Prompts
Andreas Szakacs: Building Cinema With Precision, Purpose, and Creative Leadership
In a film industry often shaped by speed, visibility, and short-term momentum, Andreas Szakacs has taken a more deliberate route. His career as an actor, producer, and creative leader reflects a commitment to precision, intention, and sustained artistic development rather than constant exposure. Over time, this approach has positioned him as a figure increasingly associated with thoughtful storytelling, technical discipline, and collaborative leadership.
By Andreas Szakacsa day ago in Writers
2025, In So Many Words
About a year ago, I posted my first piece here on Vocal in years. In Making it Hard to Fail, I talked about my goals for the new year in response to a challenge prompt. My goal was simple: to write for 15 minutes a day. No more was required, though as I suspected (and found in executing this plan) more did often follow.
By Raistlin Allen3 days ago in Writers
Show Me Your Prose!. Content Warning.
I’ve caught the unofficial challenge bug again, and I have a lot of devious ideas (like my Cthulu’s Challenge: poetry in pig latin, but I’ll probably save that one for next Christmas or some other time when the sweetness gets a bit too cloying for my tastes.
By Harper Lewis4 days ago in Writers
Preservation for Eternal Impact
It is easy to feel as though most of what is said disappears. Words are spoken, written, posted, argued over, and then quickly buried beneath the next wave of noise. Attention moves on. Platforms refresh. What once felt urgent becomes invisible. In that environment, a quiet but persistent question emerges. What actually lasts. And more uncomfortably, what is worth preserving when so much seems to vanish without consequence.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 days ago in Writers
John and Paul's Three-Word Haiku/Senryu Unofficial Challenge
Ladies and gentlemen, poets and literary vandals. I bring glad tidings from the land of hope and glory, (Hallelujah!, shout it from the rooftops, etc., etc., exit feckin’ stage left) a fat orange retard and a man whom I'd follow into battle. Well, whom I might follow into a pub fight. Okay, maybe not. (Stage right, then?) But, I'd definitely follow him to the pub if he was going to buy a round or two, John Cox. (Scotland’s on my bucket list … what da ya know bout that?) Oh, and the land of haggis, more scenery than people, Olympic standard swearing, comedy, film, literature, music, dance, beauty, whisky, and me, Paul.
By Paul Stewart5 days ago in Writers
Unusual Names To Go In Writing Fiction
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise — In your notebook, keep a list of unusual names for potential characters. In fact, every writer should have a collection of old yearbooks, benefit programs, phonebooks, and so forth to browse through when he needs to name a character. And don't stop there. Keep lists for things you might need to name sometime in a story. Remember that tone is important, so when naming the list below of things choose an earnest name and a farcical one. Name the following things. Imagine stories they might go in. The Objective - To loosen up your imagination by naming things you wouldn't ordinarily have to name - never mind "own."
By Denise E Lindquist6 days ago in Writers
Essence, Embodiment, and Relational Reality
The Failure of Reduction and the Need for Synthesis There is a persistent failure in many modern attempts to explain what a human being is. Some frameworks reduce the person entirely to matter, insisting that identity, consciousness, morality, and meaning are nothing more than emergent properties of physical processes. Other frameworks move in the opposite direction, detaching spirit from reason and grounding belief in intuition alone, often at the cost of coherence or accountability. Both approaches fail because both misunderstand essence. One denies that essence exists at all. The other treats it as something vague and undefinable.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast7 days ago in Writers
