Writing Prod - Heroic Rebirth

            Yahoooooo! It’s Monday.

            Alright, for many of you that probably means back to work and looking at another long week. And for all of you in that boat – I feel for you. However, to me Monday is my most fun blogging day because this is when I do the Writing Prod.

            This is the fourteenth week for this feature. When I started it, I don’t know that I expected to come up with this many methods of generating unique story plots. And really, that is my main goal for these prods; to help people to come up with ideas that will make great novels.

            Today’s prod is Heroic Rebirth. With this prompt you choose someone that you greatly admire (historic figures work best) and place them into a fantastic setting. Then figure out how they would react. Use the traits that you admire in this person to solve the story problem that they have been plopped into.

            This prompt is very similar to one I introduced a couple of weeks back – Where Fantasy and Reality Collide. That earlier method is intended to come up with quirky stories that play off the “duck out of water” element that comes about when you mix the real with the made-up. As opposed to the more serious stories you are likely to create using this prompt.

            You’re basically creating a fictional story that runs along the lines of a real one. You can do this to emphasize a strong characteristic of the person you’ve selected (like Abe Lincoln’s honesty) or to present a theme in a fresh setting.

            For my example I am going to use Mother Teresa as the template for one of the characters in my story and place her in a Science-Fiction setting.

            Aliens Have Mothers Too

Becky graduated at the top of her class in Xeno studies. With the recent advances in warping technology the whole universe is open for exploration. She can hardly believe it when the governing board for Interstellar Research and Exploration assigns her to the most vital interspecies negotiation the Earth has ever participated. Until she finds out that she will be playing translator and nurse-maid to a talkative old woman without even a rudimentary education in alien affairs. What can Mamma Maude, as she insists on being called, bring to the table of interstellar diplomacy that will convince the rest of the universe to accept Earth into their community of civilized sentients.