Muse Prompting Monday - Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring:

Spring: growth, change, new life, these things come to mind as I look at the bulbs starting to sprout in my garden. It also makes me think about the characters in my various works in progress, which could easily be applied to anyone's characters. What changes are they they going through? What new things will they experience? What new things will they learn?


In regards to the plants, I'm pretty sure these are the daffodil bulbs coming up based on the location of the garden.

Muse Prompting Monday - Nano Go!

I've been wanting to upload this picture for a few weeks now. I took this picture back on October 9th while watching the sun set over Cayuga Lake. With National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo aka Nano) starting tomorrow I'm scheduling a post for the first time (it's Sunday morning as I type this).

I'm not sure how this will inspire the muses of others. It could be a nature story or perhaps something about being captured or life's struggles. It's hard to tell in the thumbnail, but if you click the picture to see the full size the bird has something in its beak. I think the bird is a kingfisher.

Muse Prompting Monday

The fairy tree waiting for a fairy to make a home within it. Or perhaps a character with a more fanciful imagination might dream about little fairies in a place like this. Or maybe a tree like this is on someone's property and they are annoyed with cleaning up after it. (Yes, the crab apple trees in my front yard already lost their leaves. Fall cleanup is on my mind.)

I can't believe I let a week go by without updating my blog. Aside from some e-mail I haven't been online much this past week. I did see the comments on my previous posts, which are much appreciated. I'm hoping this week will be better for blogging, at least I'm not as tired out as last week.

Muse Prompting Monday: 3D

I made this scene awhile back and it reminds me of part of the landscape in my fantasy work in progress. Of course it doesn't have to inspire fantasy scenarios to others as there is nothing in the image that says "oh look I'm in a fantasy world". Then again this image is more flexible and allows for more creativity.

I used Bryce to create this image. The program is fairly easy to use and not to expensive. Once I've created a scene it usually only takes a few minutes for the program to process the rendering (the final image).

Muse Prompting Monday

A walk down a pine needle peppered path. I thought this would be a fun photograph to use for my Muse Prompting series. I like some of the other photographs from this area better, but the roots in this shot look like they are waiting to trip an unsuspecting character. And without the sky seen the time of day is a little more ambiguous, leaving more to the imagination.

Imagine character(s) on this path. Is someone walking alone? Running away from someone else? Or perhaps a romantic stroll?

Story Starters - Science Fiction

The story starters I wrote for today, the genre being science fiction.

"Welcome to 1965, Cindy," the mechanical voice said as the door slid open revealing a foreign panorama before her.

In the caves of planet Allelle evil lurked in the shadows of the city. She knew this, but the caves still called her.

In a system where nothing usually ever happened Jen threw the emergency reverse on the shuttle dodging the first attack wave.

Shuttle pilot for hire had sounded so much more interesting when he'd first signed up. Now here he was in this boring sector

So much for the stars like in the novels of old, Klinda thought. She glared at the deep water through her bedroom portal.

Story Starters

Short post tonight, I mainly wanted to highlight the fact that it's genre week for Story Starters over on Twitter this week. Today was fantasy, yesterday romance. Clicking the link will load a search for story starters on twitter.

I also figured I'd share some of mine for today here:
~Derick ignored those around him on the busy sidewalk. The light shifted and he found himself in a forest, he looked around.

~The sea of Irella glowed in the gathering dusk, casting the mage poised at her shores in a blue light.

The knight raised his sword challenging the dragon. In a blur of motion, the maiden sword in hand was blocking him.

Me on Twitter

Muse Prompting - an introduction

A while back I had a blog for posting images, which writers could use for inspiration if they wanted. Long story short I hadn't updated that blog much, or very recently. I still like the idea of posting images and other prompts, so I figured I could have some muse prompting in my writing blog.


I do tend to gravitate towards scenery, it's fun to imagine what sorts of characters might wander into the setting. I made this with Bryce, a 3D rendering program. I also have a program that works with figures (DAZ studio) which I'll use for more prompts sometime soon.

The old Muse Prompting blog.