For those who are unfamiliar, National Novel Writing Month is an annual online challenge for aspiring writers to complete a first draft of a short novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. The goal is to get people writing, foster creative thinking, output, as well as jumpstarting possible careers through the completion of rough first drafts writers can later revisit and expand on. If you’re already a writer and a yearly participator, then you’re probably well on your way towards your goal, and if you’re not, that’s okay too. Whether you’re reaching the pivotal moment where your character learns their true power or still struggling with that first twist, or hey even a name for your lead, we have a list of practice writing exercises and prompts to get your gears going for the day!
As you sit down to write for the day, choose one prompt or exercise and using it as your base, write for 15-30 minutes as a warm-up. You can use your current characters to help build their personalities for your main NaNo text, or jump in and create something new. You might be surprised by what you can make.
- Have a character be caught doing an activity or saying something atypical to their established personality and or interests. Have them then justify why they are doing what they are doing or why they said it.
- She walked into the room, closing her emerald colored umbrella.
- Pythons had nothing on this.
- These trees, naturally, were very good at killing people.
“Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.”
- “Put that down, it could rip your arm off.”
- The truth hung heavy on her wrist.
- By the time it cooled, we were ready.
- Have character reveal a secret to another character or to the reader.
- Parlez-vous français? Does your character speak another language? Have them have to use it.
- “Just carrying that in made you annoyed?”
- The face that broke her was one seldom seen.
- He chewed through the marshmallow, furious.
- They were there after all.
- “It’s not safe here,” she said, “meet me by the café at 11. Listen for the whistle.”
- Playing croquet was supposed to be boring, but the appearance of a lone ringed finger on the court made everything hysterical.
- He thought he was alone, until he heard an owl screech by the train car window.
- Eris Interrupting a Party: Have an obstacle, object or persion that everyone in one room wants for themselves or must overcome appear or occur in a room of your characters. How does each person try to get what they want?
- Luck was not a factor here.
- If it wasn’t for the jeweled dagger stuck through my hand, I would have laughed too.
- Make your character fiddle with an object while they think/speak.
Happy writing!
Max Eber
Staff Writer
@maxlikescomics
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Ever get the feeling that all your friends who share similar interests only exsist on the internet? There should be an app for that. Enter Leaping Tiger, a location-based friend-finding app for gamers, is now available on Android after launching for iOS and the web in May.
A social discovery tool designed for gamers who want a simple way to make friends with people nearby who share similar gaming tastes, Leaping Tiger allows users to quickly find individuals to play with, consolidate their gamertags across all platforms, and engage with the surrounding gamer community.
“If Foursquare and Tinder had a baby, and that baby was really into gaming, that’s Leaping Tiger” Amy Potter, founder, Leaping Tiger, explains. “We have seen many social platforms move away from lengthy posts and extensive profiles, but social platforms for gamers have lagged behind. We think we are providing a product that is the evolution of the online social experience for gamers. We offer a streamlined set of tools to help the community instantly connect.”
Features include the ability to create a profile with a listing of gamertags for each platform, check-in to games, message other users, location-based search prioritizing local active players and save other users’ profiles for future interactions.
Leaping Tiger provides a variety of intuitive features that allow users to:
- Create a Player Profile – Members can create a player profile housing all of their gamertags, so players with similar interests have the option to connect
- Check-In – Leaping Tiger lets the world know what games members are playing at that moment
- Instantly Connect – After finding a potential friend, users can instantly begin chatting, making it easy for gamers to organize online play sessions and meetups with the local community
- Find Local Gamers – Leaping Tiger prioritizes active members in a user’s area so gamers can locate others who share the same time zone, before searching worldwide
- Save Friends – After connecting with other Leaping Tiger members, users can save their favorite profiles to make future interactions via direct message with those individuals a breeze
The Leaping Tiger founders developed the app to fulfill the need for a simple and instant way to discover local gamers, emphasizing real connections over anonymity.
Games are better played with people you know, and the team at Leaping Tiger is passionate about bringing gamers together. You can find Leaping Tiger on Android’s Google Play Store as well as the iOS App Store, with a web based version being perfected for a summer release.
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Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment
Ages: 13+
Players: 2- 6
Difficulty: Easy
Play Time: 30-45 minutes
Cost: Around $30
Will YOU be the next Ultimate Battle Wizard!?!
We first saw this game on popular YouTube series, Tabletop, from Geek & Sundry, and as a particularly magic loving bunch, we decided to pick it up! This vicious card game consists of brutal spell casting to blast your opponents to a lonely afterlife, but bestows creative cards that provide a bonus to those who bite the dust. With artwork that is reminiscent of the more bizarre episodes of Adventure Time and blended with a saucy vocabulary peppered with swears, Epic Spell Wars provides one hell of an experience.
So, how do you play?
The rules themselves are pretty basic. You draw a hand of eight spell cards and each player then creates a spell. Spells are made by combining up to three cards: a beginning (source), middle (quality), and an ending (delivery) card. The bottom of the card states which is which, but it’s pretty easy to tell what order to play them in, because the borders and ribbons on the cards match up.
Combine dealt spell cards into three-piece combos (all spells need a Source, a Quality, and a Delivery) and read your spell aloud in your best wizard voice. Each ‘ingredient’ has its own effect, and resolving each one properly casts your absurd attack on your adversaries. Tiny details such as matching your ingredient card’s symbols boost the results of your mystical assault, but what if you weren’t dealt enough ingredients to make full spells? As the rulebook states: Make it up! Use your hero’s name for a missing Source, a colorful adjective for a missing Quality, and any magical sounding word, like Invocation for a missing Delivery. Other cards are Wild Magic cards which allow you to draw an ingredient you’re missing and Treasure cards which, surprise surprise, give you a treasure that can hinder or help you in the quest to be Last Wizard Standing. Simple enough, right?
You win by defeating all opponents and collect two Last Wizard Standing token, but don’t fret, my fellow dead wizards! Even if you get eliminated, you’re not out of the game, because the game itself is played in multiple rounds of duels and dead wizard collect Dead Wizard cards which grants you powers for the next round..
With eight different characters to choose between, and two expansions, Epic Spell Wars is a game with just the right amount of replayability. We do stress that due to some of the more colorful language and innuendos, it probably isn’t something for the kids to play!
Leia Calderon
Editor
@ladyvader99
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The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer
248 PAGES
$29.99
Writer: Sebastian A. Jones
Cover Art: Peter Bergting
Interior Art: Peter Bergting
Colorist: Peter Bergting
Letters: Joshua Cozine and Troy Peteri
Publisher: Stranger Comics
Release Date: Nov 4th 2015
Indie publisher Stranger Comics is aspiring to create a universe on an epic scale. Their newest book Niobe: She Is Life was released to massive hype this month due to its creative team of actress Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) and Ashley A. Woods (Milennia War). We stopped by Stranger’s booth at NYCC and picked up their gorgeous hardcover for The Untamed: A Sinner’s Prayer, a story of vengeance and jump-off world-building vehicle for the Asunda Universe.
Jones doesn’t deliver anything too new in The Untamed. Back from the dead on a mission of vengeance against those responsible for murdering him and his family, a cloaked Stranger returns to the town of his past sins and former life. Yes, we’ve seen The Crow. For an introduction to a whole universe however, the simple story sort of works and is easy enough to follow while more complicated world-building elements like trade disputes and magic are fleshed out. We did enjoy that the character of The Stranger had both a dark past beyond his vengeful present, which adds a little bit of depth in the reading and consideration of who you’re actually rooting for in this story. We cast our lot with Niobe, who makes more than an appearance in this series as a grounding compass for the demonic Stranger.
Ultimately, what hurts this book is part of its strength. Bergting’s painterly style is gorgeous and bold, but the monochromatic panels often limit just how much of the town of Oasis we can actually see. It’s hard to get a feel for this world at times, and some of the dialogue doesn’t quite sync with this seemingly medieval-type fantasy setting of Asunda. Perhaps a smaller complaint is the number of hooded figures-to-panel ratio in the book. The mysterious reveal of a cloaked character loses some of its effectiveness after the 4th or 5th time and at some point, we just want to know immediately who the heck is talking.
Still, it is an impressive effort from a new publisher, and we’re excited to see more of what Stranger comics has planned for Asunda and the universe. If you’re interested in picking up the hardcover, also know that it’s a beautifully put together book with a stunningly glossy cover and extra features like collected variants and some behind the script stuff.
Kaitlyn D
Content Editor
@deadrabbit92
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The talented boys at Sneaky Zebra have done it again! Xbox UK and Halo 5 sponsored our favorite duo of capturing cosplay to cover Blizzcon 2015 and film with some next level cosplayers!
Attendees of Blizzcon 2015 brought out their best, featuring all sorts of impressive armour builds, costumes and even 3D printing that put them in awe by the level of skill, craftsmanship and passion from everyone who attend Blizzcon in the Anaheim Convention Center. Featuring characters from the full range of Blizzard games: World of Warcraft, OverWatch, Diablo, Starcraft and Hearthstone.
Not only that, Sneaky Zebra is running two contests on behalf of their sponsors. For a chance to win a Halo 5 Limited Collectors Edition click here or enter for a chance to win a Blizzcon swag bag here! Competition winners will be randomly selected on Monday 16th of November at 8pm on a live stream. Only 1 entry per twitter account will be counted. Competition only available to Europe and North America due to shipping costs.
Planning on attending conventions in 2016? Tweet Sneaky Zebra and let them know or like their Facebook page for more!
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Eagerly anticipating the final episode of Telltale’s Game Of Thrones? Or have you been waiting for a physical copy to pop in your console so that you can binge the entire series at once? You don’t have to wait much longer.
The final of six episodes in the season, ‘The Ice Dragon’ will be available starting Tuesday, November 17th on PC/Mac from the Telltale Online Store, Steam, and other digital distribution services, the PlayStation®Network for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 in North America (SCEA) and Europe (SCEE), the Xbox Games Store for Xbox One® and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and on compatible iOS and Android-based devices. This marks the first time in Telltale’s release history that a finale will be available to download simultaneously across all console, PC/Mac and mobile platforms, day and date, worldwide.
Based on the award-winning HBO television drama series, Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series tells the story of House Forrester. Caught up in the events of The War of the Five Kings, they are placed in a precarious position where members of the household must do everything they can to prevent the house from meeting its doom. Your story is about to come to an epic conclusion. With House Whitehill tightening its grip on Ironrath at the behest of Ramsay Bolton, the remaining Forresters must give their all to save the family, whether through diplomacy, subterfuge, or violent force. In the frozen wilds beyond The Wall, Gared learns the secrets of the mysterious North Grove, and Mira discovers that political games in a King’s Landing controlled by Cersei Lannister often involve the highest stakes of all.
The game series is based on the world, characters and events seen in HBO’s TV show, which in turn is based on George R. R. Martin’s books (A Song of Ice and Fire). The events in the game series begin towards the end of Season Three of the series, and end right before the beginning of Season Five. Players will visit familiar locations such as King’s Landing and The Wall, as well as unfamiliar locations such as Ironrath, the home of House Forrester.
The game is played from five different points of view. Each is a member of House Forrester; either a direct family member, or a person in service to the House. Scattered across Westeros and Essos, each will play their part in seeking to save House Forrester from destruction.
The season will also debut on disc at retailers in North America beginning November 17th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 for the suggested retail price of $29.99 USD or equivalent; and beginning November 20th in Europe on these consoles as well as for PC.
When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. Your choices, your story: you decide.
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