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This is a heavy one.

Prompt 27: A character's loved one dies. What does their grief look like? What decisions or steps do they take because of this?

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Prompt 26: A character mishears or misinterprets an instruction or plan. Write about the events that follow.

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Prompt 25: One character makes an assumption about another character, which may or may not be true. Explore their dynamics and biases. What disagreements or conflicts does this lead to?

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Prompt 24: Begin a scene by describing an unusual/unexpected action, such as a character breaking all the mirrors in their house. Explore the reasons for it, the reactions to it, and what remains unsaid to build tension.

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Prompt 23: Your character decides to give up on their goals. What prompts this? What do they do instead? Are they able to go back to their old way of life? What would it take for them to resume their journey towards said goals?

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(From Chapter 18 of #ThoseWhoCreateAndDestroy. Jules, an alchemist and mystic, has his refuge in the substrate of reality, beneath and beyond the world of forms. Re: #30WritingPrompts No. 22, courtesy of @wordswithnima ✨)

He stumbled over to the door; shut it; locked it; then slumped back against it and sank to the floor.

After a few more ragged breaths, he let out a sudden, sharp shriek, bunched his scarf, and scrubbed furiously at his neck.

He sagged then, closed his eyes; let his head come to rest against the door frame. Outside, the wind seemed to be picking up. Jules’s heart skipped a beat as a tree branch slapped a nearby window.

After a moment of breathless silence, his trembling left hand alighted palm-down on the rug. A calm washed through him as the bounds of his being dissolved; as webs of light bloomed before his inner eye, and arpeggios soared through his brain.

https://readformandvoid.com/the-nullweaver-cycle/those-who-create-and-destroy/chapter-eighteen/

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Prompt 22: When your protagonist hits rock bottom, when it seems like they're losing, where do they go? What does their refuge look like? What items or memories does it hold? How does this help them move forward?

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Prompt 21: Explore the memories and sentimentalities that an object holds. What do these associations tell us about your characters?

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(From Chapter Twenty of #ThoseWhoCreateAndDestroy. The context: After performing a magical feat that saved lives during a public tragedy, transmasc alchemist Jules Nimri has become the target of a campaign started by his former-abuser-turned-political-rival to label him a fraud and his actions staged. Re: #30WritingPrompts No. 20, courtesy of @wordswithnima ✨)

Cyrano hadn’t been in the council chamber the night of May 14th. He’d heard the stories of people who had, read all about it in the papers. Kept diplomatically silent through countless circle-jerks among Silas and Teddy and the rest of their crew where they’d droned on and on about how Nimri’s part in it all had been "so obviously fake."

Needless to say, Cyrano was the only one in the bunch who’d actually bothered to find and read Nimri’s treatise on field alchemy, which had recently, quietly appeared on one of the shelves in the department library. The theory outlined in its pages was immaculate. If anything, it was the degree of skill required for execution of the proposed techniques that made what Nimri had done on the night of the attack seem impossible. Completing the tattooed arrays accurately and in the necessary sequence in the mere seconds it would take for one or more reagents to complete their journey through the tattooed channels on his arm seemed like a feat that would demand superhuman focus and dexterity—not to mention years, at minimum, of practice and memory work to master all the combinations. And mana-materia equivalency, while, in principle, it likewise held up to scrutiny, in practice seemed to stray into the realm of mysticism. In the section of his tract describing the process of mana-materia conversion, Nimri’s otherwise-spartan academic prose declined with startling suddenness into gibberish, with the Philosopher waxing baroque about arpeggios and mandalas and psychic self-immolation. Cyrano had read this portion of the paper at least five times trying to grok it, and each time it had seemed to make even less sense than the last.

Nevertheless, when presented with the perennial claim that Nimri was a fraud, Cyrano privately dismissed it as a conspiracy theory. The available evidence just didn’t support it. He’d concluded, however, that he could at least sympathize with what he assumed was the reason so many people found this baseless fabrication appealing:

It was easier to swallow, by far, than the thoroughly intimidating prospect that everything Jules Nimri had done on the night of May 14th had been exactly as it appeared.

https://readformandvoid.com/the-nullweaver-cycle/those-who-create-and-destroy/chapter-twenty/

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Prompt 20: Describe a past event that residents of your world can't forget. Look at how differing perspectives and power inequalities may cause accounts of this event to change. What stories are passed down orally? How is the event recorded in texts?

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(Excerpt from #ThoseWhoCreateAndDestroy. Jules, who recently almost died protecting a crowd from a rogue automaton, faces something he finds infinitely more terrifying: a verbal confrontation with his former abuser. What motivates him to engage? He sees Hunter poised to do more harm, and something in him is driven to stop the cycle. Re: #30WritingPrompts, courtesy of @wordswithnima ✨)

Jules found Hunter in an alcove a short way down from Scaeva Hall, where the Master-Savant stood flanked by his detail of Ordinators, talking quietly with his mother and his rumored new girlfriend, Mercy Treloar.

Jules hesitated several yards off, when they still hadn’t seen him yet. When it still wasn’t too late to turn back.

Then, his heart knocking against his ribs,

“Hunter!” he yelled.

All three of them turned to face him. Nigella donned a mask of cold, alabaster loathing. Mercy Treloar planted one hand on her hip, her nose wrinkling in a mean-girl sneer.

Hunter—most disturbingly of all—smiled. “Juliana. Isn’t this a surprise.”

Jules suppressed the urge to correct him. Right now, he had to pick his battles. “Can I speak to you in private?”

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Prompt 19: Explore your character's fears. What might make them face these fears and perform acts of courage, big or small, when every cell in their body is urging them to run away?

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Prompt 18: Write about an item/commodity that's considered important or valuable in your fictional world. How does it play into the societal structure or main plot?

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Prompt 17: Continuing on from prompts 15 & 16, write a scene in which your character's beliefs are threatened, for better or for good.

This is the next leg of your character's journey. By now, you should know what their defining beliefs are and how they play into the character's actions and decisions. What happens when familiar patterns are broken?

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Prompt 16: Explore how the defining inner beliefs of your character (see Prompt 14) play into their dynamics with others. Write a scene that brings these beliefs to light – thru an argument with another character, a plan that furthers the main plot, or an emotional reaction to witnessing an experience similar to the one in your character's childhood.

Focus on dialogue, your character's voice, the words they use.

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For interested parties who liked or replied to my toot about #microfiction here are a few existing efforts we might be interested in: @tanweerdar has a lovely #MastoPrompt going for poems and stories. @wordswithnima has a #30WritingPrompts 30 day challenge to help with those working on their novels (applicable to short stories too!). @strange_aeons has a horror-focused #horror365 crew making some wicked stuff.

(From Chapter 7 of #ThoseWhoCreateAndDestroy. Another flashback to the Academy years, this time from Rory's perspective. Re: #30WritingPrompts No. 15, courtesy of @wordswithnima ✨)

“If I stopped being pretty, would you still like me?”

Rory masticated an ill-timed, overlarge bite of his turkey-and-mustard sandwich. “You mean, like,” he mused around gulps, “if you got hit by a truck and came out looking like an orc?”

Julie laughed into the back of her hand—that graceless, honking goose-laugh that always seemed to explode out of her against her will. Before he’d gotten to know her, Rory had thought she wasn’t capable of laughter. “No.” She sobered suddenly. “I meant if I…looked more like a boy.”

“Oh.” It seemed like an unusually silly question coming from Julie. Between the two of them, Rory was typically the one tossing out aimless hypotheticals. “As a friend, yeah.” He shrugged. “Of course.”

Julie pried a chip of polish from her thumbnail. “That’s all we are anyway, isn’t it? … Friends?”

https://readformandvoid.com/the-nullweaver-cycle/those-who-create-and-destroy/chapter-seven/

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Prompt 15: Describe a formative/defining event in your character's childhood from a relative/friend/bystander's perspective.

Look at how their perceptions of this event can be contrasted with the character beliefs formed through the previous prompt.

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(From Part 3 of #ThoseWhoCreateAndDestroy, when we finally find out what Jules wrote in the story he gave Max in Chapter 11. A flashback to Jules's sixth year at Arcanus Academy, pre-transition. Re: #30WritingPrompts No. 14, courtesy of @wordswithnima ✨)

“You’re beautiful, Juliana. You should be happy.”

It was something a grownup had said to him once; a friend of his parents', trying to elicit a smile. For almost a year now, he’d spoken it like a mantra every morning to his bedroom mirror. Possibly it comforted Juliana. She always beamed back at him sweetly, a foreign, exotic creature in ribbons and a pleated skirt.

It didn’t especially comfort him…but he’d concluded long ago that that wasn’t what mattered.

“Juliana!”

He followed the sound of his name, reluctantly, and found his father in the library, scowling down at his report card. “This is disgraceful.”

Jules shrank. “I’m sorry. I really am trying.”

“That’s impossible. No Nimri fails at goetia. You simply haven’t devoted enough time to the practice of it.”

There was truth in that. Jules hated goetia, so he didn’t generally dedicate any more time to it than he had to. The daemons always mocked him. His instructors had advised repeatedly that he lacked the force of personality to command them.

“You’re constantly on that computer of yours, or doodling around at the piano,” his father noted. “I’ve half a mind to take them both away.”

“Please don’t do that. I’ll get my marks up this term, I promise.”

Jules’s mother appeared in the doorway. “What’s all this fuss about?”

“Have you seen this?” Thorsten brandished the report.

“I have.” Alexandra raised an eyebrow in challenge.

“It’s shameful.” Thorsten flung the card down on the table in front of him.

“No, it isn’t. Most of those marks are exemplary. Professor Grenier stopped me in the Atrium yesterday just to praise Julie’s performance in her Introduction to Alchemy course.”

“A Nimri has no use for science,” muttered Thorsten.

“He’s saying he might take my piano and computer away,” Jules appealed quietly to his mother.

“Oh, honestly, Thorsten. If you had your way our poor girl would never have a stitch of fun.”

“Go to your room, Juliana,” ordered Thorsten. “And stay there till it’s time for you to go to school.”

“Am I being punished?” asked Jules.

“Not yet.” His father eyed Alexandra sternly. “Clearly, your mother and I need to come to an agreement on the appropriate response to your poor performance.”

The library door shut behind him. Jules could hear raised voices as he shuffled off down the hall. His parents were deeply in love with each other. The only thing they ever seemed to fight about was him.

“You’re beautiful, Juliana,” he whispered to the full-length mirror in his room, as he eased the door shut behind him. “You should be happy.”

This time, it didn’t work on Juliana, either. The girl in the mirror looked as miserable as he felt.

https://readformandvoid.com/the-nullweaver-cycle/those-who-create-and-destroy/chapter-eleven/

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Prompt 14: Describe a formative/defining event in your character's childhood from their own perspective.

[A lot of the decisions that characters make come from belief systems, usually misguided/false ones, that are formed early on. As the plot proceeds, a character's false beliefs come into play thru their actions & perceptions, and by the end of an arc, these beliefs change to show character development.]

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