The Prompt
Write a single or series of journal entries in first person where your character is exploring something in a set time period – hours in the day, a week, a few years. The entries must end on a note where she/he/they find out or realize that things have never been what they seemed.
The journal is an intimate space where a character’s voice reveals itself easily. It also provides a window into the desires, fears and masks of a character. How they interact with or perceive their environment, who they feel may end up reading these words, how they express themselves when they are sure they will incinerate the pages as soon as they are done makes for different people and different motivations.
Popular non-fiction examples are travelogues like journals of King Akbar who traveresed a lot of land with his army when he was in his teens, Vasco Da Gama’s famous journeys by ship etc.
Your character can be any age or profession, as long as they are exploring something, writing it in their journal and find at the end that their world is not what they thought it was.
For example, you can choose to write a space ship lieutenant’s journal during an 18-day space war or a fashion designer’s notes during their all-important fashion show week. How does the war end? How does the week end?
Neha Mediratta
Neha Mediratta Chaudhuri is an independent writer, editor and consultant based in Mumbai. For more about her visit: www.nehamediratta.com
Managing home, hearth, and work, she writes about things she has mulled over for more than two decades. Her latest book is a collection of short stories, Death Chips and Love Fries .
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Wow, this one brought me back all the way to one of the oldest stories I ever started, about a young man becoming a knight. The journal entries chronicle his time at the royal court as he works his way up, right until an incident causes everything to go out of control and he receives a hard-to-swallow revelation. Writing took considerably longer than I’d have liked, but I loved exploring this story and its protagonist again, and I’m now considering picking the story up again in earnest.
Felt more connected with the character
I borrowed from my very angsty 9th grade journal to write a story of best friends. The protagonist is only like me at a very surface level, but I always have fun fictionalizing my life. Thanks, Neha!
It was fun to explore the deeper, unfiltered thoughts of a couple of characters. I’ll revisit it when I return to the project post challenge. Thank you, Neha!
Thanks for a prompt. I did change it a bit! I wrote the journal entries of a character, but instead of the character having a revelation, I tried to make the reader have one instead. I’m not sure I pulled it off, but at least I wrote.
I wrote the journal of a young person in a group of bronze-age scientist/explorers, who have the goal of examining the land on the far side of the mountain, which no living person has seen. Something between the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle and Peter S. Beagle. Short notes made at the end of each day’s journey give insight into his culture and character, and the people around him. When they cross over the mountain to the far side, they discover a land exactly like their own. Their scout reports seeing a group, similar in most ways to themselves, approaching from less than day’s journey away.
It was fun to pack as much information as possible into short notes and impressions, and to build a story arc out of day-to-day concerns. About 800 words.
Thank you for the prompt. It was fun letting a character from a longer piece pour out her heart and find the solution she was looking for.
In keeping with my linked stories since Day Three’s prompt, I wrote two short ‘entries’. One is by the protagonist’s grandmother, coming to the realization that they need to leave their country and time even if they literally won’t know where or when they’re headed until they land. The second is from the granddaughter’s POV, to justify her extreme decision to become an assassin. Thanks for a great prompt, Neha!!
I’ve been keeping a journal since I was very young, and this is a great prompt!
I wrote about a woman who was in an accident and in a coma. She is writing in her “head” journal, trying to make sense of what happened.
I had fun with this one. 550 words of Leigh journaling about his evolving relationship with Nik(it’s a rather one-sided relationship, because he’s pretty sure Nik hates him through most of it).
The final entry:
Oh. Nik never knew I was flirting with him. This whole time. Wow. I thought it had been obvious. Apparently I need to up my game.
Yeah, no, Leigh, you have to come right out and tell him that. These two are going to be so fun to write.