Creative Writing Resources - List of Cool Things

Other times, you might want to jazz up your stories a little.

Oh, heck, I'm not going to pretend I made this list for any reason other than cool things are cool. Writing is meant to be about breaking boundaries and rules, and about jamming awesome things into every possible corner, right?

Get a random number generator, close your eyes and stab at your screen, or just browse and get inspired.

Got some cool ideas, and want to start some creative writing? Head back to the main page and browse through the articles for some inspiration, hints, and how-to's.

Warning: Excessive juxtaposition or portmanteauing of cool things may result in head explosion.

1. Dinosaurs
Universally awesome. They lived millions of years ago. Some of them had teeth as big as a babies' head. They hunted in packs, get brought back to life by mosquito-borne DNA, chomp cavemen, leave fossils. It took a freaking METEORITE to knock 'em out. Can you imagine humans surviving that? No, I didn't think so.
2. Zombies
The Undead. Eat People. Take Over The Planet. Killing them involves shotguns, shovels, pick-axes, heaving bosoms, broken ankles, sieges, helicopter rescues and occasionally unleashing the full awesomeness of machine guns. They're tenacious, mindless, ferocious, and undeniably cool.
3. Lazers
Lazers. Is there anything they can't do? Slice people in half. Get shot through space. Fired out of a gun. Stuck on the end of a sword. They can slice through anything (except another lazer), make cool “Psccchiw, wheeeiiiiw!” noises, and can fix your eyesight when applied by a doctor. Very Cool.
4. Space
The Eternal Black. It kills you if you touch it. It's cold. Us humans aren't well designed for it, but exploring it is one of the coolest things in, well, the Universe. Who knows what alien babes lay out on the fringes of the starrs, waiting to be showed 'this human thing called “love”'? Oh, and did we mention space ships? And the things that makes space travel possible,
5. Faster-Than-Light Travel
Variously caled Hyperspeed, Hyperspace, A-Through-Z-Space, Wormholing, Warping, Jumping, Phasing. High School Physics says it shouldn't work. But it does. Awesome, eh?
6. The Ebola Virus
7. Chuck Norris
8. Aliens
9. Orgies
10. Nuclear Missiles
11. Waterfalls
12. Sunrises
13. Blizzards
14. Explosions
15. Robots
16. Science
17. Obscenely oversized weapons
18. Scars
19. Mysterious pasts
20. Prophecies
21. Combat-trained children
22. Demons
23. Psychic warfare
24. Time travel
25. Unbelievably old people
26. Rebellious administrators
27. Savants
28. Nipples
29. Sea monsters
30. Naval engagements
31. Buried trasure
32. Slime
Often green. Often sticky. Occasionally acidic. Gross if warm, hairy or scaly. Can confer superpowers onto innocent turtles and teenagers. Impervious to edged weapons. Hell, impervious to most weapons short of a flamethrower. Can be packed with nutrients and healing properties. Intelligence and self-animation is entirely determined by what direction you want to take. Often found in the hydraulics of robots, oozing from monsters, and dripping from cave walls.
33. Flips – both front and back
I'll happily admit to not being able to flip, myself. But when characters do it? Impressive. Flips get you through laser-based security systems, let you evade attacks, move unexpectedly in combat, and impress the hell out of any less-agile observers. Not strictly necessary – a simple side-step or shuffle would suffice in most cases. Employed by ninjas and assassins for necessary reasons of self-image.
34. Polyglots
Speaking more than one language is not just for Europeans. Bi-, tri- or poly-, having characters being able to converse with others from different countries and backgrounds opens up your story immensely. Speaking an uncommon or difficult language may be a 'selling point' for an otherwise noxious character. Remember, languages can be learnt, but not often easily. Children often pick up new languages faster than adults. The gift of tongues is a powerful one, and polyglots are rarely unaware of this. Translations don't always have to be accurate, and you have to trust your translator...
35. Blossoms
Blossoms fall through the air slowly. They highlight differences in speed with the environment around them. They symbolize changing seasons and the impermanence of life. Thousands of slow-motion sword battles have been fought under sakura blossoms over the years. They land delicately in snow. They're buffeted by winds. What's not to like?
36. Dancing
Dance is stunningly expressive. It can be formalized and politic, like courtly dances. It can be romantic and intense, fast and furious, refined or slutty, graceful or wild. Dance is closely associated with ritual and performance, and as such it's easy to work into your stories. The interpersonal plays of stealing partners, out-performing rivals, recovering from stumbles and more can be played out on dancefloors. Dancing is a test of a man's mettle and a woman's sophistication, and it's hard to go wrong getting your story onto the floor at some point.
37. Cockney Slang
Nothing says “cheeky” like a bit of cockney. Rhyming dictionary at your side, jump in head first and explore the grimy world of petty theft, guttersnipes and poxy whores. Accent can be purloined for other locations with only a bit of work. Writing an entire piece in the vernacular can pose a challenge to the reader, but if you can get it to work, it's a real treat.
38. Prophecies
Prophecies are seriously cool. Often delivered by extremely awesome individuals/Oracles/Gods, prophecies smash established reality in the face with a big knobbly club. They set things on end and give them a good shaking down. Whether the prophecy just affects one character or the entire world, as soon as prophecies happen you know that someone's in for a rough ride. Commonly delivered cryptically. Variation: false prophecy, often with ironic overtones.
39. Gnomes
Diminutive but often found with funky headgear, Gnomes are like midgets but cooler. The European varieties are long-lived, nature-loving Dwarf-wannabes, chilling out in forests, tundras and marshes than underground. Often take on roles of forest-guardians. Not particularly wrathful. Generally wise. Good source of forest lore. Occasionally found high on mushrooms or pipe-weed. Not as over-done as Dwarves.
40. Ice
Man, this stuff is awesome. Spray baddies with it and they can't chase you. Clogs up instruments and machinery, forcing risky operations to fix them. Signifies harsh environments where a simple mistake can mean death. Primal, primeval. Technically speaking, Ice is a mineral. Cool, huh? You can crush it and put it in drinks. Make hotels and palaces out of it. When you freeze water, it actually expands slightly. Sound dangerous? I'm sure there's a story somewhere.
41. Dragons
Some things are so obvious, I'm not going to spell them out.

OK, whatever. Dragons are MAGICAL BEASTS OF EXPLOSIVE AWESOMENESS. how cool do you want your dragons to be? Flying? Ancient? Unkillable? Intelligent? Telepathic? Firebreathing?

42. Kinesis
Doing stuff with your mind. It let Matilda dominate a horrendous headmistress and teach her family a few lessons. It can make sparks fly, plates spin, doors and windows slam, fire combust, water slosh, lights flicker. Common side-effects include vacant stare, mild nosebleeds and psychosis. What's not to like?
43. Gravity
Apart from contributing to the lethality of falls from very tall objects (cartoon characters seem strangely immune), gravity is at its most awesome when you tinker with it. How do you get gravity in space? You can stick people inside a massive ring and spin them, of course. You can engage the 'artificial gravity' switch, but that feels a little like cheating, especially in hard SF. What else about gravity? It gives your characters an Escape Velocity to push against. It makes flying harder (but not impossible). It leads to Black Holes and other funky phenomena. Thanks, Newton!
44. Raptors
Too cool to sit in with the rest of the Dinosaur category, Raptors deserve their own special mention. Fast. Lethal. Presumably intelligent. Massive, sexy, wicked-looking claws. Pack hunters that make wolves look like toothless hamsters in comparison. The scourge of historically-incorrect cavemen and bewildered time-travellers.
45. Wheels
Their absence would be notable. Their discovery was important. Uses: many. Without wheels, we wouldn't have unicycles, bicycles, tricycles, quad bikes, cars, wheelbarrows, monster trucks, semitrailers, trains, buses, drag racers, airplanes (until we got to VTOL technology, anyway), carts, dune buggies, trestle tables, radio-controlled cars, trolleys or rickshaws. Was the discovery of the wheel inevitable? How could it occur naturally? What alternatives are there?
46. Reflective surfaces
Quick! Behind you! Luckily that shard of glass showed the killer sneaking up on you. Phew!
Stranded on a desert island? Need to get the attention of a passing ship or plane? Something reflective and some sun is all you need.
Need something to look at meditatively? Mirrors and ponds let you stare deep into yourself.Checking out the damage from that last barroom brawl? Luckily there's a bathroom mirror to help you mop up the blood.
Reflections are mystical, symbolical, and practical. The surfaces that make them are clearly awesome and valuable.
47. Mazes

Is it possible to get any heavier on the symbology without resorting to a photo of Oedipus smoking a cigar? I don't think so. Mazes are cool, and even cooler when you call them Labyrinths . (Thanks, Mr Bowie!) Dangers lurk in them. Treasures can be found if you hit the right paths. They can be simple, or complex enough to take up an entire story. Many mazes can be solved by following one wall consistently – but that presumes the maze-maker doesn't know this trick, and that the maze itself isn't fluid...
48. Sharpness
Take a cool thing.
Then sharpen it.
There you are! Instant increase in coolness.
I remember being entranced by dubious infomercials as a child. I watched as kitchen knves would slice through a seemingly endless line of books, shoes, belts, cardboard, before returning to plunge through over-ripe tomatoes without a whisper of resistance. Stunning! How sharp can you possibly make something? Terry Pratchett's Death has a scythe that's infinitely sharp. Constantly surrounded by a blueish aura, the edge slices through atoms not quick enough to get out of the way. Mythical swords that can hew through hundred foes and still be keen enough to shave with are abou par for the course in terms of mythical sharpness.

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