Writing Excuses 6.21: Brainstorming From Story Seeds

We've done brainstorming casts before. This time we've prepared something quite a bit different. It's different, in fact, because we prepared it -- in advance, even. Producer Jordo provided your hosts Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard with four wacky news headlines. From these, we each hammered together rudimentary bits of story, and we did so independently. You get four different takes on this four-headline mashup. The four headlines: * Wary of Iguanas, Bored Germans Finally Venture Out * Heroic Mailman Saves Three Lives While On the Job * Dolphin Charged With Battery Against Girlfriend * Austrian Power Company Tells Customer She is Dead Mary goes first and sets the bar rather high with an entire story outline. Brandon goes next, and gives us a magic system. Then it's Howard's turn. What looks like story shrapnel turns out to be the prologue. Finally, Dan gives us a nice, post-apocalyptic piece, or at least the robotic skeleton of one. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, narrated by Tom Weiner. Writing Prompt: No prompt this week. Not unless you want to try your hand at these headlines. Those Bullet Points from Brandon: Nope, not in Howard's email. We'll get them eventually. Or maybe not.   This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.