Writing Prompts
Because people who read heavily are prone to write a good bit too. The bold phrases are inspired by passages I read. It’s all very stream of consciousness stuff. The passages remind me of book titles, dialog, names, and other such stuff. My hope is that they inspire you.
- Beams, Blood, and Brains: A History of Naval Warfare - ”Midshipman William Badcock of Neptune, who went aboard Santissima Trinidad after she had surrendered, found ‘her beams … covered with blood, brains, and pieces of flesh, and the after parts of her decks with wounded; some without legs and some without an arm.’” Quoted from The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan.
- A Shot Which Killed Two – “Duff went off to lean over the quarter-rail and was just telling Midshipman Dundas Arbuthnot (aged sixteen) to go below and have the guns trained further astern when Fougueux fired again; Duff’s head was struck off by a shot which then killed two seamen.” Quoted from The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan.
- The Horror Index and Old Hidalgo - “Alava, the Sanish Admiral aboard, five years later told Hercules Robinson, one of the Royal Sovereign‘s officers, that his ships’s fire had killed 350 men (a threefold exageration, but an index of the horror) and though he fought on afterwards for a couple of hours, like an old hidalgo, like ‘a man of honour and a cavalier, the first broadside did his business, and there was and end of him.’” Quoted from The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan.
- A Noble Madness – “He would not have it said that the Intrepide had quitted the battle while she could fight a gun or hoist a sail. It was a noble madness, but though we knew it we all supported him.” Quoted from The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan.
- Between Wind and Water – “On Victory’s return to Dover in December 1805, eighty shot-holes ‘between wind and water’ were counted (at places which let the sea in), all of which had been plugged by her own carpenter’s crew during and immediately after the battle.” Quoted from The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan.
