The Reunions Didn’t Go Well

  • mere vats of chemicalsby jen
  • put her forehead against the ottoman
  • a package of cat litter
  • Matt, in sweatsuit,
  • the reunions didn’t go well

The reunions didn’t go well, which is just the sort of thing that makes reality TV producers wet themselves. Everyone was clamoring to see Matt and Rebecca, the star-crossed lovers from Season 3, finally get together. The camera crew caught Matt, in sweatsuit, at the store buying a package of cat litter, when everyone knows that Rebecca has cat allergies so bad that mere vats of chemicals aren’t enough to help her. Obviously things weren’t going to go well. When Matt got to Rebecca’s house she had a sneezing fit and had to put her forehead against the ottoman so she wouldn’t pass out. When it became clear that Matt wasn’t willing to give up his cat for Rebecca, everyone knew their relationship was doomed before it even got rekindled, so then the producers switched over to Ryan and Alexis from Season 7. Oh boy, was that a nightmare!

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Choosing a Writing Partner, Part II: Compatibility

In the previous post, How to Choose a Writing Partner, we talked about why it’s critical to have shared areas of interest, and to generally agree on matters of taste. There were some other items on the list, so Part II will address the importance of compatibility in your approaches to writing.

Compatibility doesn’t have to mean sameness. If you like to write in the morning, you could still have a fruitful partnership with someone who doesn’t even get up until noon. But if your work schedules don’t coincide, you’ll need to set up a way of communicating about the project. There’s nearly always a way of working around mechanical and logistical issues. Just bear in mind that every complication in your working arrangements represents that much more drag on your system, and it saps energy that should go into your writing.

What’s harder to work around is conflicting attitudes about writing. You must both take it equally seriously, however light or heavy you make it. If you’re not aligned on that point, working together is nearly impossible. It’s important to know that “attitude” here doesn’t refer to someone’s general outlook or personality (although compatibility there helps, too).  In this context, we’re talking about the place writing holds in your life.

Two people don’t need identical writing attitudes in order to work well together; it’s all about compatibility. Similarity plays a big part in making us compatible, but differences are good. If you found a partner who was basically your clone, you couldn’t give each other any new ideas. Many of us wouldn’t get along with our clones, anyway.

To close, it’s worth stressing again that a writing partnership is not static, no more than any other type of relationship. Some partners get off to a rocky start, only to flourish once they learn each other’s styles. Of course, sometimes a rocky start means more bumps ahead. If you produce work that you both feel proud of, everything else will probably fall into place. But if the work doesn’t come out like you want it to, then it’s certainly not worth struggling with an awkward partnership. Even if you and your partner get along fantastically, if the work doesn’t make you proud, then you should reconsider the writing partnership.

I Always Used To

  • great hammer blows
  • I always used to envy children
  • my father’s arrogant stride
  • with that horse face
  • this surely must be a sin
  • they glowed crimson

I always used to envy children whose parents seemed normal, whereas my mother’s sinister leer was overshadowed only by my father’s arrogant stride. Mother’s leer was really something, with that horse face sporting eyes like a denizen of the depths — they glowed crimson. So, that should help put father’s arrogance into perspective.

Even today I blame them for where I wound up, doing body make-up on second-tier professional wrestlers. Casting blame, this surely must be a sin.

Today’s client insists on eating while I bronze his quads. Great Hammer blows on his soup, and my belly growls. I can’t eat until he’s in the ring.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

How to Choose a Writing Partner

You might be wondering how to choose a writing partner. Think of it like forming a rock band. It’s not just raw talent you want; the group must work seamlessly if they are to make beautiful music together. So it is with storytelling, too. Sam Keith, the original artist on Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic, said he felt like “Jimi Hendrix playing with the Beatles,” and bowed out. The partnership wasn’t working, despite the enormous levels of ability on both sides.

You and your writing partner must have at least some of these for the partnership to be successful:

  • overlapping interests
  • overlapping tastes
  • compatible work habits
  • compatible attitudes

Without some overlap of interests and tastes, you’ll never find a project that you’re both passionate about. A really good way to measure your common ground is to compare favorite authors or favorite books. If you don’t have favorites in common, it might mean you’re looking for different things as writers. But it might just mean you need to lend each other a few books and see what happens.

Divergence in your backgrounds and styles is crucial too. You each know things the other does not, which broadens the range of ideas you can work with together. You should encourage each other to play to your individual strengths, and learn from each other. A good partner will want to learn, and want to teach, and you’ll want to reciprocate.

Like any relationship, a writing partnership will evolve and grow over time. Don’t strive for perfect harmony; don’t think of conflict as failure. Your partner is helping you the most when she disagrees with you. Your partner will be your first reader, and you hers, which is your opportunity to smooth out some of the first-draftiness. That won’t work if you’re defensive or tentative. A good partner must be someone with whom you can argue and still remain friends.

We’ll talk about the importance of compatible work habits and attitudes next time.

Fernando Was Not

  • It gave birthby jen
  • Negligence and so forth
  • the three-trailer-long house
  • wrapped in brown paper
  • He was almost bald
  • And fell and fell and fell.
  • shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss or a woman’s breast

Fernando was not an attractive man. He was almost bald, for one thing. To disguise his naked scalp, he kept it wrapped in brown paper which made it seem shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss or a woman’s breast.

Fernando spent most of his time alone in the three-trailer-long house he called his Triplex of Solitude. It was three Airstream campers welded together.

Fernando’s days were spent daydreaming about hot celebrities he saw on the internet. His favorite fantasy was about how Angelina Jolie fell in love with him. And fell and fell and fell. She would parade around the Triplex, in Fernando’s fevered imaginings, wearing skimpy underwear. “Negligence and so forth,” he murmured.

Fernando was also not very bright.

His musings were interrupted one day by his pet turtle. It gave birth.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

When My Brother Arrived

  • nothing that would offend meby jen
  • My manservant read to him
  • decorated with red leather stitching
  • and another with lust
  • with a rueful chuckle
  • He abuses your trust
  • annoyed and proud at once

When my brother arrived for his visit he wore the boots decorated with red leather stitching that were his inheritance from our father. He was annoyed and proud at once, for those boots were Father’s most prized possessions, yet were worth very little monetarily when compared to the family estate which was left to me.

My manservant read to him two stories, as he requested, one with daring deeds and another with lust. “But,” my brother said with a rueful chuckle, “nothing that would offend me.”

Once my brother was asleep, my manservant came to me and said, “He abuses your trust. Those are not, in fact, the boots of your father.”

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

from the comments, Jen has another take on the same prompt:

“I want to hear a story,” the old priest demanded. “But nothing that would offend me, if you please.”

His request made me feel both annoyed and proud at once, so I had my manservant read to him from the big black book decorated with red leather stitching that has been in my family for countless generations.

Afterwards the priest took me aside to gossip about my manservant. “He abuses your trust,” he said with a rueful chuckle. “I smelled alcohol on his breath. He read one story with vice in it, and another with lust.”

I nodded, secretly pleased that my manservant had done just as I told him.

No Doubt Your Husband

  • equivalent of applause
  • the salty pork filling
  • no doubt your husband
  • played Matthew’s harpsichord
  • they’re so bloody stupid
  • wood and brick and flesh
  • not unobtrusive enough

No doubt your husband sent you to the Music Conservancy to learn the arcane styles of the baroque period, and that is how it came to pass that you played Matthew’s harpsichord. Your performance earned you the equivalent of applause, the salty pork filling as they sometimes call it, from Matthew.

Your urgent conjoinment in his quarters shook the building physically and emotionally, creating of he and you and the house a single perspiring being of wood and brick and flesh. Such assignations must be unobtrusive, and yours was not unobtrusive enough. It is common knowledge on campus.

No doubt your husband is ignorant of your carnal explorations among the faculty, as they so often are. They’re so bloody stupid.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

The Adult Conspiracy

  • a ninety percent chance of success!by jen
  • a large raindrop, then another
  • to cook in spite of her protests
  • when I emerged from customs
  • adult conspiracy to spoil Beatrice
  • drawing back from his kisses
  • with its own gin palace

The adult conspiracy to spoil Beatrice‘s appetite stood a ninety percent chance of success! They continued to cook in spite of her protests that she wanted to save room for dinner, like her momma said she should, and soon tears fell from her eyes like a large raindrop, then another.

I knew when I emerged from customs that this was an unusual country – with its own gin palace at the airport and everything. Beatrice’s mother could be seen there, through the window, flirting shamelessly with a man who was not her husband, but drawing back from his kisses just in time. Did she know what the customs officials were trying to do, right then, to her darling daughter’s diet?

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Uncle Timothy Despairs

  • her father’s protege in the city
  • choked with seaweed
  • (she called it fizzy)
  • a great deal of reviewing
  • I slithered to the chemist
  • Uncle Timothy despairs
  • sometime between 1887 & 1889

“Uncle Timothy despairs of finding the antidote in time,” Salome wept. Timothy was not her real uncle, but a longtime family friend; her father’s protege in the city.

The inundation had remade the city, and its dwellers. Avenues choked with seaweed, corner vendors selling sea cucumber sandwiches to lithe, scaly pedestrians.

My preparations for a sojourn had remade me likewise. I slithered to the chemist, the love of my life, Salome, and tried to console her. I knew she would be my salvation — she already had an effervescent concoction (she called it fizzy) that had almost worked.

Sometime between 1887 & 1889, the comet had grazed our atomsphere… the answer was in the Farmers’ Almanac, but finding the right pages would entail a great deal of reviewing.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Stichomancy Writing Prompts

These nuggets of fictive gold were created using writing prompts gathered by culling random lines and phrases from books (or other sources, see below). The word stichomancy means “divination by lines” and refers to a fortune-telling technique. Employing it for writing prompts is a procedure that we honed to a fine art at our critique group meetings in a bookstore. It’s uncomplicated: grab a random book, flip to a random page, and point to a random line. The art lies in spotting those lines with the quirkiest personality when taken out of context. We became especially adept at creating surreal and demented lists to work from, and assigning them to each other. (Much more fun to see someone else grapple with it than to inflict it on yourself!) The results are brief, largely unedited, and often ridiculous.

The bulleted list of sentence fragments at the top is the fodder. The assignment is to take those disparate phrases and wrangle them into a single, short, coherent (with any luck) little gem. We typically skew ours toward bizarre humor, but there’s no rule against using a more serious tone. As you can imagine, the quality level varies. Not all works of microfiction are successful. Bonus points for running the list in order, or for using it all in a single sentence.

Sometimes the fragments come from song lyrics, sometimes from books. We’ve also pulled prompts from blogs, menus, TV dialog, and conversation.

When we’re feeling competitive we’ll both use the same prompt and see who comes up with the best/most ridiculous result.

There are other kinds of prompts that we use sometimes, but this is our favorite.

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!