With everyone’s eyes on the skies in North America today, I thought the spark should be sci fi. How about a heart-warming robot and his dog story?
Share if your inspired!
Monday Sparks — Writing prompts
Monday Sparks — writing prompts to fan your creative flame
Since I usually find landscapes inspiring, whether I look at one in person or in a painting or photograph, this Monday’s prompt is a sci-fi landscape. This scene intrigued me because the people in it don’t seem scared of the fiery meteor. They are focusing on it but their postures don’t reveal any fear. Why? Were they expecting it? Maybe meteors fly by all the time. I could start a story like this:
My little brother looked up from the praying mantis he was holding. We both watched the meteor soar out of sight.
“Do you think it’ll land where the others have?”
I said, “Sure. Why not?”
“Can we go see? Please?”
I rolled my eyes, but since I had to watch Jake any way, we might as well.
“Okay. But remember we have to be quiet.”
Jake bobbed his head up and down in agreement and hopped on his trike.
How does the picture inspire you?
Writing Tip — Fantastic Names
If you have been following my blog long, you know I love creating names for characters. I did a series of posts earlier in the year about what I’ve learned about this kind of writing. If you haven’t read them, here are the links for Post #1, Post #2, and Post #3 on naming characters.
I don’t write science fiction or fantasy, and those genres have their own unique rules for creating names. This post at Almost An Author covers this topic. Ms. Zimmerman’s first idea of looking at the root of words reminded me of how unfamiliar Latin words can make original names.
My husband likes birds, and we have bird identifiction books. As I was perusing one of them, I began reading the Latin names. The name for a barn owl is “Tyto alba”. I think that’s a great name for a fantasy hero. It sounds strong and noble. If it’s a heroine, you could flip it,”Alba Tyto.” It’s unusual but easy to pronounce, which is critical for your readers.
Other Latin words with name potential are “Strix”, “Asio”, “Surnia Ulula” — a northern hawk-owl — “Athene,” “Nyctea”, “Saya”, and “Sasin”.
If you write in either science fiction or fantasy and need to create names, where do you get your inspiration?
