This week’s prompts are inspired by ‘plot patterns’ from James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure
Today your hero is restless. S/he can’t simply live the way everyone else does. Your hero needs to go on a quest.
Whether this quest (and what they seek) is literal or figurative, make sure the goal is something absolutely critical to their survival, and the obstacles huge.
(In a short story you may only be able to give them one obstacle as the set-piece but you can use the action & dialogue to
- Imply a whole lot about who they are,
- Explain why they are here and
- Show the scale of the quest before and after this point,
If you pay attention to doing this, you’ll end up with a complete story, not just a trailer for a novel
Send Your Character On A Quest
Go!
Great prompt – I was a little afraid it would demand a larger word count, but I think I did alright.
I enjoyed basing my ‘fantasy’ world heavily on Native American culture (added a photo prompt for my story) – and gave my girl a quest to purify herself of the soul of her brother who died while in the womb with her (twins). 😀
A prompt after my fantasy-lover’s heart! 🙂
You’re putting us through the mill this year, Julie. 🙂
Heh. I know a quest is a little ambitious for a short story, but it doesn’t have to be an epic quest. It could be a quest for the last bottle of milk in town when they’ve just predicted a hurricane….