Kill Writer's Block with Fish Bowl of Prompts

I came across this great tool floating around the internet. It's beautifully minimalist and straight to the point. Fish Bowl of Prompts offers one thing and one thing only: creative prompts.

This is the site's only page. It offers a cute description of a room with a fish bowl full of writing prompts sitting on a table and a bare-bones prompt. Click the "...Or something" button to get a new prompt.

Fish Bowl supposedly has "hundreds upon hundreds" of prompts, stylized as "small slips of paper". I haven't spent enough time clicking to find out if this is true or not, but there are certainly a lot of them. They range from the mundane and romantic-- "You should make something about... a coffee date!"-- to the slightly weird-- "...extraterrestrials!" and "...giant robots!" The prompts are short-- usually just a single word or short phrase. But they can be surprisingly evocative of tons of great ideas.

What do you think? Have you seen any tools like Fish Bowl of Prompts? What about other prompt generators or writer's block killers? Share them in the comments!

My Top Six Fiction Villains

A recent discussion with a group of friends led me to think about what makes the perfect villain. 

Villains, evil dudes, big bads, bad guys, baddies. Whatever you call them, they're usually antagonists. I say usually because one of the first pieces advice I ever received about writing them was to have them act as though they're the protagonist in their own story. Villains don't think of themselves as villains. They don't even think of themselves as antagonists. They are living their own lives (metaphorically); the "protagonist" of the main story is probably not the protagonist of the villain's story. 

Perfect villains, for me, have a few criteria. Their actions are usually unambiguously 'bad' or immoral (but not within their own moral code). They have to want the opposite of what the protagonist wants. And they have to have reasons-- but not justifications-- for being evil. 

4 Hogwarts House Mottos (And The Real-Life Organizations They Belong To)

Hey, none of these "new"mottos are official. They are not from canon or Pottermore, so don't go looking for them all confused. I'm just one of those Harry Potter fans.

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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is old. It's as old as the Crusades and almost as old as Charlemagne. So it's no surprise that it has an appropriately old and imposing motto: Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. It sounds less imposing in English: Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon. I imagine the four houses of Hogwarts have probably developed mottos of their own over the years.

Hufflepuff

Palma Non Sine Pulvere 

(Latin; "No Palm Without Dust", "No Reward Without Effort")

Down-to-earth Hufflepuffs are practically famous for their hard work and dedication. It's only natural that their motto would point out that it's impossible to get what you want without working for it.

Real Life: Greensboro College; Greensboro, North Carolina, United States

Ravenclaw

Excelsior (Latin; "Higher")

Ravenclaws strive to learn and better themselves mentally, so of course their motto would inspire higher learning. As a bonus, their element is air, so imagine an eagle flying and it's nearly impossible not to think Excelsior.

Real Life: New York City, New York, United States

Slytherin

Toujours Prêt (French; "Always Ready")

Slytherins are always ready to seize any opportunity that advances them towards their goal. This is also a play on "Toujours Pur", the motto of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, a historically Slytherin wizarding family. There's a joke in here somewhere about blood being thicker than water.

Real Life: 2d Stryker Cavalry Regiment, United States Army

Gryffindor

Dirigo (Latin; "I Lead")

Gryffindors, with fiery personalities, are natural leaders and most likely of the four houses to take charge of a dangerous situation.

Real Life: Maine, United States