History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: List Stories

| September 8, 2023

Here’s a fun writing prompt! Come up with a click-bait style article title that involves a list of top whatever. Then use that to tell a story within the context of the list, with the different items on the list as a sort of header for each section of the story. The format lends itself […]

Fun for Friday: September 2023 Writing Prompts

| September 1, 2023

Welcome to September and this month’s writing prompts! The first column this month is a throwback to my prompts from 2018. Most of the words are September themed, with a chunk that use the letters in the word September. The second column is the optional prompt list from Kick in the Creatives. I’ve changed the […]

Kickstarter Recommendation: Rook and Rose Pattern Deck

| August 30, 2023

I love gorgeous decks of cards for writing and also of a tarot-like nature, so of course I’m backing the Rook and Rose Pattern Deck! Based on the Rook & Rose epic fantasy series by M.A. Carrick, this deck can be used for divination, to play games, or even as a writing inspiration deck. The […]

Fun for Friday: Dystopian Writing Prompts

| August 25, 2023

If you’re looking for an enormous list of ideas, check out this list of 872 dystopian writing prompts! They aren’t numbered, so it’s harder to use a random number generator to pick one, but you could just scroll to a random point on the list and start reading there! I’m almost overwhelmed by the possibilities […]

Fun for Friday: Writing Prompts from the DefCon One Instagram are Back!

| August 18, 2023

Apparently, I forgot to keep the DefCon One Instagram account prompts on my blog schedule, so I’ve fallen behind. But now, they’re back! Write a piece in which you describe things without using the sense of sight Write a piece about two people putting furniture with a subtext of something else going on between them. […]

Fun for Friday: With Lists of Random Things!

| August 11, 2023

I’m a big fan of random lists, especially as they can be used as writing prompts. So today, here’s a random list generator! By default, it gives you six things, with images. But you can also have it change the number of things it presents, or only get clothing, flowers, or instruments. One way to […]

Fun for Friday: Sci-Fi Tropes!

| August 4, 2023

If you like writing science fiction, check out this list of 101 sci-fi tropes! Sure, you probably don’t want to write a story that just follows the trope precisely, but this list might spark some ideas on ways to subvert the tropes or blend two or more into an interesting mash-up!  

Fun for Friday: August 2023 Writing Prompts!

| July 28, 2023

It’s nearly August (where does the time go?), so it’s time for the August 2023 writing prompts! August is “Smaugust” in the art world, which is a dragon-related challenge. The words in the first column come from @fariis_art‘s Smaugust list for this year. If you want to add another factor to your prompts, keep in […]

Fun for Friday: Spam as Prompts?

| July 14, 2023

If you’d like a prompt that could lead to some seriously ridiculous stories, think about using some of your spam emails (or snail mail) as a source of inspiration. Here’s just a few ideas you might take from your spam! Imagine the spam email being received by someone who is not a modern human. Have […]

Fun for Friday: Utopian Story Ideas

| July 7, 2023

If you’re looking for some ideas to write a utopian story, check out these prompts! There are some based on text and others based on images, and they’re a fun mix of potential ideas!