Brainstoryum: Short Stories and Writing Prompts

Your weekend is not weird enough without Brainstoryum! Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into short story writing using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into writing prompts which lead to the most unexpected story ideas – and a fascinating exploration of writing craft. This new year show includes stories around circuses, gargoyles, hunters and a mysterious stone. Ignite your imagination with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! All at www.annatizard.com. INTRO: Happy new year to you, imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 71 of Brainstoryum. It’s 2025. It really is. Actually, it’s the first of January as I record this and in the UK it is ridiculously windy. Anyway: happy new year to you; I hope you’ve had a wonderful and restful break over Christmas. Have you made any new year’s resolutions? Have I? I tend to avoid making heavy-going decisions in the middle of winter when my natural inclination is to hide under a duvet with a torch and a good book. But it’s a difficult idea to resist, because it seems to positive, plus everything seems to scream at you, “new year, new you”, when really, your personal new year is your birthday; although I’d say springtime is the natural new year, if anything. If the trees and the plants can be bothered to wake up and do something, well, maybe I can make the same effort. I’d say, don’t make resolutions because the adverts say you should (or if other people say you should); do it if it helps you gain clarity on what you’d like to achieve. For my part, it’s difficult to set goals beyond my regular goal of producing this show. I don’t talk about it much, but...

*This episode is available as a mini ebook! Go to www.annatizard.com/brainstoryum for details* Your weekend is not weird enough without Brainstoryum! Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into short story writing using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into writing prompts which lead to the most unexpected story ideas – and a fascinating exploration of writing craft. In this slightly longer show, Anna delves into storytelling techniques to hook your reader from the very first line, plus how to get un-stuck when you’re writing a new story. Ignite your imagination with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge. INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 70 of Brainstoryum. It’s actually the winter solstice today, as this releases, which means that no matter how cold and icy and horrible it might get in the coming weeks and months, from now on we are moving towards the light. Inching towards the light. Keep that knowledge with you – no matter how grey and miserable it gets, you know we’re heading in the right direction. (Those not living in the northern hemisphere will be like, “What the problem?” Well, we’re all jealous of you, that’s the problem!)   Now today’s show is indeed the Christmas special! And I’ve been wondering how I can make this Christmassy without being cheesy or chintzy. Spooky toyshops? Rebel elves? Or can I just throw in a sprinkling of snow? Hopefully we won’t get any “picturesque executioners”, that unbelievable word combination that came up in the last show – although I found a way, a non-horror way, to develop that one. (Thank goodness.) But, as ever, how can I plan? How can I anticipate? The game of Exquisite Corpse is my doorway into the unknown and the strange magic of the imagination, making connections, hunting stories in the most unlikely places. Stepping out on this path, all I can do is hold up my mental torch and see where it takes me by being attentive to the whispers of my subconscious mind; although, I could be holding a Christmassy lantern instead of a torch, that casts a holly and berry pattern on the ground… Of course, the shadows may always lengthen and twist into something else. (This is probably as far as this metaphor will stretch, so I’ll stop there!) But will there be Christmas cheer, or Christmas chills, in the stories that emerge today? Who knows? Because the building blocks of these stories will come from your words, your suggestions, and the whims and wild winds of randomness that blow from the Socks of Destiny...

Your weekend is not exciting enough without Brainstoryum! Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into short story writing using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into writing prompts which lead to the most unexpected story ideas – and a fascinating exploration of writing craft. In this slightly longer show, Anna delves into storytelling techniques to hook your reader from the very first line, plus how to get un-stuck when you’re writing a new story. Grab a blanket – grab a pen! – and switch your imagination on with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! All at www.annatizard.com. INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 69 of Brainstoryum. I cannot believe it’s December already, and this is the last show before the Christmas show (whatever that will be. I haven’t really thought about that.) Well, today’s show is a real mix of writing experiences. Once again, words pulled at random from the socks of destiny will generate writing prompts like you’ve never heard before (like I’ve never heard before). And while, as usual, it’s the third and last round which leads to the longer, more complete story that I read out on the show (using the pause button to draft it, of course), this time, the third story turns out to be the most difficult – and the most revealing. I’ve been thinking about sharing more on process and writing techniques in this show; not quite going back to the earlier format where I talked at length at the beginning, but sort of sneaking in observations and helpful tips in between the story brainstorms, and in a way, it’s very handy that this time, on story no. 3, I got stuck for a while. Because it’s the tricky stories, the ones that make you work the hardest, in a way, that can reveal the most about technique, and process. There is nothing quite like getting stumped by a story, to reveal process, and make you stop and think, and consider what works. When a story just flows intuitively, without much difficulty, that demonstrates that you’ve learned and absorbed techniques so well they’ve become subconscious. But then that makes it much harder to describe what you’ve just done. But getting stuck – as I do today, for a little while: that pushed me to experiment and to share different methods that I was trying, and which I know from experience work for me – so I hope that will be interesting and maybe even useful for your own writing. So on with the show.

Join award-winning fantasy and dreampunk author, Anna Tizard, in a journey into unexpected stories using the surrealist word game of Exquisite Corpse. Listeners’ words are drawn from the legendary Socks of Destiny and mixed into weird writing prompts which end up making more sense than they should! This time, nature spirits are the emerging theme, for three chilling story ideas. Grab a blanket – grab a pen! – and switch your imagination on with these stories and ideas for the ultimate writing prompt challenge. Subscribe for free to Anna Tizard’s private email list and get vol 1 in The Book of Exquisite Corpse plus exclusive material not published anywhere else! All at www.annatizard.com. INTRO: Hello imaginative people! I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 68 of Brainstoryum. Once again, I will be pulling words at random from the socks of destiny to create writing prompts like you’ve never heard before. It’s occurred to me that the best of the three always comes last in the show but that new listeners might not know this as you begin listening. Well, as usual, the fullest story, and perhaps the best one of the bunch, unfolds last, almost as if the tensions and half-glimpsed mysteries of the first two story ideas, with all their brewing potential, gather like a story-force finally breaking through; the early meanderings of the curious imagination, after a little time – a bit of warming up – are ready by writing prompt no. 3 to sharpen their focus and find a clearer beginning, middle and an end. Maybe as writers and storytellers we are all bound to dabble, and daydream about many possibilities, some of which are always going to be left half-explored – until we reach (or come across) an idea that’s really worth grabbing with both hands and turning it into something fuller. So listen on to the end, my friend, for as usual, I leave the best to last.