the following elevator pitches.
 
Based on “They Might Be Giants” is a pitch for a children’s book: Jared and Sally have been asked by their father to take a pair of shoes to a customer in the next town. They are the most enormous shoes either of them have ever scene. Could it be that the people living there are giants? And if so, what will happen to the children when they arrive?
 
 
Based on “The Long Goodbye” is a pitch for romantic screenplay: Rob and Sarah have one last weekend together before he ships off to war.
 

            October has turned out to be an eventful month for me as an author. Rather than spending any time throwing out witty comments to entertain you I’ll just get right to the news.
            I’m a member of an author group in Arizona called the Typeractive which include Janette Rallison, Brock Booher, Laura L. Walker, Marilee Jackson, Stephen J. Stirling, R. C. Hancock, and myself. We meet every month to discuss our creative works and see what we can do as a group to market our books. One of our ideas was to put together an anthology of clean fiction written by us and then offer it to the public for free.
            Typeractive Tales contains 12 short stories in a variety of genres so readers are bound to find something to their liking. And best of all it gives anyone willing to download the free anthology a chance to sample the work of seven published authors. Who knows, the readers just might find themselves a new favorite author.
            Brock Booher contributed three general fiction stories to the collection: Delivery, Time Flies, and Milk Run. R. C. Hancock shows off his diverse talent with the humorous Brains and then following it up with the suspenseful Match and Mirror. Marilee Jackson takes us into the realm of the supernatural with Fur, Fangs, and French Class. Randy Lindsay (hey, that’s me) flexes his science-fiction muscles with a trio of stories: Judgment, Perchance to Slumber, and Time Enough to Die. Janette Rallison reminds us why she is the queen of romantic comedy with Crush. Stephen J. Stirling gives us a story right in time for the holidays The Christmas Warrior. And Laura L. Walker wraps up this diverse collection of fiction with a romantic tale, Dreamers and Schemers.
            Enough describing the book here’s the link where you can get Typeractive Tales.
 
            The second big event for the Typeractive authors is the Ready . . . Set . . . Write conference on October 24th. Originally envisioned as a mini-conference to support the release of R. C. Hancock’s book, An Uncommon Blue, it eventually evolved into a one-day conference to prepare authors for National Novel Writing Month and specifically the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing 50,000 words on a new novel.
            Bring a pencil, a note pad, and a willingness to put your creative muscles to work and we will do our best to make sure you walk out of the conference with a story that’s ready to be written. Then on November 1 you can unleash the kraken . . . if that happens to be what you call your story-telling skills.
            This all starts with the local NaNoWriMo representatives explaining the National Novel Writing Month event and giving a few tips on how to defeat writer’s block. Then I will present a workshop on generating story ideas which participants of the conference can use the rest of the day to flesh out the basics of an actual novel. Bock Booher will present a class on plotting. We’ll stop for lunch and then Connie Flynn will enlighten you with her keen insights to characterization. Angel Morrison will follow with a presentation on world building. And the last class of the day will be taught by Laura L. Walker and Marilee Jackson on putting some romance into your story. You know what they say, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
            We will wrap-up the conference with an author panel, giving everyone a chance to ask whatever questions they have about writing and publishing. The best part of the conference is that it’s FREE. And I think I heard rumors of a few door prizes as well.
            All of this takes place at:
 
Red Mountain library
635 N. Power Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85202
 
The conference starts at 10:30 so I suggest you arrive a little bit early.
 
            (I have more news, but it can wait until my next post.)