The Goreletter » Instigation http://www.gorelets.com/blog Michael Arnzen's Weird Weblog Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:19:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 en Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers (26) http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-26/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-26/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:36:43 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=443
  • Write about a WOMAN-eating plant (as opposed to just a man-eater).
  • Everyone says they’re afraid of clowns.  What are clowns scared of?  Depict their worst nightmare.
  • Ever heard the expression, “Let your freak flag fly”?  Write a story or poem about a freak nation and its hallowed flag.  (Option: try drawing or describing the iconography of the flag before you begin).

    • ***
    Review the entire “Instigation” department where you can now post your writing!
    http://www.gorelets.com/blog/dept/instigation/


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-26/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-25/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-25/#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:02:16 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=412 + Reverse the roles in an alien autopsy.

    + Choose an inanimate object from your kitchen cabinet. Give it a mouth. Allow it to unexpectedly speak one morning to a child while he is preparing his own breakfast.

    + Speculate on paper: If you were to eat your own brain matter, what do you think it would taste like? Describe it, appealing to the senses, evoking the texture and flavor. Then begin the next paragraph. See if you can keep going, unfolding a plot that explains why you would be eating your own brain to begin with. Don’t force it…discover it.

    ***
    If you publish something instigated by this department, please let me know and I’ll mention it here!

    If you like working with twisted prompts, then you might enjoy the new site run by Matt and Natalie Duvall, called “The Write Way”: http://www.thewriteway.org/


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-25/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-24/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-24/#comments Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:54:13 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=392 + Write a story from the viewpoint of a groundskeeper at the graveyard — avoiding any of the typical trappings of the horror genre. Make it mundane, even. Avoid using speculative fiction technique at all until you get to page three. Then, if you need to jazz things up, let her rip.

    + Devise a plot surrounding a schoolyard bully…when he’s elderly, in the nursing home.

    + Describe a tuft of stiff hair that has grown in a very unexpected place on your main character’s body.

    ***
    If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here! Congratulations this time around to D.W. Green, for his story “Surgical Puppet Theater,” which will appear in the upcoming anthology, Darkened Horizons.


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-24/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-23/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-23/#comments Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:39:05 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=367 + Bind a book in something dastardly…but avoid the obvious (lemme guess: skin, right?).
    + There’s a campaign afoot to nominate Cthulhu for president (http://www.cthulhu.org/). Create a Lovecraftian story that satirizes today’s politics.
    + Write a short-short with the title “Surgical Puppet Theater”

    ***
    Congratulations to Kathleen J. Trimmer who recently published a short-short called “Getting Off Death Row” in Cthulhu SM (3:13) based loosely on a past Instigation prompt. If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-23/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-22/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-22/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:40:55 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=329 + What does the moon say to the lycanthrope? Write a monologue.
    + A wife suspects her husband is a serial killer when he’s not. Script their argument one night when he comes home late from work.
    + Torture a competitive eater. Don’t use hotdogs.

    ***
    If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-22/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-21/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-21/#comments Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:44:41 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=309 really< be like, if living flesh in the real [...]]]> + Dramatize an electroshock therapy session in second person, future tense.
    + Sketch a humorous conversation involving the devil’s accountant.
    + Adapt the features and traits of any cartoon character into a “real” creature or man, exploring the freakish results. (e.g. What would a “Spongebob Squarepants” creature >really< be like, if living flesh in the real world? Write it out, obliterating the original reference to the cartoon in the process.)

    ***
    If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here next issue!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-21/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-20/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-20/#comments Sat, 20 May 2006 16:25:21 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=293 + Reveal a horrifying disfigurement behind a woman’s veil.
    + Something is “bulging” beneath Charlie’s sweater. Jane is obsessively fixated on this. Dramatize the revelation of Charlie’s hidden surprise.
    + Create a character who has no fingernails. What happened to them and what surprising skill can he perform without them?

    ***
    I’m sad to report that my weekly “Instigation” column will no longer appear in Hellnotes newsletter, because it is a newsletter no more. Moreover, the “Wee Small Hours” flash fiction webzine has been canceled. But not to fear: Hellnotes is still alive under the editorship of David B. Silva, and has evolved into a new FREE syndicated weblog that you should visit regularly!

    And I will continue to regularly publish “Instigation” in The Goreletter.


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-20/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-19/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-19/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2006 00:11:43 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=272 + Place a deaf person in a burning building. First sentence: “(S)He didn’t hear the alarm.”
    + Place a wheelchair-bound character on a sinking ship.
    + Dramatize the methods of a “slow” serial killer.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter…who also now publishes a new online magazine of stories based on my prompts, called Wee Small Hours!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-19/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-18/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-18/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:47:35 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=260 + Depict an allergy gone haywire.
    + Pen the monologue of a nostalgic vampire.
    + Script a dialogue between the Devil and his publicist.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter.


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-18/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-17/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-17/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2005 16:48:20 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=241 It’s twisted memoir time!

    + Dramatize your own funeral (and/or wake) from the viewpoint of the person in attendance most likely to be bored by it all.
    + Look deep inside and mull over your greatest fear. Now write about what you think caused you to be so scared of this silly little thing. Consider everything out there that’s even scarier.
    + Write about being tortured in hell for your own greatest sin. Go on. You deserve it.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter.


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-17/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-16/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-16/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2005 05:57:58 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=235 + Invent a new form of water torture.
    + Give a character an occupation involving cages (warden, zookeeper, dancer, wrestler…), and then trap them inside of one.
    + Murder an idea.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter. If you publish or post something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-16/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-15/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-15/#comments Fri, 29 Apr 2005 04:06:20 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=211 “Creative Oppositions”

    + Imagine an awful way to die. Now physically turn the victim upside-down. Write.
    + Choose a common horror icon or trope. Put the word “Anti-” in front of it. Consider that your title. See what turns up.
    + Describe a notorious painful experience (root canal, etc.) from the viewpoint of a character who finds it pleasurable.

    ***
    If you publish or post something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-15/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-14/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-14/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:01:27 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=199 + Describe an invented mental illness in scientific language, as though an entry in the DSM-IV. For structure, visit allpsych.com
    + Lovingly describe an over-the-top imaginary weapon, as though writing the sales pitch that appears in a mail order catalog. For inspiration, try crkt.com
    + Write an encyclopedia entry about an infamous (but fictional) massacre. For a model, pick your favorite at the wikipedia list of massacres

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter.
    ***
    Congratulations to subscriber Terrie Leigh Relf, whose instigation-inspired story, “At the Ophthalmologist’s Office,” was recently published in FlashShot. If you publish or post something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-14/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-13/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-13/#comments Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:15:11 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=185 + Write an instructional guide for making something ghastly, but don’t refer to the thing itself. Have your reader try to guess what it might be.
    + Discover an alien ear.
    + Describe a monstrous living landscape.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter (returning in February).

    If you publish or post something instigated by this department, let me know and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-13/feed/     Twisted Prompts for Sicko Writers http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-12/ http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-12/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2004 22:22:29 +0000 Michael Arnzen http://www.gorelets.com/blog/?p=175 + Write a twisted news story in the style of Weekly World News.
    + Borrowing an idea from The Omen, write about a photographer whose portraits predict the manner of the subject’s death.
    + Write a monster’s monologue under the influence of truth serum.

    ***
    Instigation is a WEEKLY department in Hellnotes newsletter!

    If you publish something instigated by this department, let me know at arnzen@gorelets.com and I’ll mention it here!


    ]]>     http://www.gorelets.com/blog/instigation/twisted-prompts-for-sicko-writers-12/feed/