Hello Deities, Angels, and Skydivers!
Are you ready to fly? I hope your wings aren’t made of wax, my dears, because…
This week’s Writing Group prompt is:
Castle in the Sky
RULES AND GUIDELINES BELOW!
Make sure you scroll down and read them if you haven’t! You may not be eligible if you don’t!
This prompt was inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena’s upside-down illusion castle, one of many symbolic elements in the anime. It symbolizes the ideal fairytale ending for the main antagonist. However, it’s upside down because it’s been perverted by the antagonist shedding his godlike persona to become something more devilish. In addition to its true inspiration, it makes me think of several sky lands from popular media. The first thing it always makes me think of is the Studio Ghibli movie Castle in the Sky, about two kids who venture to a mythical land in the sky, all the while trying to keep its ancient technology from falling into the clutches of the villains. I can’t help but think of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and all the ancient sky islands to explore there as well. Also, of course, the giant’s castle in Jack and the Beanstalk. Cloud City in Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back is another strong example. As well as the Air Temples in Avatar the Last Airbender. I’d venture to guess there is a vast plethora of media which include fairy and/or pegasus castles in the sky. And that’s before we even get to the idea of Heaven.
As you can see, the image can be used in many ways, and is strong enough to stick with one for years. You could easily take inspiration from one or many of these examples, writing about fairytale worlds, and either the quest to reach them, and/or the lengths heroes must take to keep them preserved.
But, while the image of a castle in the sky might bring to mind a world of fairies and fantasy, it doesn’t have to be that. Perhaps your castle in the sky is a horrifying place, with gnarled black towers, which block out the sun below. Perhaps it houses a horror of eldritch proportions. The inverted castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a good example of this. Maybe the heroes aren’t trying to preserve the castle, but rather destroy the villain’s lair.
You could also take this prompt in a sci-fi direction, especially playing with the definition of “sky.” A castle on another planet would be a castle in the sky to someone looking at it from Earth. Maybe an alien planet is itself a castle in the sky to the child stargazing and dreaming. A space station orbiting the Earth could even be considered a castle in the sky, in a way.
In another sci-fi direction, in the movie Blade Runner, the rich live above the clouds, and the poor beneath, smothered in smog. Perhaps you could use this sort of idea in your story, where the castle in the sky is a hierarchical paradise. Maybe you want to focus on those who live beneath the castle in the sky. Or maybe it’s the poor who are shunted off to the sky, where the altitude causes sickness, and the paradise is the ground.
The movie Belle also includes a sky castle, and a lonely beast in need of saving…all within virtual reality. Perhaps storing data in the cloud could be considered a castle of information. Maybe there’s a virtual world beneath the screen of a computer full of palaces of data. Even simply a room full of secret data could be considered a castle, as long as the room is somehow in the sky.
The idea of a “mind palace” has been popularized by BBC’s Sherlock. Maybe you could find a way to connect the idea of the mind to the sky. Maybe, for someone who always has their head in the clouds, their head is a castle in the sky. Maybe you want to write about your characters delving into someone’s mind, and their secrets physically manifest as castles.
Maybe it’s a matter of perspective. A castle might only look like it’s in the sky, but rather be in the sea, surrounded by fog. Mount Olympus is a mountain on the ground, but perhaps the ancient Greeks said the gods lived there because it looked like the top was in the sky. Perhaps it’s a projection upon the clouds rigged up by a magician—be they a true magician, or simply a master of illusion.
There are even real life mirages that look like fairy castles. There is a superior mirage called a “Fata Morgana” which is the Italian translation of “Morgan the Fairy” aka “Morgana le Fey.” The mirage makes the image distorted look higher than it is, and often alters it in many ways, making parts of the image look upside down, to the point where it’s unrecognizable and otherworldly. In the past, it was often described as fairy castles, or false land conjured by Morgana’s magic. I’ve always been fascinated by this idea, and would love to read stories that use it.
You could play with perspective in another way. Maybe, to a child living in the slums, an apartment looks like a castle in the sky. Perhaps, to an ant on the ground, a spider’s web looks like a castle in the sky. I could see lots of symbolic, animal, and inanimate object perspectives you could use to play with the idea of what is a castle, and what is the sky, with this prompt.
A castle in the sky can represent a nearly impossible dream that you want to achieve. Perhaps your character has some sort of idealized dream about how things could be, and to another they are just “castles in the sky”—that is to say, not something that can ever be reached, or truly held onto. It’s something on a grand scale that happens maybe once in a generation. Flying too close to something that seems impossible and getting hurt in the process. This prompt can be dark but also cautionary. It could also be more hopeful in nature—a person finding their way out of darkness could be a castle in the sky.
Thinking of our last prompt, even songs could function as castles—with the lyrics as the parapets, and the music carrying it into the clouds. A castle in the sky could be a relationship finally coming to fruition—romantic, platonic, familial, work related. You can look at the sky as a sort of symbolic obstacle; how do you reach the end goal (castle)? And the achieving of the relationship, or whatever else your character is attempting to achieve, could be reaching the castle in the sky.
You could play with where your characters are as well. Are they on the ground, dreaming of the castle, never able to reach it? Are they on their way to the castle, traversing through the sky? Did they just arrive? Or have they lived inside the castle their whole lives?
My challenge for you is to find something ordinary in the fantastical. This prompt leads one into fantastical worlds. But how could you use it in more ordinary ways? Can you elevate ordinary life somehow? Indulge in the mundane instead of seeking out the grandiose.
Remember, these challenges aren’t mandatory! They are meant to be a fun bonus if you’d like to have a little extra challenge. But, if you don’t want to use them, please don’t feel obligated to!
Stick close to me, and catch the currents! A world of wonder awaits!
—Pearce, Kaylie, and Felicia
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Remember, this is part of our weekly Writing Group stream! Submit a little piece following the rules and guidelines below, and there’s a chance your entry will be read live on stream! In addition, we’ll discuss it for a minute and give you some feedback.
Tune into the stream this Saturday at 3:00pm CST to see if you made the cut!
The whole purpose of this is to show off the creativity of the community, while also helping each other to become better writers. Lean into that spirit! Get ready not just to share what you’ve got, but to give back to the other writers here as well.
Rules and Guidelines
We read at least five stories during each stream, two of which come from the public post, and three of which come from the much smaller private post. Submissions are randomly selected by a bot, but likes on your post will improve your chances of selection, so be sure to share your submission on social media!
Text and Formatting
- English only.
- Prose only, no poetry or lyrics.
- Use proper spelling, grammar, and syntax.
- Your piece must be between 250-350 words (you can use this website to see your wordcount).
- Use two paragraph breaks between each paragraph so that they have a proper space between them (press “enter” or “return” twice).
- Include a submission title and an author name (doesn’t have to be your real name). Do not include any additional symbols or flourishes in this part of your submission. Format them exactly as you see in this example, or your submission may not be eligible: Example Submission.
- No additional text styling (such as italics or bold text). Do not use asterisks, hyphens, or any other symbol to indicate whether text should be bold, italic, or styled in any other way. CAPS are okay, though.
What to Submit
- Keep submissions “safe-for-work”; be sparing with sexuality, violence, and profanity.
- Try to focus on making your submission a single meaningful moment rather than an entire story.
- Write something brand new; no re-submitting past entries or pieces written for other purposes
- No fan fiction whatsoever. Take inspiration from whatever you’d like, but be transformative and creative with it. By submitting, you also agree that your piece does not infringe on any existing copyrights or trademarks, and you have full license to use it.
- Submissions must be self-contained (everything essential to understanding the piece is contained within the context of the piece itself—no mandatory reading outside the piece required. e.g., if you want to write two different pieces in the same setting or larger narrative, you cannot rely on information from one piece to fill in for the other—they must both give that context independently).
Submission Rules
- One submission per participant.
- Submit your entry in a comment on this post.
- Submissions close at 12:00pm CST each Friday.
- You must like and leave a review on two other submissions to be eligible. Your reviews must be at least 50 words long, and must be left directly on the submission you are reviewing, not on another comment. If you’re submitting to the private post, feel free to leave these reviews on either the private or the public post. The two submissions you like need not be the same as the submissions you review.
- Be constructive and uplifting. These submissions are not for a professional market, and shouldn’t be treated as such. We do this, first and foremost, for the joy of the craft. Help other writers to feel like their work is valuable, and be considerate and gentle with critique when you offer it. Authors who leave particularly abrasive or disheartening remarks on this post will be disqualified from selection for readings.
- Use the same e-mail for your posts, reviews, and likes, or you may be rendered ineligible (you may change your username or author name between posts without problem, however).
- You may submit to either or both the public/private groups if you have access, but if you decide to submit to both, only the private group submission will be eligible.
- Understand that by submitting here, you are giving us permission to read your submission aloud live on stream and upload public, archived recordings of said stream to our social media platforms. You will always be credited, but only by the author name you supply as per these rules. No other links or attributions are guaranteed.
Comments on this post that aren’t submissions will be deleted, except for replies/reviews left on existing submissions.
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