History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Fun for Friday: Is a Sandwich a Taco?

| October 11, 2024

As a big fan of the Cube Rule, I’m entertained by pretty much all attempts to classify (and sometimes misclassify) food items as different types of food items. Like, for example, Pop Tarts being a sweet ravioli (or ravioli being a savory Pop Tart, depending who you ask). So Is a Sandwich a Taco? is […]

Fun for Friday: October Historic Events

| October 4, 2024

It’s time yet again for some historic events to inspire your writing or maybe just pique your curiosity! This month’s list of historic event again comes from The History Place, which has a nice, simple way of presenting things. But I’ve also found October in Pop Culture History, which has a variety of facts about […]

Fun for Friday: October 2024 Writing Prompts!

| September 27, 2024

October is almost upon us, which means it’s time for the October 2024 writing prompts! This month’s prompts are all taken from drawing challenges. As always, I devote column 1 to Mab’s Drawlloween Club, my favorite of the bunch. (She also has a printable calendar version if you prefer to have that to scribble notes […]

Fun for Friday: The Latest DefCon One Instagram Prompts!

| September 20, 2024

It’s time for some more prompts from the DefCon One Instagram account! Write a piece about a fabulous catch. Write a piece about what the bloodthirsty chew on. Write a piece about what is slumbering. Follow the DefCon One Instagram account for writing prompts every other Friday, or check them out when I post them here!

Fun for Friday: Eggcorns and Malapropisms

| September 13, 2024

Do you know the difference between a malapropism and an eggcorn? Sometimes, they overlap, but this article explains the difference between the two things. If you’re a word nerd, you might just enjoy reading the article. But if you want to use this as a writing prompt, I think you could have some fun with either […]

Fun for Friday: September Historic Events

| September 6, 2024

While I wasn’t able to find a page with many “weird” historic events for September, I’ve got a couple of options for those looking for historical events to inspire your writing or other creative endeavors. Restless (a UK-based site) has a list of twenty-two historic events that happened in September, nearly one for every day […]

Fun for Friday: September 2024 Prompts!

| August 30, 2024

September is just around the corner (and with it, hopefully cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere as we slide toward fall), so it’s time for the September 2024 prompts! This month, all of the prompts come from art challenges of a sort. They also play together in surprising and interesting ways, which I think could […]

Fun for Friday: End of Summer Writing Prompt

| August 23, 2024

As we reach the end of the summer (for students, at least), I thought an interesting fiction writing prompt might be one of the questions that younger students often write about early in the school year: what did you do on your summer vacation? However, for this, make it fictional! Pick a character you’re writing […]

Fun for Friday: Etymology of “Dude”

| August 16, 2024

For this week’s Fun for Friday, check out this article about the etymology of the word “dude“! The article also explores the idea of “macaronic language,” which is not a term I was familiar with prior to this article. But it’s interesting how it’s connected to both the way “dude” came about AND the connection […]

Fun for Friday: Weird Things in August History

| August 9, 2024

Weird history is a great place to find inspiration for fiction. Even if you don’t write historical fiction, you could choose an odd event and transport it into a different setting, time period, genre, etc. Here’s a list of six weird things that have happened in Augusts past! See if one of them gives you […]