Mystery
A Prompt To Complete a Previous Unfinished Storyline
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — Pull out one of your stories that doesn't feel finished. Have your main character do the following exercises - as if he had his own notebook. For example, maybe you write with a number 2 pencil, but your character prefers to use a Rapidograph pen. Go with the pen. Remember, your character is doing this exercise - not you, the author! So, as your main character: * make a diary entry for the time of the story * make a diary entry for the time preceding the story * write a letter to someone not in the story about what is happening in the story * write a letter to someone in the story Or you might explore places in the story that you haven't either dramatized or summarized. Examples: * Have your characters avoided a confrontation? (This is a natural reaction - we are all nonconfrontational and, therefore, we often allow our characters to avoid the very scenes and confrontations that we would avoid.) Does your story have missing scenes? * What events happened before the beginning of the story? Before page one? Try writing scenes of those events that most affected the beginning of the story. Maybe you started the story later than you should have. * Write past the ending. Maybe your story isn't really finished. Perhaps you are avoiding the confrontation scene because you aren't really sure what your characters would say to each other. The Objective - To explore aspects of a story that may seem, at first, to be on the periphery, but at a closer look can deepen or open it up. Nothing is ever lost by more fully knowing the individual world of each story. And it's better to let your characters speak for themselves.
By Denise E Lindquist2 months ago in Fiction
Falling Awake
The city breathes differently after midnight. Not quieter, just more honest. Car horns stop pretending to be impatient and become lonely. Laughter spills out of bars like secrets that were never meant to survive daylight. The air feels thick, as if every memory ever made here is still hanging between the buildings.
By Salman Writes2 months ago in Fiction
CRIMSON VOW
The first thing she heard was laughter deep slow and cruel echoing through concrete walls while cold water dripped on her face and the smell of iron and blood filled her lungs when Lyra Hale opened her eyes she realized she was tied to a chair in a dark warehouse surrounded by men who carried guns like toys and scars like trophies she did not scream because fear had already burned her voice away and when the footsteps approached her heart stopped because she knew that sound belonged to him Roman Vale the king of the Crimson Syndicate the man whose name ended lives without bullets the man she hated before she ever saw his face he stopped in front of her studying her like a broken weapon worth fixing or discarding and instead of threatening her he smiled and said she was not supposed to be there and that single sentence terrified her more than any knife because it meant she was now part of his world a world where people disappeared and love was a weakness Roman ordered his men to untie her not to free her but to see if she would run and Lyra stood on shaking legs staring into the eyes of the man who ruled the city through fear and silence and in that moment something dangerous sparked between hatred and curiosity because Roman Vale did not look at her like prey he looked at her like a challenge
By Diab the story maker 2 months ago in Fiction
NEON BLOOD EMPIRE
The night the city tried to kill her the sky was burning red and the alarms never stopped screaming and Nyx Virel stood in the middle of Sector Nine with blood on her hands not all of it hers watching a skyscraper collapse like a dying giant behind her while drones hunted her name through the air the city of Axiom Prime was not supposed to look afraid it was built to dominate to control to erase weakness but tonight it was trembling because Nyx had stolen something that was never meant to be touched the Core Seed a living quantum intelligence buried under the city for two hundred years and every gang every syndicate every artificial god connected to the grid wanted her dead Nyx did not run because she was scared she ran because standing still meant extinction and as she jumped across broken rails and burning streets memories flashed of the moment she met Kael Draven the man who taught her how to survive how to shoot without hesitation how to love without fear and how to trust in a world that punished trust the moment she landed hard on the steel bridge her comm crackled with his voice calm sharp alive telling her he was coming that he would get her out like he always did but this time the city itself had turned into a weapon and the gangs were not just criminals anymore they were armies enhanced by illegal cybernetic rituals feeding on fear and data and Nyx knew this was no longer a job gone wrong this was war and she was at the center of it whether she wanted to be or not
By Diab the story maker 2 months ago in Fiction
When the Road Learned My Name. AI-Generated.
The road had always been louder than the village. It hummed beneath tires, carried dust into the air, and promised elsewhere with every passing vehicle. For years, Sameer believed that sound meant progress. That motion meant meaning. Standing still felt like being forgotten.
By Mehwish Jabeen2 months ago in Fiction
