Writing Excuses 7.35: Brainstorming with Dan

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Writing Excuses 7.35: Brainstorming with Dan

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/09/02/writing-excuses-7-35-brainstorming-with-dan/

Key Points: brainstorming a military fiction with some supernatural elements. Title: I.E. Demon. Built by the lowest bidder! Alternate history/Earth or not? How long is the story? Our universe lets you leverage familiar elements. Don't kill the demon, repurpose it. R.P. Gremlin. Characters? Need someone familiar with supernatural? Specialists? Expert as sidekick, but not main character. Read the Field Manual! What about the contractor? Or maybe a D&D guy? Cast needs to be tiny for a short story (3 characters) BUT military fiction often has troop. Need reason for small group to be isolated. Give the extras a good reason to get out of the way! [metapoint: there are lots of alternatives, dream a bit!]
( You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive )

[Howard] Okay. No, no! I've got a writing prompt. I've got a writing prompt right now. You may have to go out to the Internet and Google three letter acronyms for the military, okay? But grab some three letter acronyms, note that IED and RPG are off-limits, but grab some three letter acronyms and swap out one of the words for something supernatural and see if a story idea shakes loose for you.
[Brandon] There we are. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.