#103. Inventive Fight Scenes, and What Your Story Isn’t

To listen to the show, click on a link to your favourite platform in the right hand column -->
or listen on the Brainstoryum page.

Transcription follows below:

Show notes: The list of categories for the second round of brainstorms (chosen with a roll of the dice) is: 1) a book or magazine 2) a job or role, taken on reluctantly, 3) a pub or café, 4) a portal or means of travel, 5) a piece of treasure or magical, sought-after object, 6) a monster or creature, 7) an invention, 8) a weapon, 9) a hidden identity or disguise, 10) a scar (physical or psychological), 11) a ghost, or 12) or a cocktail or special tea (which, let’s face it, is likely to be a magic potion or poison).

Hello imaginative people. I’m Anna Tizard and this is episode 103 of Brainstoryum.
 
The last episode had quite a meaty introduction packed with tips about how to avoid rejections from short story publishers, so this time I’ll make it a bit more lightweight. Got to help maintain balance in the universe, and all that.
 
So I’m going to talk about a tip I picked up from another podcast: Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn Podcast (and that’s Penn with a double n). I love it, it’s been going since the naughties, although I can’t quite recall when I started listening but not as long as that, and it’s had more than 850 shows. Joanna Penn writes bestselling thrillers as J.F. Penn, and she also writes books about writing and publishing, especially indie. If you are interested in keeping tabs on what’s going on in the publishing world—both traditional and indie—her podcast is the best place I’ve found for updates, she really has her finger on the pulse, and has, after decades of experience, a real sense of how changes in traditional publishing affect what’s going on in indie, and vice versa. It’s fascinating, and useful. Check it out at thecreativepenn.com.
 
Anyway, I was listening to a recent show, episode 853 which includes an interview with Roz Morris, who’s been both traditionally and indie published over many years, writes in numerous genres including memoir, so it was interesting to hear from someone with so much experience. She’s also, like Joanna Penn (and like me), a discovery writer, at least in the early stages of writing. Also like me (and like Joanna Penn) creative freedom is very important to her which is why she tends to indie publish these days.
 
But one thing she said really stood out to me, about the early stages of brainstorming an idea and deciding what to put into a story, and where it’s going. What it’s really about.
 
She said that lists can be very creative. If you’re at the beginning of something, and you’ve really got the itch to get writing, but you’re not quite ready to take the plunge, and yet sure where this one’s going, write a list.
 
But not just a list about different ideas, images or characters that come to you about the story—things that you want to go into a story; also write a list about what you don’t want your story to be.
 
It sounds so simple. And yet, sometimes, I can be in the thick of an idea that feels a bit like a fog. The fog parts, here and there, to reveal some distinctive details: oh, I definitely want that character to be like that; and I like that setting. But the rest of it feels mysterious, and I can’t quite join up these elements into a story. What is it really about, and where do I want it to go?
 
But these things are defined just as much by what they aren’t by what they are.
 
It was funny, in the interview, Joanna said that when she first started writing her current WIP, Bones of the Deep, she envisioned it as horror. But as she got into writing it, she realised it was leaning more towards a thriller instead. I think it was to do with the ending and how character arcs are resolved, and things like tone as well. Quite a fundamental switch—from one genre to another! Whereas Roz Morris was initially intending to talk more about subtler changes than that.
 
So if you feel lost in the fog, step back and look around at the books and stories you have loved. What is it about them that hooks you? What kind of story unfolds? Would any of those elements work in a wish-list for the story you’re writing?
 
And then: is there anything about your story—or where you story could potentially go—that kind of turns you off? Sometimes our imaginations, our inspiration, sort of retracts and pulls back without us really understanding why, and an idea can start to whither and dry up. But if you ask yourself, pen in hand, what do I not want in this story, that might help bring whatever’s bothering you into the light. You can decide, I don’t want to write something like that. So I’m going to write something like this!
 
And be lighthearted about it; be creative about it. Ideas in their earliest stages can be quite delicate, but they’re also ready to sprout and change. So think about what directions you don’t feel interested in, and it might just be that their opposite—or just something distinctly different from that—will be what sparks it to grow into something you cannot wait to get down on paper.
 
**
Right, well before we move on to the story brainstorms and a couple of juicy publishing opportunities for you, I have some incredible stories and a poem to share with you, all from my talented listeners.
 
The range this time could not be any broader: I’ve got all-out wacky, I’ve got profound, and a little bit of in-between. Perhaps I’ll start with the in-between one before we plunge down the twisty slide of the unexpected.
 
This first short story is from Paul Monteith who responded to both of the prompts I suggested in the last show, in combination. That is, “the powerful kitsune” or fox spirit in Japanese mythology, and a general theme that cropped up from the same Exquisite Corpse: how might you use a tea set as weaponry. (How could I resist such craziness?)
 
Paul wrote:
 
A Tempest, a Kitsune, and a Teacup

“A maple tree bowed as a violent wind passed through a garden. Racing toward a house, the tempest stripped a cherry tree of its blossoms, bruising and breaking iris stems, and uprooting azaleas as it passed by. The raised bamboo house shuddered as the wind rushed under and over its frame. In the house, a kitsune, unmoved by the storm, poured himself a cup of tea.

Being ignored, the tempest told the storm clouds to cast dense downdrafts that pressed hard upon the house and made it moan. Unperturbed, the kitsune sipped his tea.

Enraged by the fox's calmness, the tempest dashed around the garden, knocking over stone lanterns and pedestal bowls. It ruffled the surface of a pond, and the koi fish retreated to the pond bed for safety.

As the storm bullied its way back to the house, it saw the fox sitting at a table, eating a sweet red-bean-filled Manju. Livid with the animal's indifference, the tempest beat gustily on the door.

The kitsune, holding his now-empty cup, pulled the door open and stretched out his hand. A teacup to a tempest is like a red flag to a bull. The angry wind could not help itself and curled like a cat into the china cup. The fox held the vessel firmly, which shook and tugged at his grip, and then he sang soothing lullabies to calm the storm in a teacup.”
 
So neatly tied up at the end, and brings a new meaning to that phrase.
 
I think what works so well about this story and the descriptions is how it begins with so much movement, you really feel the wind swirling around, contrasted with the stillness of the fox in the middle of it all. In fact—I mean, maybe this is a bit of a stretch—but these contrasts, these opposites, feel like an echo of the theme I was just talking about, about what is versus what isn’t. The stillness of the fox is clear and sort of resonant, because of the contrast with the blustering storm.
 
Thank you, Paul. You can find Paul Monteith on Bluesky as Quantum Fairy.
 
Now, I felt an urge, in the last show, to put this tea-set-as-weaponry theme out to social media to see if there were any fight-scene writers who might want to show me how this could be done. I was not disappointed… Violence follows, but… using a tea set.
 
Kyle Lee wrote:
 
“They chased each other around the table, quickly reaching a standoff. She grabbed a hot cup of tea from the table and lobbed it at him, hitting him squarely in the nose. He screamed and grabbed his already bleeding face. The moment he looked away, she picked up the whole ceramic teapot and threw it at his head. It exploded in a hail of red and pink begonia patterning and rained boiling hot liquid down his already blistering skin. He crumpled to the floor. She grabbed the keys from the counter and rushed from the house.”
 
I love the detail of the begonia patterning, so specific, and in a sort of explosive moment, reminding us of the slightly ridiculous element to this fight scene. It helps underline the unplanned nature of this fight.
 
Thank you, Kyle (and welcome to the podcast). Kyle Lee writes fantasy and you can find him on X as KyleLeeWriter.
 
Adir E Golan wrote:
 
“Angus dodged a blow to the head, his back bumping against the kitchen table. Rolling back onto it, he put some more distance between himself and the intruder -- who'd grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter. All Angus had near him was a tea set. How he wished the water was boiled. Alas, this would have to do. Tossing one teacup after another, Angus used four distractions, before snatching up the pot and tray and advancing. Steel clanged with every jab of the blade he blocked with the teapot. Sliding in close after a wide slash, he kneed the assailant, smashing the side of his head with the pot at the same time. The man stumbled back for a brief second, but Angus gave no time for recovery, slamming the edge of the tray into his throat, causing him to drop the knife and fall into a coughing fit. For one final blow he brought the teapot down, denting it. Breathing heavily, he let the final piece of the ruined set clatter on the kitchen tiles, bending down to pull off the unconscious man's mask.”
 
Now this one is narrated by a protagonist with experience, who’s thinking about his moves, and regrets that lack of boiling water in the teapot. I like how we slip into his thoughts; he just kind of manages to push past the ridiculousness of the situation to get the job done.
 
Thank you, Adir (and also, welcome to the show).
 
Adir E Golan writes a blend of magical realism and dark comedy (found on X with that name).
 
From the wacky and violent to the sublime… You may remember from episode 101 the “velvety sleuth” as a very strange word combination that cropped up.
 
Elena Dennison wrote:
 
Epitaph for Cool Ruth, the Velvety Sleuth
Here lies Cool Ruth, the velvety sleuth,
forever in search of life’s hidden truths.
Seeker of answers to unanswered questions,
she gathered her clues through Rhythm and Blues
and spun bright webs of wild revelations,
praising the Lord with bold intonations,
in shadowy‑veiled, velvet‑lined booths
where folk soaked their doubts in Gin and Vermouth.
Farewell, Cool Ruth, the velvety sleuth--
your path shines on through
dark earthly delights to celestial blues,
where God leaves fresh clues for you to pursue.
 
Beautiful, such rhythm and assonance, and there’s a real sense of mystery: a life glimpsed through these hints and images.
 
Thank you, Elena! Elena Dennison writes poetry and you can find her Linktree at linktr.ee/LolaTheCat
 
Right, let us dip our hands and our minds into the never-ending inkwell of dreams… Also known as the Socks of Destiny.
 
**
SOCKS OF DESTINY ORGAN JINGLE
 
This part of the show is un-transpose-able! There's much giggling and rustling of paper as I pull words at random from the Socks of Destiny to create three unique sentences according to the rules of Exquisite Corpse, going: “Describing word—noun—action—describing word—noun.” Today’s resulting sentences are:
 
1. The romantic jelly mould swindled the thickly forested princess.
2. The dangerous hunter on the sidewalk, crossed the street with, the confused imp.
3. The azure wife skipped with the careful trail.
 
**
 
Hm, now I’ve been thinking about this, and for more than the 10-second jingle.
 
I think there are 2 word combinations that are standing out, to me. The “thickly forested princess”, trapped inside her cottage that’s full of trees maliciously holding her prisoner when a kitchen supplies salesperson comes knocking. That’s got to be one of them. The other one, probably the confused imp, but let’s get started with the forested princess first.
 
So I’m going to roll my 12-sided dice to select a category of interpretation, or an additional element to add to this story idea, and see where it takes us. Out of the cottage? Deeper inside?
 
(Don’t forget, you can see the full list of 12 categories in the show notes.)
 
8. A weapon.
 
Now, are we talking about a weapon carried by the kitchen supplies seller—is there something about that romantic jelly mould that could be used to break or just weaken the spell of this indoor forest, enough for the princess to escape? Because the full Exquisite Corpse is The romantic jelly mould swindled the thickly forested princess, but in that case it’s the forest, or the enchantment that traps the princess that is swindled or tricked, not the princess herself.
 
Or, to add a weapon in all this, maybe it’s the princess who has a weapon?
 
To either story idea, I would want a proper twist. It could never just be a case of: kitchen supplies seller comes across a weird-looking cottage in the woods; knocks on the door; it’s opened by what appears to be a princess plucked out of a fairytale; somehow, there’s a magic in a jelly mould the seller has, and he or she uses it to help the princess escape, the end. No way! The more innocent this may seem at the outset, the bigger and twistier the twist I crave.
 
What if the princess is an evil witch in disguise? She gets a kick out of being ‘saved’ by well-meaning door-to-door salesmen (or is maybe sick and tired of them knocking on her door trying to sell her double glazing or whatever), and she entices them in, letting them believe that, somehow, they are the key to her escape. Oh, my prince has come at last! Then—bam! Or crackle, as the forest inside the cottage snakes around him and takes him prisoner. Maybe she has a whole roomful of them. Maybe her true form is a giant spider and she binds them up in her web and lets them hang in her larder for later.
 
But—why not throw in another twist? If you’re writing this from the seller’s point of view, maybe they’re not quite who they seem, either. Just when you think he’s fallen for the trap, you find out from his reactions that he’s not a salesman at all, but came here, concerned about all his fellow salesmen who kept disappearing into the woods, never to be seen again.
 
Does he have magic that can help him overcome the giant spider-witch? Hm, maybe don’t make it that easy for him. Keep your readers on their toes.
 
Okay. So how about another one: this time the confused imp.
 
(Rolls dice.)
 
6. A monster or creature.
 
Well, I suppose the confused imp is a creature, but I feel like this category is prompting us to add more creatureliness to either the imp or the story itself.
 
So the full Exquisite Corpse suggested the idea of a dangerous hunter employing an imp to either assist her in a particular quest or task, possibly she’s made up her mind to exact revenge on someone, or carry out an assassination job for someone else, and something about the difficulties or obstacles of this mission has prompted her to sub-contract to an imp. Like you do, when you’re sitting in a dark corner of a slightly dingy pub, a pub where various species of goblin, imp and the occasional troll has been known to show up. (They do good meals here, though their stews have some questionable, lumpy ingredients that might make an imp nervous.)
 
But over there is an imp, sitting on a high stool at the bar, whining over his mead about the lack of work. His voice is a bit on the squeaky side—though no more, really, than your average imp—but he must be desperate if he’s come in here, where the usual clientele is at least five times the size of him. His knobbly feet swing from his stool.
 
The hunter sits quiet as a shadow and considers him. How silent he might be on those knobbly feet. How easily he might be able to creep into a house undetected, and cause a distraction while the hunter made her way up the stairs to face her quarry.
 
So where’s the twist? Or maybe it’s just that something unexpected will go wrong. That this “confused imp” isn’t quite so confused or naive as he pretends to be. That the bartering that follows, and the low price he quickly agrees, is just to make the hunter feel confident of his inexperience, and to not expect any “funny business”.
 
Whose perspective would you write this from? I started off thinking it might be the imp, if he was the one in danger, but now I’m beginning to think that if the hunter might be tricked, it might work better to write it from her point of view, to serve the reader with the full impact of the surprise.
 
Who’s the “dangerous” one now, I wonder?
 
Maybe you have an idea.
 
**
Right, before I tie things off and hand the writing prompts over to you, here are some new publishing opportunities for your short stories and poetry.
 
Middle West Press based in Iowa, is looking for micro-stories & poems for their next anthology, “Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn," Volume 2. This really caught my eye because they want fantastic stories of monsters in a 21st century American Midwest. The word limit is tight at 450 words (but hey, you folks are amazing at writing stories only 250 words). The deadline for submissions is 2nd June, so there’s time to cook up some monstrous ideas. And their anthologies are published on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and some brick-and-mortar bookshops. To find out more, go to middlewestpress.com.
 
Zombies Need Brains LLC are now accepting submissions to its anthology, WERE-2, for a Kickstarter project which is being funded now.
 
WERE-2 is to feature urban fantasy stories where the story revolves around were-creatures other than werewolves. They’re looking for writers to be creative, to invoke another kind of were-creature.
 
Submission deadline is 31st May 2026.
 
Wordcount of stories is expected to be an average of 6k words, with a strict max of 7,500 words.
 
Go to ZombiesNeedBrains.com. You can also find them on Facebook to keep track of the Kickstarter’s progress.
 
As a reminder, I don’t know anything about these publishers other than the details I’ve read out about their submission call-out. Whoever you choose to submit to, always run a search on Google to see what people have said about them online, and check their terms and conditions of publishing to be sure that these will suit you.
 
Right. If you have any ideas you’d like to share or a story or poem up to 250 words long based on any of the prompts in this show, you know what to do: go to annatizard.com/submit. If you’d like your piece to be read out in the next show, please get in touch by the Friday after the release of this show. If you write in later, I will just include your story in a later show.
 
I would be curious to see what you might do with the confused imp, but of course, you are free to choose any prompt from the show that tickles your neurons.
 
In the meantime, wishing you a happy Easter, and until next time, go forth and be inspired!