Takhayyal writing prompt 109: Oh the Horror! Artwork by J Edward Neill

Welcome HALLOWEEN! 

And welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves, Fae, Zombies, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; WELCOME EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal!

 

Nothing like a little darkness to awaken the demons ahead of the 31st!

And this time, I'm featuring horror-writing and dark-artist J Edward Neill!

 

Now feast your eyes on this painting and let it inspire you…

 

By the way, Neill calls this painting "Forgotten Sanctuary" but don't let that stop you from sending chills up readers' spines.

 

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a means to get inspired and spark our writing once more.

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction; you name it and write it.

General rules:General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·  Use the image for inspiration and write your piece in the comments below or publish it on your blog and leave the link to it in the comments

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·     It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets or tag me @NadanessSobhi and I'll retweet you :)

 

About the artist from the artist himself

I’m J Edward Neill, fiction author, Coffee Table Philosophy creator, giant canvas painter, and mood-swingy blogger.

You’ve walked over the edge of the world. Thanks for taking the plunge.

A little bit about me: I’m an author, and I write deep, dark fiction, imaginative sci-fi, and thoughtful philosophy. Any day that dies without me putting in a few hours of writing is a day I didn’t really live.  I write the kind of stories I like to read, and I’m inspired by any book centered on the characters rather than the plot. My books are available here.

I also love to paint. The bigger the canvas, the better. My favorite subjects are clouds, trees, dark portraits, and cold, dark places. I twirl a ton of canvasses as companion pieces for my books. My favorite personal works are right here.

Follow J Edward Neill via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and Goodreads. You can also follow Neill's weekly blog http://tesseraguild.com

Now, Let's IMAGINE! 

Takhayyal writing prompt 106: Red Sea Dreams

Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's monthly picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal or Imagine.

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a challenge for writers of all ages and genres; a place to spark creativity and explore new genres.

Finally April is here, which where I'm from means lots of wind and dust and in other parts of the world, it's when flowers bloom. But considering the on-going coronavirus pandemic, even if there are blooming flowers somewhere no one will be out to enjoy them.

That said April is National Poetry Month. So combining poetry month with home-confinement for many across the world, and some reports that the earth is finally breathing since humanity is cooped up, I think it is fitting to have another nature-inspired writing prompt.

This time I'm featuring photography from friend Sara Shaker. You can follow her on Instagram for more photography and nature photography.

I was with her when this picture was taken in Abou Galloum, the Red Sea, Egypt. It's a gorgeous location for snorkeling and diving. Once this pandemic recedes, I highly recommend you visit and take a swim.

So, look at the image, there are corals beneath the water, and let your imagination take flight. What happens beneath the pristine waters of the Red Sea? If you were there right now, what would you do? Do you have fins to swim with the fish?

Photography by Sara Shaker, near Abou Ghalloum, the Red Sea, Egypt

Whether you write short stories, flash fiction, poetry, thoughts, an imaginary situation, an artistic thought; you name it and write it.

Whatever you can write, Takhayyal is a place for all creatives to have fun and imagine. 

Leave your piece in the comments below or post it on your blog and share the link here. All pieces will get comments and be shared on social media.

Update: I'm keeping this prompt as the image for May 2020 since I'm a little pressed for time this month. New image will be released in June.

General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·  Use the image for inspiration and write your piece in the comments below or publish it on your blog and leave the link to it in the comments

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·     It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets or tag me @NadanessSobhi and I'll retweet you :)

Let's IMAGINE!

Takhayyal writing prompt 99: Philae

New month, new writing prompt!

Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's MONTHLY picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal or Imagine.

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a challenge for writers of all ages and genres; a place to spark creativity and explore new genres.

For this month's image, I'm sharing a picture I took in December 2018 of a place I hold dear. It's ancient and it's beautiful.

Welcome to the several thousand-year-old temple of Philae! (no editing was done to this image)

Look at the image below and let it inspire you...

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction, an imaginary situation, an artistic thought; you name it and write it.

General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·        Leave the link to your post in comments below OR post your piece as REPLY to this post

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·        It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets!

Let's IMAGINE!

Takhayyal writing prompt 84: Keeper of the Caves

Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal.

A quick note before getting to the prompt:

Starting April, the prompt will be monthly instead of every two weeks. This is for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to marketing the prompt online, finding new images that fit the style of the blog and the people who follow it, finding something that's actually inspiring, and being able to keep up with the two-week thing; sometimes I personally feel like "It's been two weeks? But I haven't written for the previous one yet!"

So with April's prompt, begins the Monthly Takhayyal/Imagine Writing Prompts.

Picture prompts will be posted on the first Thursday of each month.

Shall we get to the writing part?

LET'S!

Image found via Pinterest, titled "Ellora caves - Ajanta Caves - Aurangabad, India"

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a challenge for writers of all ages and genres; a place to spark creativity and explore new genres.

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction; you name it and write it.

General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·        Leave the link to your post in comments below OR post your piece as REPLY to this post

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·        It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets!

Let's IMAGINE! 

Who’s a NaNoWriMo Winner? ME!

In November 2017, I challenged myself to write 50,000 words over 30 days.

What is this crazy-number challenge? It’s NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Nove Writing Month. Every November, authors from across the globe challenge themselves to completing a draft or book by writing 50,000 words over a 30-day period. This means around 1,667 words per day, which is not an easy task.

Last time I took part in NaNoWriMo was in 2013 and I only wrote around 3,500 words (give or take a few). Since then, Novembers came and passed and I didn’t take part in the challenge.

But in 2017, I decided I’d take the challenge and had an idea for a story that had been playing in my head for some time. What I call DeeDee’s story.

A mug and its matching coaster I bought in November. I loved drinking from it
while I was working on my NaNoWriMo novel 

On the first day, I passed the required daily count by 100 words. I was thrilled. The second day, let’s just say life got in the way, then the third. On the fourth, I made slow progress. A few days into the second week, I was over 10,000 words behind schedule!

I thought I’d settle for 30,000 words instead of 50,000 but then decided I would do my best to reach the original target. I had another 14 days to prove myself to ME!

Then, I took one day off work, glued my butt to the chair and started writing.

That day, I ended up with a little over 6,000 words! Can you believe that? 6,000 words in a single day! That was equivalent to what I had been doing for the past three months, the full months! I wanted to jump up and down in my room (but didn't in case any family members came in and thought I'd completely lost it!)

Also bought this in November.
Perfect for mystery writers, right?

Still, despite my leap in progress I was not on track - yet. So the hard work had to go on.

When I started the month, I just had some vague idea about certain parts of the novel along with some characters. So, I started writing, but as I progressed I realised that unlike my other writing project this one required an outline.

So, I sat down, picked out the full cast of my characters, and made an initial outline of at least the first three or four chapters along with some main events that I needed to cover. As the novel and I progressed, the events were allocated certain chapters, while other events just popped out in the middle, like romance knocking on DeeDee’s door and other characters looking to appear a second time and so on.

After much hard work, most – if not all – my gym workouts sacrificed and another day taken off from work. I was done. I closed the case and the mystery on the 28th. On the 29th of November, I made some more tweaking, added an actual concluding chapter and was done with 53,166 words!

That's 3,000 words over the target and one day ahead of schedule!

I couldn't believe it!

To corroborate my success, NaNoWriMo lets you put the full text – for confirmation – on their website. That done. I was given a CONGRATULATIONS! WINNER! And this lovely badge!

I have learnt a lot of things by doing NaNoWriMo this year. I know a few of things below are a bit obvious but sometimes you just need to prove to yourself that you can.

So what did NaNoWriMo 2017 teach me?

1)    That I can do it.

2)    That I had not been 100% serious the previous months when I had a 10,000-word target but barely managed 6,000 and once 8,000.

3)    I need to organise my time better.

4)    (A continuation of no. 3) I need to be able to work out, read, and write all in a month.

Throughout November, I was unable to continue reading the books I had started, or pick up new ones. I thought I'd be able to read or finish at least one book.

But I must say, it was all worth it. The sleepless time, the outlines and crossing-outs done (yes, I typed the novel but the outlines and basic ideas were handwritten), the abandoned workouts. DeeDee's story has been born.

The characters speaking in my head at all times of the day was probably the hardest part but it was a great experience.

And you know what?

I'M A NANOWRIMO 2017 WINNER!

Learn more about the differences between a tradition mystery and cozy mystery in this exclusive guest post by author Kirsten Weiss. It was a great reference for me both in learning and while writing.

Check out Nadaness In Motion's cozy mystery book reviews to learn more about the genre and meet some amazing books and authors.

There are a few authors who have unknowingly and indirectly helped me but don't know it. Here are two of them: Devorah Fox and Kirsten Weiss. Every cozy mystery author I've read has helped me one way or another. 

Special thanks to Marc Remus for his help with my second main character, Alexander, the painter.

And of course several close friends, who know who they are.

Oh! Have you seen my shiny certificate? 

(I don't have a novel title yet so DeeDee's paranormal cozy mystery will just have to do!)

Takhayyal writing prompt 76: The Last Battle

Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, Artists, Poets, Writers, Authors, Dreamers, Friends and Family; Welcome EVERYONE to Nadaness In Motion's bi-weekly picture-prompt writing challenge Takhayyal.

The last prompt for November, a long and tough month, especially after I took on the NaNoWriMo challenge, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, and entails writing 50,000 words in 30 days! Today marks the last day of the challenge and I'll be posting my writing journal and updates.

As NaNoWriMo ends, it's time for…. DRAGONS!

I have a special place in my heart for these creatures, not sure how that will work with the newest prompt though. So let's get writing!

Image found online. Artist unknown. If you know who the artist is please let me know.

Arabic for Imagine, Takhayyal is a challenge for writers of all ages and genres; a place to spark creativity and explore new genres.

Your post can be in English or Arabic, prose, poetry, short story, flash fiction; you name it and write it.

General rules:

·        No nudity, violence, and/or abuse.

·        Leave the link to your post in comments below OR post your piece as REPLY to this post

·        Your piece MUST be inspired in some way or other by the above picture

·        Multiple entries allowed

·        It is not required but it is a nice and encouraging gesture to comment on others' pieces.

·        Feel free to add your Twitter handle (@....) so I can tag you in my tweets!

Let's IMAGINE!