SciFi/Fantasy – November 12

“Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong name makes everything unreal.”- Michael Ende, born this date in 1929. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist faces mortal peril because of someone else’s wrong naming of a being or thing.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 11

“I knew peace only when I killed and when I heard her heart in that terrible rhythm, I knew again what peace could be.”- Louis in the film version of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, which premiered on this date in 1994. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s closest friend finds peace through behavior that your protagonist considers abhorrent.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 10

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”- Neil Gaiman, born this date in 1960. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist convinces his/her best friend that something is true by telling a story that isn’t.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 9

“Cameras are important precisely because they could answer questions we are too stupid to ask.”- Carl Sagan, born this date in 1934. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes s/he was too stupid to ask a question that would have made the difference between success and failure.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 8

“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.”- Abraham Stoker, better known as Bram, born this date in 1847. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist learns about such a mystery the hard way.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 7

“We must be what we are, or we become our enemies.”- Guy Gavriel Kay, born this date in 1954. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist recognizes his/her own motivations when his/her antagonist behaves exactly as your protagonist would under similar conditions.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 6

All that you touchYou Change. All that you ChangeChanges you. The only lasting truthIs Change. Christopher Donner was elected President of the United States on this date in Octavia Butler’s 2024. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist becomes the leader of a doomed organization.

SciFi/Fantasy – November 5

“It works! Ha ha, it works! I finally invented something that works!”- Dr. Emmett Brown, who on this date in 1955 hit his head after falling off a toilet and envisioned a flux capacitor that would enable time travel. Writing prompt: Write the scene of your protagonist’s most undignified eureka moment.