Writing Prompts: The Tale of Gandhi as Erotic Fiction ... And Go!

Last week, my friend and I looked to 'get inspired' about writing. As I've mentioned, I do my best writing when I'm depressed; and I've done an extremely good job of staying upbeat. But, we still entertain our dreams of writing.

Realizing (as I'd said earlier) that good writing starts with good characters, we sought out some writing prompts sites, in an effort to 'spark' our thinking. Hopefully, we would come up with something that would lead us into a path that could snowball.

That didn't happen.

It would be great if there were databases online that combined things that made sense. A wily and courageous rogue-like character with questionable morals and commitment issues facing a stable and secure life with no adventure -- how does he deal with the change? I can work with that. Instead, what you get is the writing prompts version of MadLibs -- there's no consideration given to whether the items pulled from the databases make sense together; just that where a subject is called for, a subject is provided; and where an adjective is called for, an adective is provided.

And, as such, you end up with "prompts" like these -- these are "fusion" tales:

• The story of Jack and the Beanstalk envisioned as a legal drama tale. 
• The story of Noah envisioned as a high-school comedy tale.
• The story of the Odyssey envisioned as a cyberpunk tale.
• The story of Cinderella envisioned as a blaxploitation buddy tale.

Or, perhaps you can could up at the What If-inator:

• What if ... the fall of Mankind from the Garden of Eden involved zookeepers?
• What if ... Leonardo Da Vinci had access to antidepressants?
• What if ... Saint Peter was a football player?
• What if ... Lewis Carroll was indirectly responsible for the McCarthy Trials?
• What if ... Ronald Reagan was the descendant of Christ?

Of course, the more you try to achieve, the more chance there is for absurdity. The 'fully-fleshed out' stories have 1-2 components that could be decent; but the combinations are far more comical:

• The story must have a gazelle involved in the middle. The story must involve a robe in the beginning. A character becomes intoxicated, but the intention behind the action is not what it seems. A character is hateful throughout most of the story. During the story, a character gets a demotion.
• The story must have an elephant in it. The story must involve a hatchet in it. During the story, a character is forced to go shopping.
• The story starts on a battlefield. During the story, there is an attack. A character makes someone a meal. A character becomes calm during the story. During the story, a character eats something they haven't had in a while.
• A character gets a new hairstyle. A character becomes controlling during the story. The story must have a merchant involved in the middle. The story starts during a party. During the story, there is a sudden change in temperature.
• The story is about a psychologist and an unbalanced scuba diver. It starts in an arctic country. The issues of faster-than-light-travel and its effects on economics is a major element of the story.
• The story is about a rude gym teacher who hates a blacksmith. It starts in a mansion in a small city. A rebellion against technology plays a major role in this story.
• This is an odd-couple-teams-up tale with a focus on the war between the sexes. The story is about an antisocial beastmaster. It starts in a firehouse in an outpost. The story begins with someone discovering a report about themselves, climaxes with spying, and ends with a religious ceremony. The differences alien societies may have regarding romance is a major element of this story.
• This is a gross-out comedy. The story is about a grave robber. It takes place in a small city on a desert planet. The differences alien societies may have regarding business is a major element of this story.

I don't know if there's even ONE  idea there that's viable without doing a copious amount of narcotics. And, even then, I'd put my money on writer's block.

Finally, one particular prompt tries to get you to tie your story to a more familiar iconic series; for example:

• The giant robot story where the robots map to the four color process of printing (CMYK).
• The screwball comedy story set on a space station where the different sections map to the twelve Olympians of Greecian Legend.
• The dramatic story about communications officers where the characters map to the trinity of father-mother-child.
• The dramatic story about fences where the characters map to the four seasons (spring-summer-autumn-winter).
• The story set in a world where the crimes recognized by the legal system map to the twenty-six letters of the Alphabet.

(hmmmm....actually, that last one is pretty cool -- I guess, even a broken clock is right, twice a day!)

So, we're where we started -- no real inspiration; no real ideas; a whole lot of laughing. For all my would-be writer friends -- how do you come up with ideas? Any good sites you know of to spark the creativity mojo?