War Is Hell — But Your War Story Needn’t Be
Fictions October Prompt & Newsletter #3
I just finished watching Netflix’s Shadow and Bone. What a ride! Set in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, it’s a surprisingly captivating story in a world that echoes WW1-esque Russia and prohibition-era America. It stands at a pivotal moment in history when advances in war technology are rendering magic users less OP — over-powered, for those of you who aren’t gaming nerds like Eric Pierce and me.
It keeps the YA flavour of the original novels with a (somewhat tired) reluctant heroine trope — come on, girl, own your power! But the scenes featuring the trio pictured above, who plan and execute heists, are fun, fresh, and constantly surprising.
They’re also incredibly inspiring when it comes to storytelling.
For our October prompt, we’re borrowing two features from this series:
- It must be set during wartime
- It must include a deck of cards
As with our September prompt, these are intended to spark your creativity, not limit it. You might dig into something front-line, military, and realistic, like the incredible book-turned-miniseries Band of Brothers.
You could share a series of letters between war-torn lovers, like Amélie reads in the movie of the same name. I’d love to read a story in the vein of World War Z, which imagines yet another way the zombies take over (I’m looking at you, Patrick Metzger).
What if you go full Delta Green and head to Vietnam to stop the invasion of Cthulian creatures? Or perhaps you run a shady bar, and one day a familiar dame shows up who needs an escape route to America . . .
Likewise, the deck of cards could be a major element or an offhand remark. Maybe your character even goes to see clairvoyant Madame Sosostris and she deals you up “a wicked pack of cards” in the manner of T.S. Eliot.
Can’t wait to see what you cook up!
If you aren’t yet a writer for Fictions, please take a look at our Submission Guidelines and send your draft to fictionsatmedium@gmail.com.
Be sure to tag it Warishell so we can sort it properly!
September Prompt Entries
For the second half of the month, we only got two more entries for our Writingstrangerstories prompt, but they were both awesome!!
Ali submitted her first story to Fictions, with this gripping tale of a real weather phenomenon: “The Day It Rained Red.”
Talented microfiction writer Don Franke also shared his first with us, a nostalgic paranormal adventure about “Reconnecting.” I’ll be honest — I was teary-eyed by the end!
You can find the incredible range of submissions here. If you still have yours in the pipe, no worries. We’re always happy to accept another!
Serial Fever!
One of the major reasons Paul Combs, Eric Pierce, and I started Fictions was to home incredible serials. So if you have one brewing, definitely send it our way!
On that note, we’re only two installments away from wrapping up our Stolen Flask Adventure series, which comes out every Monday morning. It’s co-written with Jessie Waddell, Patrick Metzger, Paul Mansfield, and Eric Pierce and has been such a blast to collaborate on! If you’ve missed out on it or lost the thread, I retitled them so they’d be easier to navigate. You can find the whole story here.
Newsletters
I’ve tagged all our current writers in this one so we’re all on the same page, but it’d be super duper awesome if you all sign up for our newsletter to avoid this cumbersome step in future.
Thanks for being a part of this creative and inspiring community!
Otis Adams, Aimée Gramblin, Arpad Nagy, Lindsay Rae Brown, Lisa Gerard Braun, John Bullock, Corrie Alexander, JLRose, Jennifer Brewer, Samantha Lazar, Lori Lamothe, Maria Shimizu Christensen, Mary DeVries, Adam Hrankowski, ADHD, Mark Tulin, PJ Jackelman, Simon Dillon
