So for instance,
Wizard Azulo enters a Troll cave to fight the troll. What happens?
Right now I'm thinking wizards - Magic, staff, robes, spells, items, so on.
I'm thinking trolls - ugly, tough, clubs, weapons, maybe some kind of riddle, maybe guarding a treasure chest.
I'm thinking caves - dark, damp, rocks, deep tunnel chasms, maybe it leads somewhere.
That is, boring, simple scene. If the wizard is a good guy, and the troll a bad guy, maybe he kills the troll with magic, maybe there's a rock slide. Maybe the troll wins, so sad. The obvious twist is to subvert all that, make the troll a good guy too, or a minion with intelligence, or a covert riddler, let them have a talk. Maybe you throw in something totally new, or you think "What's the troll doing?" and give him a magic cauldron, making him a witch.
You can keep going, but that's sort of the basic set of ideas based on those simple triggers.
Instead, what I'm going to do is manipulate the triggers. In fact, I'm going to manipulate a hidden trigger: Enters. Let's make it crawls. The wizard crawls into the troll's cave. Now what do you get?
The wizard is doing subterfuge, and the troll is up to something nefarious.
The wizard is injured, and the troll is a doctor.
Now I've got way different ideas than everyone else does. Let's go with the first situation - the troll is up to something sneaky. But I can even drop "crawls." It makes it too obvious.
I'm going to stop, now, but you can see where that's going?
((edit))
Darnit, I couldn't stop. That happens sometimes.
I said above that a choice was a wounded wizard crawls into a troll's cave, and the troll is a doctor. After I posted I saw that the original statement had "to fight" the troll, so I wondered why a wounded wizard would fight a troll doctor. I also said espionage. I went with both.
Now I have:
An evil wounded wizard sneaks into the cave of the troll healer, the greatest medicine-man in the country, to murder the troll and steal his healing ointments, but discovers that the troll is up to something sneaky.
There, that's my creative take on the opening sentence.
Wizard Azulo enters a Troll cave to fight the troll. What happens?
Right now I'm thinking wizards - Magic, staff, robes, spells, items, so on.
I'm thinking trolls - ugly, tough, clubs, weapons, maybe some kind of riddle, maybe guarding a treasure chest.
I'm thinking caves - dark, damp, rocks, deep tunnel chasms, maybe it leads somewhere.
That is, boring, simple scene. If the wizard is a good guy, and the troll a bad guy, maybe he kills the troll with magic, maybe there's a rock slide. Maybe the troll wins, so sad. The obvious twist is to subvert all that, make the troll a good guy too, or a minion with intelligence, or a covert riddler, let them have a talk. Maybe you throw in something totally new, or you think "What's the troll doing?" and give him a magic cauldron, making him a witch.
You can keep going, but that's sort of the basic set of ideas based on those simple triggers.
Instead, what I'm going to do is manipulate the triggers. In fact, I'm going to manipulate a hidden trigger: Enters. Let's make it crawls. The wizard crawls into the troll's cave. Now what do you get?
The wizard is doing subterfuge, and the troll is up to something nefarious.
The wizard is injured, and the troll is a doctor.
Now I've got way different ideas than everyone else does. Let's go with the first situation - the troll is up to something sneaky. But I can even drop "crawls." It makes it too obvious.
I'm going to stop, now, but you can see where that's going?
((edit))
Darnit, I couldn't stop. That happens sometimes.
I said above that a choice was a wounded wizard crawls into a troll's cave, and the troll is a doctor. After I posted I saw that the original statement had "to fight" the troll, so I wondered why a wounded wizard would fight a troll doctor. I also said espionage. I went with both.
Now I have:
An evil wounded wizard sneaks into the cave of the troll healer, the greatest medicine-man in the country, to murder the troll and steal his healing ointments, but discovers that the troll is up to something sneaky.
There, that's my creative take on the opening sentence.
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