[Writing Prompt] 100 Words

So how did you get on yesterday?

Did you write? Did you leave a comment on the blog post, or do your Victory Dance?

Whatever you  managed yesterday, congratulations and I’m glad you’re back for more!

Continuing the theme of ‘assuming you have more than one idea of a time’ this week, I’m giving you another length-based writing assignment.

The Prompt

Write A Drabble (A Story Of Exactly 100 Words)

Tips

  • Just because you’re limited to 100 words, don’t think this is going to be any less a creative exercise than any other story you write this month.
  • Allow as much time for this as you would for a longer story.
  • Don’t be surprised if you find yourself writing more and then paring the story back.
  • It’s very common to cut out lots of words from the start of short stories. Sometimes we have to write a lot to figure out where the story really starts. Don’t be afraid to ‘start late’.
  • You can’t explain much in a 100 word story. Allow the reader to fill in some blanks. Stories of this length are very much a collaboration between reader and writer.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Guest Prompt from Neil Gaiman

The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil GaimanFortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman
Welcome To StoryADay May 2014!

To kick off our 5th Year of writing a StoryADay in May, I have a special treat for you: a guest prompt from the fabulous Neil Gaiman.

On the day I contacted him he was, sadly for him, stuck in an airport. The prompt he suggested for us was pretty heartfelt:

The Prompt from Neil Gaiman

Getting Home

Tips

  • This is a wide-open prompt. You could use it to write tragedy, comedy, satire, slapstick, sci-fi, fantasy, realistic fiction….anything you want.
  • Think of a character desperate to get home. What is stopping them? What is their most basic reaction? (Frustration is a wonderful way to strip away a character’s layers and show us what they are like at their core. In Mr Gaiman’s case I would suggest that he is basically a generous and decent human being. Instead of responding to my request, he could just as easily have cursed, deleted my email and put me on a list of spammers… What will your character do?)
  • For the first day of StoryADay May I always suggest writing a really short story. It’s a great way to warm up, and it’s all too easy to get lost in the beginning of a story and find yourself heading into a 3,000 word behemoth. You’ll never be able to sustain that pace for the whole month, so start small. Start with a victory.
  • Aim to write no more than 1200 words. That gives you 300 words to establish the scene and your character, 700 words to make things happen, complicate things, create a crisis/climax, and 200 words to wrap it all up.

GO!

When you finish your story today, leave a comment below, or join the Victory Dance group in the community and share you thoughts about the first day, there. (Haven’t joined the community yet? Join here

Thanks again, Mr Gaiman. I hope you got home all right…

 

[Writing Prompt] 1200 Words

Welcome to StoryADay May.

It’s Day 1. You’re nervous, you’re excited, you’re full of ideas…(you are, aren’t you?), so I’m not going to tell you WHAT to write, only how much.

(And of course, you should remember that these prompts are entirely optional. If you want to write a 10,000 word novella today, you go right ahead. Just remember to save some juice for tomorrow!)

engine start by Norlando Pobre
photo used by permission of Norlando Pobre

The Prompt Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] 1200 Words”

[Writing Prompt] Fear

Tomorrow it all begins. StoryADay May 2014. Are you nervous? I always am. (This is the fifth May since I launched the challenge!!)

The Prompt

Write A Story In Which Fear Is A Driving Factor For One Or More Character

Tips

  • Focus today on writing a quick, dirty first draft. You’re going to need that skill in the 31 days ahead.
  • Ask yourself who you’d be interested in writing about today. Pick a person, age, gender and defining characteristic (i.e. A beautiful actress; a harassed mother; an ambitious starship captain).
  • Ask yourself what that person wants from life and what they would be afraid of.
  • Consider what/who might get in this character’s way. What might frighten this secondary character? How does that affect his relationship/interactions with the protagonist?
  • Ask yourself what your protagonist needs to do to overcome his/his opponent’s fear. Will you let your protagonist succeed?
  • What happens if they give in to fear?
  • What do they feel as they try to overcome it?

GO!

Did you write today? Did you finish this story? Did any of your own fears creep into this story? Tell us in the comments, or join the discussion in the community.

[Writing Prompt] Naked!

Next Tuesday is Release Day for a new picture book illustrated by our friend, the lovely and talented Debbie Ridpath Ohi. The book is called “Naked!” and was written by Michael Ian Black. (The two previously collaborated on the hilarious “I’m Bored“.)

It’s such a good title, that we’re going to steal it today.

The Prompt

Tips

  • Use the term literally or figuratively to put your characters in an interesting/awkward/trying situation.
  • You can start the story with the moment of ‘being naked’ or you can end up there.
  • Consider the fact that physical nudity means different things in different cultures. Perhaps this is your chance to explore the naturist community or invent a futuristic colony in which clothes are considered vulgar.

GO!

How Naked! did you go? Leave a comment, below, about how you handled this prompt (or a link to your story online, if you posted it anywhere).

A Month Of Writing Prompts – The eBook!

writingprompts2014coverlarge

A Month Of Writing Prompts 2014


Writing a story a day for a month is a crazy endeavour, but one that hundreds of writers have signed up for every May since 2010. During month of courageous creativity, writers learn how to write every day (not ‘someday’), how to craft a story, how to write in different forms, how to fail and dust themselves off, and write again.
Are you ready to join them?
The StoryADay Month of Writing Prompts book shares the daily writing prompts for StoryADay May 2014: 31 writing prompts, meditations, lessons and pep talks to accompany on your journey to becoming a more prolific, creative and fulfilled writer.
Use these prompts during the StoryADay challenge, or any time you need a creativity boost.


[Write On Wednesday] Third Grade Word List

This week’s prompt: write a story based on a (surprisingly menacing) list of words from a Third Grade reader…

spooky shed image
“Waiting” by José María Pérez Nuñez

My third grader doesn’t bring home his reading book very often, so I don’t get to see the stories he’s working on. Each story, however, comes with a spelling list. That I DO see.

While going through the list of words with him, I got a bit bored while waiting for him to laboriously scribble them out three times each. I started doodling. And made up my own story based on the words he was learning to spell.

And now it’s your turn.

The Prompt

Write a story using the following words:

[Write On Wednesday] The Catalogue Of Disasters

Write A Story Featuring An Escalating Catalogue Of Disasters

As I woke up, I reached for my alarm clock and heard rather than felt my hand knock the full glass of water all over my bedside table – home to my iPhone, table and priceless childhood copy of A. A. Milne’s Now We Are Six. So it’s fair to say that I wasn’t in the best mood when my 8 year old declared that no, he simply wasn’t getting up or getting dressed or going to school. After that screaming match my head was pounding so I reached for some ibuprofen, only to scoop down my husband’s blood pressure medicine instead – damned blue-topped bottles! I figured I had time to drop the kids off at school before rushing myself to the ER, but of course, I had forgotten about the half inch of ice on my windscreen….

Ever had one of those days? How about your character?

The essence of story is conflict. Conflict doesn’t have to involve a bad guy. Sometimes the antagonist is simply your character’s bad mood, or the universe, or her lack of preparation.
domino

The Prompt

Write a story that features a character going through a catalogue of disasters

Tips

  • You can start this story at the beginning or the end. They can wake up and start the day off badly, ending up at the wrong end of a loaded gun; or you can start with them strapped into the electric chair, thinking ‘now, how did I get here?’
  • Likewise, the action can all by mental: you start by offending your cat and end by quitting your job in a blaze of glory, burning bridges as you go.
  • This story can be humorous or tragic, but make sure your readers are feeling what your character is feeling.
  • Keep piling on the disasters. Leave us breathless.
  • Give the reader occasional breaks by pausing for moments of backstory, if you like. See how that feels to you, as a writer. Does it cause the story to slow? Could you, instead, include backstory in conversations or pithy one-line asides.
  • Make this more immediate by writing in first person.
  • Or write this in close-third person (no-one else’s thoughts get used, but you’re still writing about your main character as ‘he’ or ‘she’). Remember not to use phrases like “she thought”, “she wondered”, “he looked”. Just tell us a thought. We’re smart enough to figure out that it’s your main character’s thoughts we’re hearing. (e.g. “Well, that wasn’t right” instead of “well, that wasn’t right, she thought”. Much more punch!)
  • Use this exercise to practice putting action into your stories. It doesn’t have to be ‘running from the law’ action. It can be all psychological (think: Jane Austen), but make sure you can have things happening in your writing at any time.

Go!

Photo: Barry Skeates

[Write on Wednesday] Eons

Write a story that takes place over eons

Merging Galaxy Cluster Abell 520
Source: Hubblesite.org

Last week we talked about writing a story in the moment before a car crash: everything in the story took place during a few seconds in the brain of your main character. This week we’re going to the opposite extreme

The Prompt

Write A Story That Takes Place Over Eons

(or just a really long time)

Tips

  • Obviously, since humans don’t live for eons, you’re going to have to choose something else as the thing that provides continuity in this story: it might be a location on the earth; a multi-generational spaceship crew traveling through unimaginable reaches of space; an alien; a centuries-old mollusk; a tree.
  • You can write a narrative story if you like, but this might lend itself to some different forms: letters, tweets, journal entries, a string of news articles; a faux-holy book written in different styles in different eras. Have fun with this.
  • Thing big thoughts. Eons give you a lot of scope to investigate big ideas.
  • Don’t make the story too long. Big ideas don’t necessarily mean high word count.
  • Don’t forget to include small details, mundane moments, things your readers can hang their emotions on.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Time Slowed Down

Write A Prompt In The Moment Before An Accident

car crash 1

You know that old cliché: time slowed?

Well, if you’ve ever been in a car crash or any kind of accident, you’ll know exactly what that means: the amygdala (the seat of emotion in your brain) kicks in and calmly starts recording every detail. When you go back over your memories, the moment will seem to have lasted at least 30% longer than it actually could have.

The way to recreate this in fiction Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Time Slowed Down”

[Write On Wednesday] Give Us A Hint


Yesterday I wrote about “Hint Fiction”, a book of stories told in fewer than 25 words.

The Prompt

Write A Story In No More Than 25 Words

Tips

    • Remember that, in short fiction, you are collaborating with the reader. Make them supply a lot of the detail by leaving spaces for their imaginations to fill.
    • Feel free to write a longer story first and cut it down
    • Don’t expect this to be easy or quick: 25 words is almost nothing!
    • Read this review of the book Hint Fiction to see some examples of how this can be done well.
    • Choose a moment that has some ambiguity in it.
    • Make the title count.

Here’s mine:
The Moment That Altered The Course Of Her Life

Her arm, casually draped across his chest, felt a sudden, pounding footrace: his brain vainly chasing the escaping heart-words. Her pause, a lifetime. Then: yes.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] The Glitterati

Writing prompt: what if a bunch of glamorous and exciting people came to your podunk hometown?

Paparazzi

Does your everyday life seem pretty unglamorous? What about your town?

What if you walked down the street one morning and discovered that a whole bunch of glamorous, exciting people had come to town for a spell?

The Prompt

Write a story about a small town invaded by glamorous/exciting people

Tips

The exciting people could be movie or pop stars on a location shoot, or high-profile politicians in town for a rally, or scientists flocking to study an unnatural phenomenon (think: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver), just as long as it upsets the status quo.

Who are they? Why are they there? Who do they meet?

What do the local people think about all this?

What does your main character feel about them at the start of the story? At the end?

Who learns something from this visit? What?

Also, if you have only ever lived somewhere exciting, seeing celebrities at every coffee counter, write instead about someone really ordinary coming into a situation filled with glamour. Ask the same questions as above?

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Misunderstood

Write a open letter from a misunderstood character

Paris Traffic Wardens

Nobody loves the traffic warden. Or the referee. Or the person who tells you that yes, it’s going to be a root canal. But these people are, well, people, aren’t they?

The Prompt

Write an open letter to the world from an unloved character

Tips

  • You can use one of society’s whipping boys, such as the traffic warden, or you can use a fictional character (such as the witch from Hansel and Gretel — try to stick to characters that are in the public domain if you’re going to publish/post this anywhere)
  • The story can be a ‘day in the life’ story, where we *see* the character in a more sympathetic way, if you don’t fancy the idea of the open letter format.
  • The open letter could be in the form of a list of things we didn’t know about the maligned character or it could be an impassioned defense of their kind.
  • The character can be sad, angry, arrogant, pleading…whatever seems right.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] The Irritable Author

Write a story in which the main character acts on something that really irritates YOU

“Don’t you just wish…”

Have you ever said those words when something has really, REALLY irritated you?

Imagine what would happen if you followed through on all those little revenge-daydreams you have after someone scratches your car/talks incessantly on their phone in the library/dogears the corners of Volume 4 of your collectable edition of The Sandman 10 Volume Slipcase Set…

The Prompt

Write A Revenge-Fantasy Story

Pick something that really irritates you and write about a character who actually DOES the things you can only dream of doing (as a respectable member of a mostly-functional society).

Tips

  • Read the opening chapters of Rest You Merry by Charlotte McLeod. It starts when mild-mannered professor Peter Shandy finally snaps after being pressured to decorate his home for the annual college Christmas ‘Illuminations’. It’s deliciously hilarious.
  • Pick something that really gets under your own skin, the more mundane the better. (It will allow you to be more creative in your revenge!)
  • Show us the moment when your character snaps. Give us the physical and mental fugue-state breaking point. Remember not to tell us “he was so angry he couldn’t speak”, but to instead describe the pounding in his veins, the way his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth. Slow down time with the details, then let ’er rip!

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Sidelong Glances

Having trouble finishing your stories? Try this technique…

I once read an article that suggested it’s easier to talk to men/boys when you’re doing something else at the same time than by trying to sit down and have a deep and meaningful conversation with them.

[Update from 10 years after I wrote this post: Gender politics aside, this observation turned out to be super-valuable as I negotiated the tightrope walk of ‘raising’ teenagers. The conversations we had in the car, while not-looking-at-each-other have been some of the most, ah, enlightening!]

Some serious research hours went into this study that showed men (and I assume some women) find it easier to have more meaningful conversations when engaged in an activity together, than if encouraged to sit and talk things out.

Maybe they’re hiding something, or maybe they’ve just been socialized to believe feelings are icky.

Either way, it struck me that this is perfect guidance for writers: assume your characters are always hiding something (from themselves or others). Write your scenes with them as if you were a parent trying to have a heart-to-heart with a seventeen year old!

  • If you want to ratchet up the conflict, sit them down for an earnest conversation
  • If you want to have a breakthrough, give your characters a physical problem to solve together and let the conversation flow while they do it.

In this week’s prompt, I’m building in the activity. You get to pick the characters, the conflict, and how deep you go.

The Prompt

Write A Story Where the Characters are Engaged In A Hobby/Group

Tips

  • Don’t pick a hobby you’ll need to research. Pick something you like to do, so you can easily include all kinds of realistic details.
  • For example, I might pick knitting or gardening or singing in a choir. Having done all these things, I can easily conjure the personality clashes in a group of enthusiasts
    I could also talk about the tiny details that will make it more realistic: like the adrenaline rush when you think you’ve dropped a stitch, or the physical power it takes to belt out the chorus from “O Fortuna”, along with all the bizarre warm-up tricks choral directors have subjected me to over the years, from ‘ma-meh-me-mo-moo” to group shoulder massages!)
  • This is a great opportunity to work on character-building. Have your main character interact with all kinds of different characters in the group. See what shorthand you can use for each secondary character in the story, without descending into cliché.
  • Try including some tiny, here-and-now moments in the group that echo a larger issue for your main character. This strengthens the theme of the story. (e.g. if you discover that your main character’s issue is that she can’t seem to keep relationships together, allow one of the group’s participants to have issues with commitment to something in the hobby: one month he’s all about cacti, the next month he’s revamping his greenhouse to hold nothing but palms; maybe someone can’t ever seem to knit more than one sock in a pair before moving on to another project; perhaps the newbie on the sports team has been through 14 different sports before this one and can’t settle on one…).
    Mine other people’s reactions to this micro-problem to illuminate the answer to your main character’s macro-problem.
  • Linking your theme to an in-story event, transforms a character sketch or vignette into an actual story that goes somewhere.
  • If you feel you’re missing the mark on this as you write your first draft, don’t worry. Make notes as you go to help you flag this stuff on a future rewrite. (e.g. [“link this to her issue with Dave?’].
    The most important thing today, is to get a first draft finished. Get to the end of your main character’s story and set a date to come back and beef up all the theme/image/foreshadowing stuff later. (Pro tip: Put it on your calendar!)

Come back and leave a comment to let us know how you got on, this week!

[updated: 11 March 2024]

[Write On Wednesday] Things You Should Know About Me

Cammel Laird Social Club art by Half Man Half Biscuit.

This idea for a story is ripped from the song “Them’s The Vagaries” by Half Man Half Biscuit (thanks, guys!). The narrator says, near the start of the song, “Now we’ve kissed I’ve prepared this list, I thought you ought to know…” and goes on to tell his new love about all his quirks starting with “I’ll not sit backwards on the train” and proceeding down to the most bizarre of pet peeves.

The Prompt

Write a story that begins “Now that we’ve kissed, here are some things you ought to know”

Tips

  • Write this as a monologue or a dialogue, whichever works for you.
  • This has the potential to be funny or tragic.
  • Feel free to write this as a list (like the McSweeney’s lists) or as a series of tweets, or as an oral history (which will make it more like a traditional short story in form).
  • Even if you go with the non-traditional forms (lists etc) there is still a lot of scope for the beginning, middle, end structure.
  • Only the journey you take your readers on will be emotional, rather than literal (from flippant to poignant; from innocent to creepy…).
  • Think of the most colorful people you have ever met or the worst date you were ever on. Imagine one of those people writing this.

[Write on Wednesday] That Wasn’t There A Minute Ago

Your character is at work, in a place they know well. Suddenly they notice something that wasn’t there last time they looked…

This week I’m giving you a fairly specific prompt, and guiding you through the story opening with a series of questions. Use this prompt in any setting, any genre, any time period. Use it again, in a completely different setting. In fact, why not bookmark it now (do people still bookmark things?) and come back to it whenever you’re stuck.
The Stare (243/365)

The Prompt

Your character is at work, in a place they know well. Suddenly they notice something that wasn’t there last time they looked.

Tips

Don’t try to answer all these questions at once. Write a sentence or two before you look at the next question:

  • What is your character seeing/experiencing/smelling/touching/thinking about as part of their daily grind?
  • What do they notice, that is out of place?
  • Why does it suddenly stand out?
  • How does it relate to the character? (Pause here to think about your character’s backstory. Don’t put this in the story yet, but in your own head give your character a reason to connect/recoil from this new thing.)
  • Describe the object, bearing in mind how your character feels about it (but don’t tell us how your character feels about it or why)
  • What does your character want to do? What will you let them do?
  • What happens next?
  • How does it end?

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Family Drama

Oh families. The source of so many off the stories we whisper to friends, but are afraid to commit to paper for fear of offending anyone. Today’s prompt encourages you to dig into that vast repository of family stories for a ‘cheap’ way to find a plot.

The Prompt
Write a story about a stranger at a family gathering.

Tips
Think about a family gathering you’ve been to (yours or someone else’s) – preferably one where one of your most colorful relatives was on great form.
What would that look like to a stranger? (Uncle Bob’s new girlfriend or the lonely new neighbor someone invited as a nice gesture)
Take that real-life story as a jumping-off point.
Decide on a protagonist: is it your stranger or the person who invited them? Think about the protagonist’s history. What’s in their past that’s going to make this situation especially hilarious or poignant or tragic? (You don’t have to explain this in the story, but if you know about it, you’ll be able to make this character richer as you write.)
Pick one tiny incident — someone storms out, someone smashes a plate in frustration, someone swears inappropriately. Illustrate the moment and/or the ripples around the room after it happens. (Remember, this is a short story. You can’t tell too much.)
Concentrate on making the reader feel something: make me cringe with embarrassment, make me love the old grandpa, make me feel your protagonist’s regret when he misses a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to say what he really feels…

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Word List Stories

It’s back: the ever-popular (no really, it is!) exercise where we all write stories using the same list of words.
It’s silly, it’s low-stress, it is, frankly, ridiculous and it makes for a great way to break blocks or take a break after a longer or more serious project.

So here goes:

The Prompt

Write a story containing the following words
Monthly
Cute
Shortest
Wolfish
Plot
Master
World
Valuable
December

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] 100 Words For Thanksgiving

It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the US (for those non-US people: it’s a Big Deal with lots of travel and turkey and non-productivity).

So, in an effort to keep you writing but not overwhelm you, this week I’m assigning a Drabble, a 100 word story.

The Prompt

Write A 100 Word Story
100/365

Tips

  • 100 word stories sound like they won’t take up much time but they will take more than you think.
  • Remember that you don’t have much time/space to create your story. This stops you from including too much backstory, any rambling, or losing your way in the middle. Keep your mind firmly on the end.
  • Do write more than 100 words if you need to, then trim.
  • If you find yourself writing fewer than 100 words, look back and see if you can beef it up with pointed dialogue, expressive description or more of your main character’s emotions.
  • You can make the theme of the story ‘Thanksgiving’, ‘gratitude’ (or lack thereof), or something completely different if inspiration strikes.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Unseasonal Valentine

Big Heart of Art - 1000 Visual Mashups

The Prompt

Write A Valentine’s Story

I know, you think I’m crazy, right? But if you’re a sick as I am (already) of the Christmas music in the mall (it’s early NOVEMBER!) and the magazine articles about ‘holiday entertaining’, then why not strike back, by skipping the festive season altogether and writing a Valentine’s story?

The bonus here is that, should you happen to write a story draft that has promise, you’ll have plenty of time to polish it and submit it well before the Valentine’s magazine deadlines roll around (end of Nov/early Dec). If you’re more of the Do-It-Yourself-er, then you’ll still need time to polish, format and market your story before February strikes.

And if you’re just writing for fun, what could be better than letting your story take you away from the present day?

Tips

  • Put on some love songs and “think romantical thoughts”.
  • Try writing a love story with a twist. Everything gets kind of sickly sweet around Valentine’s Day. Write a story for the people who really NEED a love story that day! This might include revenge, someone asserting their independence, someone walking away from a relationship, or a good old-fashioned farce.
  • Ever watched a soppy movie or read a romance and hated the way it ended? Create some similar characters and give the story a better ending.
  • Remember that story comes from character. Know your character before you start writing — what does she want? What does she need? How are these different? That’s where your story happens.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Fool’s Errand

This week a major art discovery was made in Bavaria: a hoard of 1000+ art works (many by masters like Chagall and Renoir) was found in the apartment of the son of an art dealer.

These art works, it is thought, were ‘lost’ during WWII (i.e. looted, forced sales, etc.). 70 years on, many of these works must surely have been forgotten about entirely. For certain, many have never been seen by art historians. But there have been people who have pursued this type of art down through the decades since the war ended.

Which got me thinking. There have been many people who mourned, pursued and talked about this art down through the decades since the war ended. As time passed, they may have gone from sounding like crusaders to sounding like cranks. How must they have felt yesterday, when this hoard was revealed?

The Prompt

Write a story that features an obsessed character who is suddenly, unexpectedly vindicated.

Tips

  • The story can share the moment at which the vindication happens or it can happen afterwards (or perhaps even slightly before. Wouldn’t it be fun to let the reader see the vindication coming, but leave the story just before it does?)
  • Character is all in this story. It doesn’t really matter WHAT your character is obsessed with/paranoid about. The interesting parts happen in their interactions with the doubters and believers around them.
  • What would it do to a family, or a relationship, to have one member who was obsessed with an increasingly-outlandish idea through the years?
  • If you’re struggling for a topic, don’t forget the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination is coming up on Nov 23…

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Borrowed words

Today’s is a silly prompt designed to get you to lighten up about your writing.

One of the best ways to become blocked is to put pressure on yourself to write something good.

Today’s gift to you is a list if words it’s going to be very hard to turn into a good story.

So write something silly. Have some fun:

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[Writing Prompt] Character Rampage

I was listening to a song I love this week. (“I Think Never Is Enough” by the Bare Naked Ladies).

In it, the protagonist is proudly telling us how he followed his own dreams rather than blindly going to college or backpacking through Europe or working in retail, like everyone else he knew (“I never worked a single day in retail/Telling people what they wanna hear/ Telling people anything to make a sale./ Eating in the food court/ With the old and the bored…”). I love it and want to play it to my nieces and nephew, my sons, everyone in their teens. I love his in-your-face arrogance. And then I started to wonder if the band ever performs this song now, and if, 20 years on, they’re ever faintly embarrassed by that arrogance. Even though it’s one of the things I love about the song…

And that got me thinking: one of the best things about being a writer is having an outlet for all those times you want to rant and rave unreasonably but can’t because you’re too damned polite.

 

The Prompt

366:01/11/2012
Write a story about a character who says and does things you could never do/say.

Tips

  • Let them be as heroic/funny/romantic/angry/mean/bitter/vindictive as you like.
  • Don’t worry about making them rounded. This is a short story not a novel. You can give them one line where they move a cat out of harm’s way before nuking the city, to let us know there’s more in there than the pure character we’re seeing in this moment. This isn’t a novel. We don’t need to see much more than that.
  • Think of an issue that’s liable to set you off on a rant (it could be anything from a hole in your sock to the hole in the ozone layer, from apostrophes to healthcare, from sport to cell phone use) and think of a character who shares your position on that thing (or opposes it) to the extreme. Put him/her in a situation that’s going to get him riled up and start the story just after that has happened.
  • Don’t back off. Let them say all the things you never would. Remember, you don’t have to show this to anyone if you don’t want to (but I bet you’ll want to).

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Limit Yourself To 100 Words

#100

One of the first internet-era writing challenges I ever attempted was over at 100words.net . The challenge was to write 100 words (exactly) every day for a month (I think the brain behind the idea originally did it for 100 days, but by the time I discovered the challenge it was a calendar month).

It was hard, but it was freeing too. And it was my experience with those limitations (and the rhythm of writing every day for a month) that set me thinking about my own StoryADay challenge, years later.

The Prompt

Write 100 words. Exactly 100.

Tips

  • It can be helpful to think of this as an exercise, not a story
  • Start with an experience of your own. As you whittle your words and ideas down to exactly 100, you will inevitably be creating fiction.
  • 100 words isn’t much. You don’t have room for traditional story structure, or to worry about all those writing rules you’ve been working to absorb. Just write.
  • If you need a more specific prompt, write about something you did yesterday morning. Give me details, colors, emotion.

Go!

Oh, and thanks to everyone who left comments or got in touch about the five-a-week prompts in September. The deal was that someone who commented would win a copy of my Time To Write Workshop. And (drumroll please) the winner is: Sarah Cain!! (I used the random number generator at Random.org — and got ridiculously excited waiting for the winning number to appear! Congrats Sarah. Hope it helps!

Beginnings, Middles and Ends — Wrapping Up StoryADay September 2013

This week’s prompts took a structural approach to story. Each day we focused on element of story: the beginning of the middle, the real middle, the climax, the end and then we went back to look at the beginnings again.

This week, you should feel free to attempt a story a day, or work on the same story all week. You can even rewrite old stories paying particular attention to the structural element of the day.

Story Road(map)

Prompt 1 – Mess With Their Heads

Having worked on character (the real starting point of any story) last week, this prompt encouraged us to move quickly onto messing with them — creating the real beginning of the story.

Prompt 2 – Make It Even Worse

Ever got lost in the middle of a story? It happens all the time. One way to avoid the soggy midsection is to remember what your character wants and work on frustrating the more and more (and more).

Prompt 3 – The Bit Before The End

Now that it looks like all hope is lost, you can let your character fight back. Everything you’ve set up pays off now: it’s climax-time!

Prompt 4 – Writing A Strong Ending

It’s the end of September and time to look at the ends of your stories. We look at three different types of endings: when to use them and how not to screw them up.

Prompt 5 – Back To The Beginning

When you reach the end of any story, that’s the perfect time to go back and rewrite your first line…

Thanks for playing along during StoryADay September’s prompt-fest.
Don’t forget to sign up for news about the next proper StoryADay May challenge (which really is a Story A Day!).
If you need more writing prompts, bookmark this category. Come back as often as you need. You can also sign up for prompts by email every Wednesday and I’d love it if you’d play along by posting your short story here at the site each week and providing feedback for other people.
If you’re interested in investing in your writing development, get your Short Story Framework here. I don’t mail to this list very often, but when I do it is with news about courses (mine and other people’s) and books, tools, workshops etc. that I think are worth your time and money as a developing writer. Find out more about the StoryADay I, WRITER Course, here

Keep writing,

 
Julie
 

[Writing Prompt] Back To The Beginning

Now that we’ve concentrated on the middle, the climax and the end, it seem only logical to go back to the beginning.

The Prompt

Rewrite The Beginning

Tips

  • Go back through any stories you have written this month (or ever) and rewrite your first line. Strong beginnings are important and it is almost impossible to write a good first line before you’ve finished the story.
  • The ideal first line contains everything in your story: you character’s needs, desires, and where they will go on their journey through this story; setting, atmosphere, tone…
  • Spend a good amount of time on this. Try four or five different openings for each story you look at.

Go!

Thanks for playing along during StoryADay September’s prompt-fest.
Don’t forget to sign up for news about the next proper StoryADay May challenge (which really is a Story A Day!).
If you need more writing prompts, bookmark this category. Come back as often as you need. You can also sign up for prompts by email every Wednesday and I’d love it if you’d play along by posting your short story here at the site each week and providing feedback for other people.
If you’re interested in investing in your writing development, sign up for the StoryADay Creativity Lab mailing list. I don’t mail to this list very often, but when I do it is with news about courses (mine and other people’s) and books, tools, workshops etc. that I think are worth your time and money as a developing writer. I’ll be posting details in this list first about the next Warm Up You Writing Live Sessions — a three-week workshop hosted by yours truly, with writing exercises, audio classes, online forums and one-to-one coaching. Don’t miss out!

[Writing Prompt] Ending With An Ending

This week we’ve practiced starting with a character, progressing through the middle, approaching the climax, writing the climax. Now that September is drawing to its end, don’t you think it’s time to work on our endings?

The Prompt

Write A Short Short Story, Concentrating On Writing A Strong Ending

The End

Tips

  • Short stories have to end. You can’t just stop writing because you get tired and tell yourself you’re being ‘literary’. Even ambiguous endings have structure and purpose, when they’re well done.
  • You can tie everything up in a bow if you want. Answer all the questions, tell us who ends up with whom, whether or not the changes the character underwent in the story are permanent. Serve your reader their dessert, clear the table, stack the dishwasher, wipe the surfaces. The risk with this ending is that your reader will be insulted and left on the sidelines. Use a light hand. Give us the detail we need but don’t belabor it and remember to involve our emotions.
  • You can leave the ending ambiguous. Let the character act to answer a central question, but don’t tell us what choice they made. Let the reader decide. This is particularly effective if you have set up a big moral question for your character, or a life-changing choice. Let your character walk out of a door, or pick up a pen, or turn the ignition…You risk leaving your reader unsatisfied, but as long as all the other questions in the story are answered, you may be able to get away with having your character ride off into the sunset, leaving your reader to decide (based on what they have come to know of him during the story) what he’s riding off to do.
  • Give us a twist. As long as the twist is logical and not too much of a cliche, go ahead and surprise us. Twists can be sad or funny or sweet, but to be satisfying, they must not introduce any new information — no sudden new characters or magical fairies swooping in to save the day. Just something you have withheld or hidden. Think: O. Henry, Twilight Zone, The Sixth Sense. Your reader should be able to go back over the story and see all the elements that made the twist ending possible.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] The Bit Before The End

Remember when your teachers told you every story had a beginning, a middle and an end? Well, they missed a bit.

The Prompt

Write a Flash Fiction Story With Emphasis On The Climax
20130929-090052.jpg
I love disaster movies — even the really cheesy ones — so my story today will be a mini disaster movie.

I don’t have time, in flash fiction, to build up all the characters a disaster movie would visit at the beginning (the screw-up anti-hero, his ex-wife, the wise elder who’s doomed to die, the young person who hates the anti-hero but will eventually become reconciled with him, the comic relief, the unrequited love interest, the bull-headed person in authority who hampers the anti-hero’s efforts to save the world and, of course, the villain who causes it all through action or arrogant inaction…see? I REALLY love my disaster movies!).

nstead, I’m going to have to concentrate on quickly establishing my flawed character, what he thinks he wants, what he actually needs, his wise-cracking character and his long-suffering assistant/love interest. Then I’m going to wreck his life — quickly — which is fine, cos his life was a wreck anyway. Then I’m going to threaten the last people he cares about, just like we practiced earlier this week.

Finally, I’m going to really concentrate on the climax. I only have up to 1000 words, so I’m not going to be able to go the full Bruce-Willis/Sharknado here, but I’m going to put everything on the line and do my best to pull at the reader’s heartstrings.
FInally, I’m going to spend 100 words or fewer wrapping up.

Tips

  • Before you even start writing, imagine a killer climax
  • This mean you’re going to have to know your character and his/her problem before you start writing.
  • You’re also going to have to think of a few complications you might throw at your character.
  • How can you show the reader why this matters? (Disaster movies usually do this by having the main character’s best friend tell point it out in a conversation, wherein the anti-hero shrugs and makes a witty, self-deprecating joke.)
  • Don’t be afraid of the cheese factor. This is an exercise, not your last shot at literary immortality (and even if it was, someone got paid to write Sharknado, after all!)
  • Concentrate on your climax. Everything is at stake, but you don’t have to be writing a disaster movie to make this dramatic. How will your hero change to get out of this problem? If he’s a ranging drunk, can he put down the bottle? If she never talks back to anyone, does she finally stand up for herself? If she’s living under an oppressive regime, can she put three fingers to her lips in a gesture of defiance and have that gesture returned by the crowd (no, wait, that’s been done. But see how totally silent, non-violent act, can be electrifyingly dramatic?)

 

You have a maximum of 1000 words.

 

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Make It Even Worse

Yesterday we took your character’s dreams and dashed them in the middle of the story.

Today I want you to take your character, and their desire and cripple them not once, but twice. Of course you get to reward them with a little win in the middle.

The Prompt

Give your character a goal, frustrate them, let them make some progress but let it come at a  cost.

Darth Vader vs Obi-Wan Kenobi

Tips

  • Think about Star Wars, the great story-outliner’s tool: Luke wants to get off this boring little planet but his aim is frustrated by obligations and lack of opportunity. When his family is murdered he finally acts. His next aim is to find and rescue the sexy princess (spoiler alert: Ew!). Problem: she’s on the most heavily defended, most technologically advanced ship in the fleet of the all-powerful empire. Somehow he succeeds. Yay! BUT, oh no, they sacrifice Obi-Wan, his mentor, at the same time. Now Luke has a new mission: overthrow the empire. Fail, Strive, Succeed but at a cost, pursue next part of his ‘want’. [Check out this Narrative Map of the Hero’s Journey]
  • Put your character in an impossible situation. Let him dig his way out only to fall into a new pit. Only this time he knows a bit more about himself and what it’ll take to climb out. (Friends? A rope? Strong hands?) Let the character use what they learned in the first part of the middle, to achieve what they need to do next.
  • It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom or drama. If you’re writing humor you can still do this. Frustration is funny. Even throwing in a moment of tragedy is acceptable in comic writing. In fact, if you’re making your reader laugh until 2/3 of the way through the story, they won’t even notice the knife in your hand until you’re sliding it between their ribs. Bam! Will that pack an emotional punch?! (Sitcoms do this from time to time. Aren’t you surprised to find yourself suddenly sobbing during your favorite 30 minute comedy?)

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Mess With Their Heads

Last week we concentrated on character desires. Giving your character a ‘need’ gives them something to fight for and your reader something to root for.

This week we’re going to explore ways to continue those stories and finish them off.

The Prompt

Create A Really Big Problem For Your Character
CLIFFHANGER

Take a character or situation you have written about before and write the story again. This time, bearing in mind your character’s need, do everything you can to derail that character’s progress. Make it big. Make it bad. Do things to your characters that make your reader gasp “How in the world is she ever going to get out of that?!”

Tips

  • Try not to worry too much about how you’re going to get your character out of trouble.
  • Do have an end in mind (i.e. know whether or not she’s going to get the guy and whether or not that is good news, given her character need).
  • Just for this story, don’t fret if you can’t transition neatly from ‘oh hell, it just all fell apart from her’ to ‘aha, and here’s how she reacts at the end’. Allow yourself to be sketchy. Don’t try to write deathless prose. Just hash out the events, concentrate on the emotions and worry about clean up later.

Go!