It’s that time of year again!  Well, maybe not “of year” but it’s that time where my cellular phone contract is gasping its last breath and the phone company begins showering me with love, promises and money to remain a faithful consumer.

This time I have replaced my battered old flip phone with a shiny iPhone and joined the masses.

I’ve developped a mild App store addiction.

I’d be ashamed to say how many fun and unproductive apps I’ve clicked the “buy now” button for, which is why I won’t be saying.

I did purchase three apps that I feel will be fun and beneficial to my writing.  These are all “prompt” type apps but each is slightly different from the other and perhaps using all three together could lead to some interesting pages!

1) StorySeed: The story seed generator randomly generates a story prompt with the main character, setting and a theme as well as the type of story (example: “This story is a mystery”).  The colours are bright, the app is quick and responsive.  The UI is extremely simple.   It’s perfect for a quick story prompt to keep you sharp!

2) Idea Generator Classic: This isn’t really a prompting app.  It’s basically a generator that gives you three words that could prompt an idea for whatever you’re doing.   Click the button, the vault dials spin and 3 words align.  I just got “Fireproof chocolate toy”.  It’s simple, looks fun and there’s lots of potential in challenging yourself to use whatever comes out of the spin in a story.

3) Storyteller: This is the fanciest looking UI of the three.  Scroll type backgrounds, sound effects and use of the accelerometer!  You shake the iPhone and a prompt appears in the form of a “What if?” question.    An example I just had was: “What if the rival was a queasy entrepeneur?”.

All in all I’m pretty satisfied with these purchases.  I’ve already had the chance to use them a few times as prompts for my daily contribution at 750words.com.   It will be interesting if they truly help generate good stories.

I promise to add screenshots, pricing and links later.