[Writing Prompt] Guest Prompt from Simon Kewin

To engage your readers and hook them in from the first line, it’s a great idea to start in medias res, which means into the middle of things. So…

Kicking off the next few days’ Guest Prompters is StoryADay past participant Simon Kewin, who provided this great prompt. Thanks, Simon!

To engage your readers and hook them in from the first line, it’s a great idea to start in medias res, which means into the middle of things. So, instead of opening with long descriptions of background and prior events, jump straight into the action. This is immediately more engaging for the reader. The trick for the writer is then to drip-feed into the narrative information about prior situations the reader needs without it becoming too intrusive and, well, boring.

The following prompts are opening lines of stories that start in medias res. See where they – or something like them – lead you…

  • Nate plummetted to the ground, screaming Kate’s name as he fell.
  • Amanda Frobisher stood in front of the entire school, only to find no words would come out of her mouth.
  • Jamie stood in the wreckage of his ransacked house, trying to take it all in.
  • Max had one bullet left. He had to make it count.
  • “So, will you marry me or not?”

 

Simon is a UK writer and a previous StoryADayMay participant. He has two novels appearing this years: Engn, to be published by December House in July and Hedge Witch, to be published by Morrigan Books on Hallowe’en. He can be found at http://simonkewin.co.uk

[Writing Prompt] Copycat Story

Today’s prompt is adapted from one of the most popular segments of the Warm Up Writing Course that I run here as an online course (and a home-study version).

The Prompt

Write A Copycat Story, based on one of your favorite short stories by another writer

Tips

  • Take a story by a writer you really, really admire — preferably a short short story that won’t take for ever to reproduce. Analyze it in minute detail: from word choice to sentence length. Now, choose a different setting and different characters with different dreams from that of the originals, and write a copycat story, following the exact structure and tone of the original.
  • During the Renaissance — the great flowering of European art and culture during the 16th and 17th centuries — great artists and artisans enrolled apprentices to train with them. The apprentices learned the principles of their craft not by creating their own unique works but by painstakingly copying the works and style of their masters. Why shouldn’t we try the same thing?
  • Don’t attempt to get any of our trainee copycat work published. That’s a plagiarism scandal just waiting to erupt!.

 

(If you want more details about this, and examples to follow, try the Warm Up Writing Course (home study version), the work-at-your-own pace version of the popular online course I run periodically here at the site.)

 

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Search The Markets

This prompt had a brief, premature debut last week. If you used it then, why not travel back and use one of these prompts from last week, today? Also, use some time today to pick a short story that you will use to guide your writing tomorrow. Pick one you really love. Need recommendations?

Maybe I crave approval or something, but I have always found that the prospect of being judged by someone else helps focus my mind.

Writing for publication is not something I usually suggest during StoryADay May. Worrying about whether or not a story will be published before you’ve even written it is a bit ‘cart before the horse’. However sometimes the thought of a competition deadline or submission to a themed anthology can provide a bit of inspiration and a dose of motivation that might otherwise be missing.

The Prompt

Write a story that fits the guidelines of a particular market, themed anthology or competition.

Tips

  • You don’t actually have to submit if the story doesn’t work out.
  • Choose a venue with a deadline date far enough away that you can revise this story after StoryADay May is over.
  • Resist the temptation to write the obvious story suggested by the theme, prompt or guidelines. Dig a little deeper until you find something you’re really passionate about.
  • Write your first draft with abandon, forgetting that you’re even thinking about submitting it anywhere.
  • Make a note in your calendar to look at it again some time in early June.

If you need a resource for finding contests and deadlines, you could do a lot worse than Duotrope.com . The full listings require an annual membership but it is a fabulous resource.
You can also try WritersMarket.com or pop down to your local library and look for the print edition of that tome if you’re saving your pennies or don’t think you’ll get the value from a subscription to Duotrope.com or WritersMarket.com.

[Writing Prompt] Future (Im)Perfect

I get mad sometimes. I mean, properly fuming about things. I won’t tell you which things, because that doesn’t matter, but I’m betting you do too.

Neighbors’ dogs barking too much? People in the street being inconsiderate? Politicians doing nothing (or the wrong thing) about an issue you care about?

Take that energy and use it in a story.

The Prompt

Mentally travel ten years into the future. What if [a hot-button issue for you really care about] has come to pass/been squelched. What does that mean for everyday life? What will your hero face/do about it?

Tips

  • Use an issue you really, really get annoyed about.
  • Promise yourself you won’t post/publish this anywhere if the idea of being ‘outed’ on this issue makes you uncomfortable.
  • You don’t need to set the whole story in the future. You can set it in the past or in an altered present where this issue is different (examples: what if gun laws had been radically changed ten years ago? What if catastrophic climate change was already being played out in a way that no-one could ignore? What if, ten years ago, your government had decreed girls could no longer go to school? What if aliens had arrived a decade ago and imposed world peace?)
  • You can go all dystopian as Margaret Atwood did in “The Handmaid’s Tale” or positive as in the Star Trek universe created by Gene Rodenberry.
  • You can use satire if you don’t want to go too dark, but still get enraged on an issue. See: Terry Pratchett, Jonathan Swift, South Park…
  • It doesn’t need to be a ‘world’ issue. If it really is ‘dogs barking incessantly’, just channel your rage about that and set a protagonist loose on the problem. Go where ever your story takes you. Then go a little further.

 

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Entitlement

Simple prompt today from a song title:

The Prompt

Write a story prompted by the song title Beyond The Blue Horizon

Tips

  • This song was written in the golden age of the popular song, by Leo Robin, W. Franke Harling and Richard A. Whiting. If you want to write a 1940s period piece have a listen to this very evocative clip, for inspiration.
  • You could use the full lyrics for inspiration or
  • Ignore the ‘prior art’ and simply let the title take you off in any direction.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Your Opening Is…

Simple task today (ha!):

The Prompt

Write a story that opens, “On the edge of the mountain, silhouetted against the setting sun, there is a small ramshackle cottage made of wood.”

Tips

  • This sounds, at first blush, as if it has to be set in a fantasy or fairy-tale world, but I bet you can turn it around to fit the setting you’re most comfortable with
  • Prompts like this can be really effective because of the constraints they place on us; constraints that force us to reject the first idea we have and go digging for something better, twistier, more ‘me’.
  • If you really want to, you can dismiss this pretty quickly with comic effect (“but that’s part of a different story”) or you could refer to it but move your characters away to the city (or space) if that’s more to your taste.
  • Or you can write a story that fits this opening line perfectly. And I am still willing to bet money that no two stories written from this prompt will sound alike.
  • In case you haven’t guessed yet, this is an exercise in proving to you that your writing voice is unique and even writing to a shared prompt, you needn’t worry too much about trying to write something original. Write from your heart, your experiences, your truth and your concerns, and you can’t help but be original.

      • Go!