Promptly: Write Fast, Write Now!

By August Niehaus

Go from zero to a decent hero (plus a concept and a world) in no time!

"Promptly: Write Fast, Write Now!" will spark your imagination with writing prompts from every category important to fleshing out a strong idea: characters, concepts, conflicts, and settings. Mix and match using the guides provided to go from no idea at all to the bare bones of a working novel!

Fire up your imagination with the must-have resources in this book, from worksheets to prompt lists. Intended for writers of speculative fiction (like fantasy, science fiction, horror, magical realism, and everything in between), "Promptly" will challenge you to think of your world and the characters that populate it from new angles that will get you to write fast... right now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Halftree Press
• Release date: Sep 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393577584

Book preview

Promptly: Write Fast, Write Now!

By August Niehaus

Copyright 2019 August Niehaus

All rights reserved.

First Edition

Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication without express written consent for any reason other than classroom education is strictly prohibited. The author appreciates you taking the time to read and enjoy this work. Please consider leaving a review on Goodreads.com or the online retailer where you purchased it, or tell your friends about it and help me spread the word!

Thank you for your support.

Find more from August at AugustWritesABook.com

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

How to use this book

STOP!

The actual exercises

5- and 7-day writing plans

Recommended reading

STILL CAN’T DECIDE, PLEASE HELP

Generation prompts

Concept prompts

Character prompts

Setting prompts

Conflict prompts

Worksheets

A final word

Acknowledgments

For Jake, who gave me the words and the worlds.

For Mom, who taught me how to love learning.

And for Jill, who pestered me until I made this a book and not just a few posts on social media.

Introduction

Who subscribed to Writer’s Digest in the early 2000s? Raise your hand!

Oh, just me?

Maybe I kept them alive single-handedly. I bought all of their prompt books, especially when I had a deal (like four books for $10). Prompt books were always my thing, and I devoured them ravenously from Writer’s Digest, the library, Third Place Books, anywhere I could find them.

The thing was, I never found The One Prompt Book. I always believed it was out there somewhere, waiting for me to discover it. Now I’m deep in my 20s, and I still buy every prompt book I lay eyes on, and I still haven’t found The One.

So maybe I’m supposed to write The One.

Is Promptly The One? Perhaps, perhaps not. I’m not sure I can ever know, because I wrote it. But I know that I put what I want in a prompt book into Promptly, and I hope that if you’re a writer who’s anything like me, you’ll get what you want out of this book too.

I’ll warn you now: the prompts largely skew towards the fantastic. I write mostly in speculative genres—defined as any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements—and my prompts sort of assume that you do too. If you’re not usually a writer of the speculative but are interested in trying your hand and aren’t sure where to start, Promptly is perfect for you; it’ll give you a taste of how to write this kind of story.

Why are these prompts aimed at speculative writers? In part, because I assume you’ll be doing some worldbuilding and/or bending the rules of the natural world to your will. Things won’t be as they are here in real life, and sometimes you’ll need to write about that. The prompts will ask you to consider