Mystery – October 19

“You just don’t know writers. They’ll use anything, anybody. They’ll eat their own young.” -Philip Marlow in The Singing Detective as portrayed by Michael Gambon, born on this date in 1940. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist gets embroiled in a dispute between an authority and the authority’s child.

Mystery – October 18

Lee Harvey Oswald was born on this date in 1939. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers that someone who everyone thought capable of nothing except screwing up has actually pulled off the crime of the century.

Mystery – October 17

“Integrity is something you sell the public.” -Walter Chalmers in Bullitt, which premiered on this date in 1968. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a superior orders your protagonist to violate your protag’s integrity.

Mystery – October 16

Alafair Burke was born on this date in 1969. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is invited to a home from which every single thing has been stolen.

Mystery – October 15

Melanie Daniels: On Mondays and Wednesdays I work for the Travelers Aid at the airport. Mitch Brenner: Helping travelers? Melanie Daniels: No, misdirecting them. Salvatore Lombino — better known as Evan Hunter, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Richard Marsten, and the prolific Ed McBain — born this date in 1926, wrote these lines in the script for Hitchcock’s The Birds. Writing prompt:...

Mystery – October 14

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” -Hannah Arendt, born this date in 1906. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes the person who committed a horrible transgression has no idea why s/he did it.

Mystery – October 13

Writing prompt: Rewrite your favorite scene from your work in progress or a recent writing exercise from the perspective of another character in the scene.

Mystery – October 12

“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonora, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” -James Crumley, born this date in 1939. Writing prompt: Write an opening line to top that one.