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Second Prompt for the Rule of Three!

We’re in the first week of Rule of Three! Thanks go out to all the participants who posted such intriguing first episodes for their stories. I’m impressed with the entries I’ve been visiting. Judging won’t be easy at all.

Time for the 2nd prompt of the Rule of Three:

Choose ONE OR MORE from the following:
Someone is killed or almost killed. 

One of the characters is revealed to be not who he or she is. 

A relationship becomes complicated. 

A character lies to another on an important matter.
——-
Here’s how to score maximum points during judging rounds: 
The second episode of your #REN3 is to be scheduled ANY TIME between (12.01 am) 12 October and 13 October, (11.59pm)-GMT. (Late and early posts will deduct points during judging rounds.)
The Word Limit is still between 500-600.( Exceeding this will deduct points during judging rounds.)
There will be THREE main characters from the first episode: and the main POV/highlighted character in your second episode would be someone other than the one highlighted in your first episode. (More than 3 main characters will deduct points during judging rounds, as will one character highlighted throughout the 4 episodes.)

Any genre and time period is okay for your story, but the setting must be Renaissance. (Change in setting will deduct points during judging rounds.)

Please mention the prompt you followed for the story. (Not following any of the prompts for the week would deduct points during judging rounds).
Other requests:

Put a button allowing folks to subscribe to your blog via email. It will help us as hosts/judges to keep track of all four of your posts.

Let people follow you on twitter via your blog. Guarantees more exposure for your writing and the blogfest through Stuart’s #REN3 Paper.li twitter newspaper.
Tweet your post, or any other posts you like, via the #REN3 hashtag and share them on FB and G+ if you’re on those platforms.
Any questions, tweet us up @StuStoryteller @damyantig @ficflash @JCMartin_author, or just drop us an email!
Looking forward to reading all your posts for the second episode of the Rule of Three!  Huge thanks to co-hosts Storyteller and author, Stuart Nager.  Flash Fiction Author Lisa Vooght, and  Fighter writer, J.C. Martin. All the best to all of us, hosts and participants alike!

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Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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16 Comments

  • Nas Dean says:

    Looking forward to reading everyone's entries.

    All th best to all!

  • treelight says:

    All right … so I will use the full force of these prompts on my poor main-characters 🙂

  • kenradaniels says:

    Wow, all the new prompts fit perfectly into my story! Choosing which to use is going to be difficult, since each would take the story in a different direction. Maybe I'll use more than one again… *heads off to write*

    Kenra

  • OOOOO, I like these prompts!! Off to plot and plan (and write!)

  • Damyanti says:

    Michael, great!

    Karen, we'll have another one soon.

    Treelight, all the prompts involve the main characters. Please remember that any minor characters would have very minor roles indeed. Using the prompts on minor characters would lose you points:)

    Donna…I'm glad!..You wouldn't believe how many folks have been asking the twitter question lol

  • Donna Hole says:

    Oh goody; one of the prompts allows me to do exactly what I'd hoped sooner than episode 4 🙂 These are excellent prompts.

    Do I get points deducted for not subscribing to twitter?

    …….dhole

  • Treelight says:

    I like the new prompts, even more since they don't fit quite into the rough plan I had 🙂

    However, I have few questions about them:

    The "someone" who is (almost) killed does not need to be one of our main-characters, right?
    The "killing" can be anything from murder to accident or illness, yes?

    The "character" who is revealed to be not who he/she is, should be one of our main-characters, but not necessarily the one who is the star in the second chapter, right? And I guess it doesn't matter how or who reveals this new truth?

    The complicating "relationship" can be between anybody, not just our main-characters, or should at least one of them be involved?

    The character who "lies" should be one of our main-characters, yes? But should he/she lie to another of our main-characters or can this be anybody?

    Sorry if theses questions seem ridiculous, because your prompts actually sound quite clear. And yet, I'd like to clear them up a bit more for me and anyone who might have wondered the same.

  • Karen Lange says:

    This blogfest is such a great idea! I'm sorry I don't have time to participate. Maybe next time around. 🙂

    Have a great weekend!

  • Thank Damyanti,

    I figured out an intriguing way to use one of these other prompts.

    You guys are really putting us through our paces…

    Have a great weekend.

  • Damyanti says:

    Michael,

    The characters can be introduced between episode 1 and 3, and the order in which you introduce them is up to you. Each episode should highlight a different character.

    As to prompts, the challenge requires that you use new prompts each week, so stories cant be plotted beforehand. Not using prompts will affect you during the judging rounds.

    The rules are the same for all writers. Take it up for the challenge it is and I'm sure you'll find a brilliant new take on your story.

    I hope this helps and all the best!

  • HI all,

    I was just reading the rules on this post. I featured one of my three characters in the first segment. I will be introducing the other two in the next segment.

    Is that all right. I thought there just need to be three main characters and not all introduced on the first.

    I also have a prompt from this weeks in my first segment. Can that count or do I still need to put another prompt from this week in the next entry. The other prompts really don't flow well with my story.

    I could try to come up with something if I have to use one of these prompts. Please let me know what you think.

  • Joshua says:

    It's more like "you've had chronic insomnia for 18 years, and the car crash made it worse, if that's possible, you need to sleep so your body can heal, take this because insurance covers it, and just make sure someone's around when you take it in case you start doing crazy things because you're prone to sleepwalking already and Ambien will jack you up."

    Or something like that.

    Vivid dreams on it, though. Some pretty good stories written down after Ambien nights. If it wasn't such a habit-forming drug, I'd be on it every night.

  • you are welcome

    mmm..Ambien…is that like chocolate of the gods? 😉

  • Joshua says:

    Thanks for the clarification. I think the Ambien was still working through my system when I read it.

  • Hey Joshua: once you get to week 4, go wild, and however you feel it's best told. All we asked: the first three posts should feature one of your three main character in the prominent position. After that…blow our socks off with how you want to tie it all up.

    So…you're good. Go forth unto Renaissance and multiply..umm…well, write a darn good tale.

    Stuart
    Tale Spinning

    @stustoryteller…sigh

  • Joshua says:

    Can I just say that I love this set of prompts because at least two of them go so well with what I've already done on part 2?

    I do want to clarify one thing: "There will be THREE main characters from the first episode" –> My first part followed Character A, the part I'm working on is someone completely different (Character B) and merges the two characters together, the third part will bring Character C into play, and part 4…this is where my question comes. Part 4 either needs to be told via Character A, B, or C, or it needs to be told from an omnipresent narrator perhaps (to ensure not breaking the "don't use more than 3 main characters" rule)?

    Am I understanding this correctly?