Raven's View

This week's challenge from Terrible Minds was to write based on a motif. As Chuck wrote:

Motif.

What, is it, you ask? Besides someone explaining that they have plenty of chompers in their mouth? (Wait for it, you’ll get it. I’ll just stand here while you… ah, good, you got it.)

A motif is not a theme. It is not a mood. It is a recurring element. A repeated symbol or overarching image.

So, today, I’m going to give you 10 motifs.

You will choose one. Randomly, either by d10 or by random number generator.

This motif will be a significant symbol or element in your story. Symbolically and/or literally.

I’ll also toss in two other categories: setting and subgenre.

Choose (randomly or otherwise) one from each. 1000 words max.

The following were the choices we had: 

I rolled, and got 2-5-5.

That gave me:

• Skulls
• Comic Fantasy
• Inside the mind of another character 

This was a fun little story - only 500 words. Not sure if I did skull as a re-ocurring element or symbol - mine was the main character. Here it is anyways.

This week's challenge for Flash Fiction Friday was to write a story about seven days. 

Prompt:  Write a story about a character who has seven days.  What your character needs to do within that period of time is up to you.  Start something?  Finish something?  Obtain something?  Get rid of something?  Remember though, that good, bad, or indifferent, everything has consequences.  Make sure you include what will happen if they try to stretch those seven days to eight.

1000 words.

I did mine as a scene for my NaNoWriMo novel. I needed my Fairy Tale Folk – currently unemployed - to be doing a story together. It's over the limit at 1430 words – oops..

 This week's story for Flash Fiction Friday was to write about Thanksgiving,

American Thanksgiving is now nearly upon us.  Along with the food and the parades and the football comes all the joy and horror that family gatherings entail.

Prompt:  Write a story that takes place on Thanksgiving Day, but please EXCLUDE the following words:  Turkey, stuffing, football, parade, family.  1000 words.

I needed an idea for a scene for my NaNoWriMo novel, so used this as my prompt fot it too.

You'll need a bit of a prologue here I think. I'm writing about some Fairy Tale Folk, some characters from the Grimm stories. They've been brought to life by magic in the stories, and now are out of work in today's world. They're in seach for some purpose to their life, and along the way have tangled with some Haitian drug runners with an evil side, possessed by dark voodoo magic, an ancient evil with roots back in Africa.

The stories also have given the characters the power to change their appearance to others, and to give some of the magic back to a story, to help bring it to life as it were, to add believability and emphasis to it. The Grimms ancestors have a booking for the characters to do a traditional Thanksgiving story, sort of a Norman Rockwell meets The Waltons tale, with several generations getting together.

We have:

• Bruce (formerly the woodcutter, now living in the country doing woodwork) as grandpa,

• Agnes (formerly the witch, now a cougar prowling bars) as his widowed daughter,

• Red (formerly Riding Hood, now a Goth girl) as Agnes's oldest,

• Romulus (formerly the wolf, now a playboy, with long dark hair and a gleaming smile) as Red's fiance,

• Hansel and Grethel (yes, those two, they're on loan from their gigs doing commercials) as Agne's young twins.

Unfortunately, while these characters have the best of intentions, this voodoo spirit they are fighting likes to get in and twist their stories. Oh – and they can't really be permanently harmed in their stories. Story is 595 words.

This week's challenge, like #NaNoWriMo, was all about words. We were given a list and asked to use them in a story - any genre, limit of 900 words. 

The list was: Gunshot, train, mime, balcony, monkey, rain.

I decided to do this for what is actually a scene for my current NaNoWriMo novel. I'm writing about my Fairy Tale Characters, who were made real by the magic of the stories, and are now looking for a new purpose to their lives. The Grimms' descendants have convinced them to use their powers to add life to some more stories – as books, screenplays, and movies. As they do their stories, they suspect a darker magic source is interested in their powers too – a source with black voodoo roots, trying to control them in their stories. Bruce, the Woodcutter, has taken on a role as an ageing Western sheriff. Agnes, his friend the Witch, has a bit part as a saloon keeper. The story is 798 words.