puzzleprompts | Puzzle Prompt Reveal ~ June 2020 (Reply)

Power Hour: Aquatic Adaptation

Creature: Anatidae

Classifieds Section/Sports & Recc: Musician

Mother Nature: River

Random Object: Rocks

Sense and Sensibilities:
Sight: ripples
Sound: honking
Smell: marshy
Taste: fresh
Touch: slimy
Emotion: serene

Thanks for checking out our monthly art and writing challenge. Puzzle Prompts is meant to give you the building blocks of a story when you need some inspiration, no matter your genre or creative outlet.

The Way This Works:
I give you some prompts. You use as many prompts as you can to create a story, essay, poem, work of art, or even gaming campaign. Prompts are organized into categories you can use for setting, action, conflict/crisis, who, what, when, where, why, and how of a story.

Each category prompt is meant to have multiple variations in order to be useful for any artist or writer - be they into fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction, space opera, historical fiction, steampunk, urban fantasy, non-fiction, and poetic writing.

Aquatic Adaptation is the ability to live, breathe, or move rapidly underwater. Some ways to gain this power could be natural or alien ability, sci-tech, magic, or a virus that mutates one’s DNA.
For more variations and examples of how this power has been used in comics, cartoons, anime, and live action media see Superpower Wiki - Aquatic Adaptation. Your scifi horror story might center around an invasion by amphibious aliens who want earth for its oceans, lakes, and rivers. One of your heroes could be the engineer who develops advanced technology to allow humans to fight the aliens underwater. Your misguided anti-villain could be a scientist who tries to make human-alien hybrids, hoping to stop the war.

The biological family of Anatidae includes ducks, geese, and swans. Searching for a river or lake, rumored to still have water fowl and fish, could be the main action in your war, famine, or post-Apocalyptic story. Going duck hunting together could be a way your queer main character can connect with their father in your YA coming of age story. A talking swan that bestows a magical favor or curse could be the inciting incident of your children’s story. Or your fantasy romance could center around a person who transforms into a goose by day.

Your musician could be a secretly evil, magical, or simply harried piano teacher in a children’s story. In your YA romance they could be a student who falls in love with someone in their high school band. Your anti-hero might be a working class punk rocker in your sociopolitically focused historical fiction set in the 70’s era London scene. Becoming a famous musician might be the motivating force for your tragic hero who makes a deal with a demon or deity of music. Or perhaps they are a medieval bard who enchants a fae, leading to doomed love or his abduction to Fairyland.

Your story might center around a flutist or lyre player in ancient Greece who likes to go to the local river to play. There, they attract the attention, jealousy, or admiration of a muse, deity, mermaid, or siren. Perhaps, in anger, the muse gets Zeus to turn the musician into a goose. Or a besotted deity turns into a swan in order to get close to the musician without giving away their identity. Maybe the musician and mermaid fall in love, and Aphrodite agrees to bless the musician with the ability to live underwater, but only if they give up their music.

Sense and Sensibilities is a reminder to make your story come alive using the senses and emotions of the POV character.

Puzzle Prompts is meant to inspire. To tickle your muse and get you exercising those little grey cells. Maybe even try out something new in your writing. Above all, have fun!

For more inspiration, check out The Art Room and our Music Monday posts.

Happy Creating, Everyone!