Today’s writing prompts are inspired by Peter Bunzl’s historic adventure story The Clockwork Queen (2022).
Description
Sophie must play the role of the Clockwork Queen in order to free her father in this page-turning historical adventure from Cogheart author Peter Bunzl.
Chess prodigy Sophie Peshka inherited her love of the game from her grandmaster father. But now that he has been imprisoned in the dungeons of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg by powerful Empress Catherine the Great, Sophie must use all her strategic skill and cunning to help him escape.
Part of Sophie’s plan involves an incredible chess-playing automaton called the Clockwork Queen, but will the Queen be able to outwit the Empress in a game where the stakes are a matter of life and death?
Writing prompt: The Mechanical Turk
Peter Bunzll’s story is inspired by the Mechanical Turk – a automaton built by Hungarian civil servant Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770. The Mechanical Turk appeared to be a machine that could play chess, but was in reality an illusion powered by a human chess player.
For this prompt, write a piece where the Mechanical Turk defeats a chess player that doesn’t take kindly to the result. Perhaps the defeated player had placed a large bet on themselves to win? Maybe they realise that the Mechanical Turk is an illusion and swear revenge? Whatever you come up with, this is where things get interesting.
Use your imagination and set this in any era you want, whether historical or contemporary.
Writing prompt: Ancient Russia
The Clockwork Queen is set in ancient Russia in the time of Catherine the Great, who ruled from 1762 to 1796. In the book she imprisons Sophie’s father for failing to teach her son to play chess.
Create a character who likewise falls foul of Catherine the Great and is imprisoned unfairly. What type of person is your character? An unscrupulous businessman? A civil servant? A distant relative in line for the throne?
Think about what happens next. Imagine your character tries to escape. How do they manage it?
For extra atmosphere set the story in the middle of a cold Russian winter. Describe the cold and the dark. Use vivid words to capture the mood.
Readers
Read this book for a beautiful story about a girl who has to rescue her father from the dungeons of Catherine the Great.
Writers
Read this book to learn how to write a short novel (this story is only 14,000 words long). See how the author uses uses description and clever world building with only a few words to play with, to support a powerful story about a girl’s love for her father.
More resources
I would love more writers to hear about this project. If you know someone who would like what I’m doing here, please tell them about it.