Month: July 2024

How to Use July in a Story

How to use July in a story

I’m interrupting this month’s theme of speculative fiction to bring you ideas on how to use July in a story.

Fourth of July

The small town near where we live outdoes itself to create an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration. A parade kicks things off, and anyone can enter it riding anything from bikes to classic cars to classic tractors. The fire department used to provide barbecued chicken for lunch. The town still organizes activities, like softball games, pie eating contests, and tractor pulls. They used to invite a group that did tractor square dancing, which is just as goofy as it sounds. A local singer gives a concert and then to top off the day, fireworks!

That small town would be a great setting for a middle grade mystery. A group of kids notice something strange during the parade, run all over town during the day, looking for clues, and then solve the mystery during the fireworks display.

Relationships

Family picnics during the Fourth of July are fertile settings to explore relationships. If I make the day especially hot, the heat can symbolize tensions between relatives, and then in the cool of the night, when the fireworks go off, that tension can be resolved, positively or negatively. If I am writing about several relationships, I can have both positive and negative consequences.

Freeing a character of some problem while he participates in Independence Day activities would be an effective comparison match. Maybe he is freed from a sin that has burdened him for years. Or, during a community picnic, he realizes the truth behind a misconception he had of another person. Or she could finally cut ties with someone who is a negative influence in her life. The climax of the story could occur during a community fireworks display, where the soaring fireworks are a symbol of the character’s new freedom.

Alternative History

If you aren’t familiar with this subgenre of fantasy fiction, it means some key event in history is changed and the story is based on that. What if the Confederate States won the American Civil War? What if the Russian Czar had beaten the Communists? What if there was no Independence Day in America? What had happened so that it never became a holiday? So many things in American history could have changed. Or maybe there is no American history because America didn’t win the Revolutionary War.

How would you use July in a story?

For more ideas on using the months as inspiration for stories, click here.

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Describe this Fantasy Scene Using Senses

Describe this fantasy scene using senses

The fun about using the senses to describe a scene in speculative fiction is that you can veer from reality. What if a character can smell color? Or hear emotions? Or sense heat like certain species of snakes? So today’s prompt is to describe this fantasy scene using senses, either the five we know or some you’ve invented.

Here’s my inspiration, going with the five usual senses, because my POV character is human:

I knelt behind the swaying fronds of the low palm, the leaves brushing my cheek.

There they were again: the mermaid seeming to enjoy the sunset while that whatever-it-was frolicked in the water around her rock. Third month in a row when the new moon would rise. It might not have been the same mermaid and whatever since I only saw them backlit against the flames of the sunset.

But the scent was the same. A rich, flowery smell with an undercurrent of tangy spice wafted over the murmur of waves caressing the shore of the cove. Did all mermaids have that scent or just this one? Or did come from the whatever?

Wiping my sweaty hands on my cut-off shorts, I stood. My tongue felt dry and stiff, like it’d been left on the beach all afternoon.

Breaking into a huge smile, I waved. “Hello!” I made myself sound as cheerful as a preschooler spotting new toys.

The whatever disappeared beneath the waves. The mermaid’s silhouette appeared to turn in my direction.

I waved again, still grinning like I hoped to split my cheeks.

The mermaid didn’t move. But she didn’t dive into the water.

For more prompts for speculative fiction, click here.

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Give a Name to this Superhero

Give a name to this superhero

This prompt kicks off a month focused on speculative fiction here at JPC Allen Writes. I’ll have guest bloggers later in the month to discuss what inspires them to write this genre. For today, give a name to this superhero.

Her dress and the setting makes me think she has power over ice or water. But that’s a bit obvious. Can you think of an unusual power that fits her costume and setting? I remember from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien that Uinen, a Maia, calmed stormy seas for sailors. She was called The Lady of the Seas. If calming seas was this character’s superpower, I’m not sure how it would work when confronting a supervillain. If her power was just calming people or weather in general, she’d be a strange character to fight. Her name has to sound soothing like Sylene or Hailer.

Your turn. Who is this superhero?

For more speculative fiction prompts, click here.

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