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Prompts PDF

The document provides various writing prompts for participants of the "Sweet Summer Sweat '18" writing contest. The prompts include: 1) A self-fulfilling prophecy that drives the narrative and characters to their fates. 2) A comedic work where logical subversion leads to hilarious situations. 3) A story that exploits our fear of the unknown. 4) A thriller, horror, or comedy with time travel and the butterfly effect. 5) A work merging contradictory Jungian archetypes into complex characters facing dilemmas. 6) A response to the prompt "The King of Pandemonium" about finding purpose after defeat.

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Ankit Bhatt
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85 views4 pages

Prompts PDF

The document provides various writing prompts for participants of the "Sweet Summer Sweat '18" writing contest. The prompts include: 1) A self-fulfilling prophecy that drives the narrative and characters to their fates. 2) A comedic work where logical subversion leads to hilarious situations. 3) A story that exploits our fear of the unknown. 4) A thriller, horror, or comedy with time travel and the butterfly effect. 5) A work merging contradictory Jungian archetypes into complex characters facing dilemmas. 6) A response to the prompt "The King of Pandemonium" about finding purpose after defeat.

Uploaded by

Ankit Bhatt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sweet Summer Sweat ‘18 

 
General guidelines:
● Entries can be in any format: prose, poetry, drama, comic, or a combination
● There is no word limit
● Plagiarism is a sin

The Self - Fulfilling Prophecy


A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true,
by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to​ ​positive feedback between belief and
behaviour.

In the play ‘Oedipus Rex’ by Sophocles King Laius of Thebes was warned by the Oracle of
Delphi that his son was bound by prophecy to kill him. In an attempt to prevent this from
coming true Laius left his son to die on the slopes of mount Cithaeron. But fate conspired to
keep his son alive and he was adopted and raised by the childless King Polybus of Corinth
as Oedipus.
Oedipus was prophesied to murder his father and defile his mother’s marriage bed. Ironically
when he came to know of the prophecy he was compelled to leave Corinth to protect the
man he believed to be his father, resulting in Oedipus inadvertently fulfilling the prophecy by
killing his real father.

Write a work of fiction where the self - fulfilling prophecy drives the narrative and delivers the
characters to their fates.

Monty Pythonesque Application of Logic and Etymology


Why are fire trucks red?
Because they have eight wheels and four people on them, and four plus eight makes twelve,
and there are twelve inches in a foot, and one foot is a ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was a
ruler, and Queen Elizabeth was also a ship, and the ship sailed the seas, and there were fish
in the seas, and fish have fins, and the Finns fought the Russians, and the Russians are red,
and fire trucks are always “Russian" around, so that's why fire trucks are red!
Now writing a murder mystery can be tough, since murders are exclusive to the mysterious
treetop realm. Meanwhile, a group of individuals going by the name of Ornithologists are
claiming that a murder can be easily demystified by proper observation of its surrounding
and the creatures that contribute to transpire it (the Detectives are in agreement with them
on this point). Isiah Fowl, an eminent Ornithologist says “It is rather funny that so many
books have been written on this subject when a rigorous application of sound reasoning and
logic can easily reveal the facts (the Detectives feel the same).” Incidentally, we are looking
for a funny piece of literature where a Pythonesque subversion of reason and logic leads to
some hilarious situations.

Cosmic Horror
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of
fear is fear of the unknown.
H P Lovecraft is regarded as one of the most significant 20th-century authors in the horror
genre. The primary idea behind a cosmic horror story is that human beings are insignificant
and inconsequential in the scope of cosmic reality. Grotesque and immensely powerful
entities who can comprehend the true nature of the universe or reality exist while the
humans live on in ignorance. Making contact with these entities can provide a glimpse of
‘true reality’, but the curiosity of a few people can have horrific consequences. These stories
derive their horror from the struggle of the protagonists to uncover the ‘truth’.This truth tests
the limit of their sanity as they come into contact with these great and terrible entities.

Write a work of literature that exploits our fear of that which we do not know or understand.

Butterfly Effect v/s Time travel


A butterfly flaps its wings in Australia and somewhere in the world a tornado emerges and
destroys thousands of homes, ruining three times as many lives. Far-fetched? Possibly.
Intriguing? Definitely.

In the play “An Inspector Calls” by J.B.Priestley, one of the characters, Sheila, is in a store
and tries on a dress. The dress doesn’t suit her and when looking in the mirror notices one of
the shop assistants smirking. Sheila, being in a bad mood already, goes to the boss and
uses her influence as a wealthy customer to get the worker fired. After a series of other
events the worker commits suicide. In this example it is important to point out that there are
small events before and after the explained event which combine to cause her death.
However, had she not been fired, she would not have died.

But what if the shop assistant had the ability to time travel and at some point during her path
towards suicide she decided to travel back in time and not smirk at the lady or remove the
mirror itself. Would it lead to a happier ending for her or does her attempt to “fix” things
eventually pave way for her downfall in an alternative way (due to another Butterfly effect
chain?).
Write a piece of literature (a thriller, a horror or just plain funny) with an underlying concept of
Butterfly effect v/s Time travel which has as many alternate endings as you like. Who wins?
Your choice.

Jungian Archetypes

Carl Jung believed in the existence of a Collective Unconscious.The Unconscious particular


to humans is populated with certain archetypes that can manifest themselves and give
direction to human thought and behaviour. Jung deduced existence of archetypes indirectly
by using literature, art, myths, religions and dreams. His analysis of these archetypes can
help an author starved of inspiration to create complex and compelling characters.

We want you to break this wheel and merge the archetypes on the opposite ends of a spoke
(or as near opposite as you can manage). Your characters will face the dilemma of trying to
accommodate contradictory motivations or goals while staying true to both their archetypical
definitions.

The King Of Pandemonium

“Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings


A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.”
(from Paradise Lost, by John Milton)

The Satan said in his new abode, after God had banished him and other angels who had
risen in defiance of the Almighty and waged a war that shook His throne. Wounded from His
smite, defeated and fallen from their grace, his fellow soldiers laid with no hope burning in
the flames of no light. All of them lamented their gnawing misery in the ​inferno​, a place which
was far cry from their home, the heaven.

Now, you are the rebellion child who is lost in a place with no glimmer of hope, deserted by
his father. What are you going to do? Are you going to cherish your days of bliss in the
“happy realms of light”? Are you going to seek vengeance? Are you going to find a “heaven”
in hell sitting on the throne? (You can either be the devil or write something with semblance
to the situation given)

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