What Does Your Character Want? Five September Writing Prompts

This week’s prompts have all been about exploring character needs. Without a desire, why are we reading about your character? Without an obstacle to that desire, where’s the story?

Use these prompts to spark a few stories of your own. Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know which ones worked best for you, and be entered to win a copy of my Time To Write Workshop.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Prompt 1 — Filthy Lucre
Your character needs money, and fast! Why? How? You tell us!

Prompt 2 — Gimme Shelter 
One of the most primitive needs of any person is a need for shelter. This prompt explores that in ways from primitive to more civilized.

Prompt 3 — Feed Me, Seymour!
Staying with the basic needs of humanity: your character is hungry. Why? What’s stopping them from ordering in? Tell us the story.

Prompt 4 — Belonging
Now that you’ve explored the most basic needs of your characters, what next? Well, let’s assume they’re safe and fed. What do they want now? To belong. Tell this story today.

Prompt 5 — Appreciate Me!
Beyond mere belonging, people need to be appreciated for who they are. Write the story of someone fighting to be appreciated.

Could You Use More Instruction, From Writing’s Hottest Teachers? Watch this video!

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(Not an affiliate link, because I want you to get the 50% discount you get by joining the DIYMFA list!)

Video notes

  • Chuck Wendig actually blogs at terribleminds.com, not the fake site I made up in this video!
  • Also, I forgot to mention James Scott Bell, the most generous man in publishing, and Stuart Horowitz of bookarchitecture.com, will both be speaking too. It just keeps getting better 🙂
Keep writing,
Julie
P.S. Don’t forget, everyone who comments this month will be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of the StoryADay Time To Write Workshop.

[Writing Prompt] Appreciate Me!

This week’s theme has been ‘character needs’. Today we assume your character has all their basic needs covered (they can eat, breathe and drink; they have a roof over their heads and they have some sense of belonging). And suddenly that’s no longer enough. More than merely belonging, your character has a burning need to be appreciated.

The Prompt

Write A Story In Which the Character is Striving For Recognition

Military Child Appreciation Day

Tips

  • This need brings your character into the realm of “esteem” needs — they’re no longer fighting for survival but for quality of life.
  • The challenge in this story is to make the reader empathize with a character who might, if handled carelessly, seem a little whiny. I mean, no-one’s dying so why are you whining?
  • The good news it that this kind of need is easier to write about that the needs at the top level of Maslow’s Hierarchy, which tend to really make your character seem like a spoiled brat (“Oo, I’m trying to self-actualize and no-one’s helping me, wah!”). And yes, I’m being harsh here, but I think this is why so much literary short fiction is hard to swallow. A lot of it focuses on this last level of needs. So chill, we’re doing the stage that’s a level lower down and a little harder to screw up 🙂
  • Think of characters like Ann in Ann of Green Gables or Jo from Little Women in this story: life isn’t terrible but she’s struggling to be what she knows she could  be if she’s true to her talents and needs.
  • A way into this story might be to give your character an opportunity to advance, even though it’s against her real desires. It seems like the safe option (take the promotion to manager instead of quitting and becoming a freelance writer!) What would your character do and how will that affect the reader?

Go!

 

 

 

[Writing Prompt] Belonging

This week our themes are focused on characters’ needs. Today, something above a survival need, but something that is nevertheless deeply important:

Cafe BeLong at the BrickworksThe Prompt

Write a story about a character who desperately wants to belong

Tips

  • This can be any kind of relationship story: love, friends, family, career.
  • The character must NEED to belong so badly that they’re willing to go through hell to pursue their need.
  • Your story should take your character somewhere: will they change to fit in, or will they realise that’s too big a step for them. Will they be OK with that (in either case)?
  • Show us why your character needs to belong and how that need drives her every action.
  • Put obstacles in her way as often as possible and show us about your protagonist’s character by showing us how he/she reacts to the obstacles.

 

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Food

Following this week’s theme of giving characters a basic need, today’s prompt is one of the most basic needs of all: food.

The Prompt

Your Character Needs Food

I Think We Need To Have A Little Chat About Hygiene...

Tips

  • Remember that, to make this story and your character interesting, they must need food above all else at this particular point in their lives.
  • Figure out how they got into this state and why they can’t just pop down to the vending machine and satisfy their hunger. Don’t launch into this explanation right at the start of your story.
  • Start with the character’s feelings of hunger/weakness and give us some character insights by showing how they deal with this adversity.
  • Give hints about why this is more than just normal hunger (perhaps they are stranded somewhere, perhaps they’re trapped in an interminable meeting).
  • This prompt easily lends itself to both comedy and horror. I can even see romance coming from this…
  • Remember to put obstacles in your character’s way. If possible include other people and movement so that your character is not simply in his/her own head.
  • Feel free to experiment with form. Have your stuck-in-a-meeting character texting a friend who is sending him pictures of the sumptuous lunch she’s having right now. Or include items from menus and recipes if your character has reached the hallucinating-about-food stage. Have fun with this.
  • This is a great opportunity for sensory descriptive writing: have me licking my lips or clutching at my stomach as I feel and taste what your character feels and longs for.
  • Don’t forget to resolve the problem. Will they find food? Will they find a way to deal with the hunger?

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Shelter

This week I’m providing you with something your character needs. Your job is to create someone who needs this thing, REALLY needs it. Not wants it. NEEDS it.

And then torture them.

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, security (of the body, of employment, resources etc.) is pretty high on the list of basic human needs. Today we’re working with one of them:

The Prompt

Today your character needs a secure place to shelter

Bothy

Tips

This can be as simple as someone out walking in a storm, searching for a place to get out of the rain.

It can be someone whose house is being foreclosed on, or bombed, or overrun by zombies.

It might be someone who has challenged themselves to build a tiny house that they can live in

After you decide on the specifics of the NEED that will make this interesting for you, you must then figure out why the character NEEDS it so, so badly. What is there, in his history, that is driving him to find or protect or build this home? Why does it matter on a psychological level as well as a physical one? You don’t need to be explicit about this in the story, but you should know enough to slip in a few clues.

Next, think about some ridiculously challenging ways that the bad buys/the weather/the forces of evil or indifference can thwart your character’s plans. Make him really squirm. (NB This is why he must have an unusually strong desire for this shelter at the start. He’s going to have to overcome some interesting things. If he doesn’t want it badly enough, he’ll just give up).

 

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Wants, Needs, Desires

Every character (every story) wants/needs/desires something.
Every story needs this desire to be pursued, frustrated, attained, or pursued again.
In the process the character or situation changes.
That’s what story is.
This week I’m providing you with a list of needs. You choose a character and a situation in which they can pursue that need.
Money

The Prompt

Your character needs a lot of money, fast.

Tips

  • Before you write a word, sketch some notes on who your character is, why they need the money, why they need it quickly.
  • Think about what your character believes will happen when they have the money. What has your character failed to realize?
  • Why doesn’t your character have money now? You may or may not want to weave this information into the story, but you should probably know it.
  • What obstacles stand in the way of your character getting rich, quickly?
  • What three things will your character try to get the money?
  • Which ones will work? Which ones won’t? Why?
  • Is the story that is forming in your head tragic? Humorous? Poignant? Thrilling? Romantic?
  • Try to enter the story as late as you can. Don’t introduce the problem first. Start with your character’s abortive first effort to get money and feed us the information as you go through the actions.

Go!

StADa September: Five More Writing Prompts

Here’s your digest of this week’s StoryADay September writing prompts.

This set of prompts is all about point of view. The choice to write in First Person or Third Person Omniscient gives you, the storyteller, a different set of tools to use in each story. Use these prompts to practice some of those skills.

Prompt 1 — First Person Practice

First person is a great place to start because it’s how tell all our stories in everyday life…

Prompt 2 — Up Close And Third Person

Third person limited has quite a lot in common with First Person, even though you’re writing ‘he’ and ‘she’, not ‘I’…

Prompt 3 — Two Heads Are Better Than One

Third person omniscient gives you the chance to get inside more than one head at a time in your story…

Prompt 4 — A Way Into Second Person Storytelling

Writing well in the Second Person is tough but can be innovative and truly creative.

Prompt 5 — Changing POV

Now you’ve tried a few, you get to pick your favorite. then rewrite an old story in a new way.

Could You Use More Instruction, From Writing’s Hottest Teachers? Watch this video!

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(Not an affiliate link, because I want you to get the 50% discount you get by joining the DIYMFA list!)

Video notes

  • Chuck Wendig actually blogs at terribleminds.com, not the fake site I made up in this video!
  • Also, I forgot to mention James Scott Bell, the most generous man in publishing, and Stuart Horowitz of bookarchitecture.com, will both be speaking too. It just keeps getting better 🙂

 

Keep writing,
Julie
P.S. Don’t forget, everyone who comments this month will be entered in a drawing to win a free copy of the StoryADay Time To Write Workshop.

[Writing Prompt] Changing POV

In this exercise we’re going to take what we’ve discovered while writing the other Point Of View prompts, and use it to rework a story.
"Grounds for Sculpture", Giant Mirror / Reflection

The Prompt

Take a story you have previously written and rewrite it, in a different Point of View

Tips

  • If you have a story that never really worked properly, try rewriting it. THis time, instead of third person, put it in first person. The “I” of this story doesn’t necessarily have to be the protagonist.
  • Notice how switching the POV frees you to do things you couldn’t do before (e.g. write atmospheric descriptions or ‘stage directions’)
  • Notice how changing POV changes what your reader can ‘see’ (i.e. they may not see other characters’ body language the same way if you switch to First Person. Or you may be able to allow them to see more internal motivations if you’re switching from a limited perspective to omniscient

Don’t drive yourself crazy with this. Just take your characters and the scenario you’ve already written and try it from a different perspective. See what happens. Have fun with it.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Second Person

Today I’m recycling this prompt from March. It offers an innovate way to get into the Second Person (“you do this, you do that”) perspective without making your story sound like a Choose Your Own Adventure.A Way Into The Second Person blog post

The Prompt

Write A Story Set in the Second Person

Tips

  • Are you still collecting story sparks everywhere you go? Try to collect three a day while you’re away from your desk. They will help you on days like this when the StoryADay writing prompt does not suggest characters or a scenario, but rather a technique.
  • Read through the prompt from March, and take a look at the links it suggests.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Two Heads Are Better Than One

Continuing this week’s theme of POV prompts, here is today’s prompt:

The Prompt

Write a story from the Third Person, Omniscient perspective
Make up your mind!

Tips

  • This is the perspective you know from all the great writers (Dickens, Tolstoy, Pratchett…): the author can say anything, pop inside any (or all) character’s heads, travel backwards and forwards in time, insert herself and her own commentary onto the page.
  • Have some fun with this. Take a scene and tell it from one character’s perspective, then leap into another character’s head and give their read on the situation.
  • Remember to show the first character’s continuing physical behavior from where the second character is standing after switch to their perspective. Your reader will know how the first character’s behavior reflects his thoughts. Will the second character understand or misconstrue?
  • Try out your authorial prerogatives and make a comment about what’s going on (think of that moment when a TV character turns to the camera and talks directly to us, the audience). What does this do to the story? Do you like it?

This can get quite complicated (which is why it works so well for novels). Don’t worry about writing a complete, polished story today. Just play with the POV and see what options are available to you.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Up Close and Third Person

This time, let’s come out of our own heads and get inside someone else’s.
TV Head

The Prompt

Write a story in the Third Person, Limited perspective

Tips

  • Third person limited is a lot like first person except you’re not writing “I”. By that I mean you can only show the thoughts of one person.
  • A good way to remember not to show other characters’ thoughts is to imagine your story as a TV show or movie. All characters apart from the one whose point of view you’re following, must walk across the screen, being observed by him (or her)
  • Try not to use ‘he thought’, or ‘she felt’, or ‘he wondered’. Take a look at this writing advice (allegedly by Chuck Palahniuk) which has some great examples of how to avoid this trap — and why it’s so much more effective when you do

Go!

[Writing Prompt] First Person Practice

I/Eye illustrationWriting in the first person seems simple, since this is the way we talk, write letters, tell our own stories. Introduce a keyboard or a notebook, however, and suddenly we get a bit frozen. So today we’re practicing telling a First Person story

The Prompt

Write A Story Narrated In The First Person

Tips

  • Go and grab a book from your shelf that has a strong main character and that is written in the first person. (Think Bridget Jones’ Diary or Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series or any number of great stories)
  • Remember that in First Person, no head-hopping is allowed. You cannot tell us what any other character is feeling, only how your narrator perceives their words/actions.
  • Decide on one characteristic (or character flaw) that your character will have. Subvert it (or have it get them into trouble) at least once during the story, but try to make it a defining part of the story.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Inciting Incident

There’s a difference between the first thing that happens in your story and the thing that becomes the inciting incident.

Conversation

The Prompt

Write a story in which your main character is going along doing whatever it is he/she does. Very quickly, someone else walks into the scene. This person imparts news of great importance to the character (someone is dead/has been fired/is coming/has escaped/something).

NOW write the inciting incident: Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Inciting Incident”

[Writing Prompt] The Locked Room

Today you’ll write a story that starts with a set of characters, a location and a problem, all devised by me.

Door Knob Reflection

The Prompt

The Setting: Four blank walls and two doors, both currently locked.

The Characters: Don, a man in his fifties; Sooz, a young woman; Dante, a teenage boy; Charlie, a character of gender, age and appearance that you specify.

The Problem: There are thunderous booms coming from outside the room and the characters must decide what to do next.

Tips

  • You can set this story anywhere and at any time.
  • The room may be any size. It can be inside, outside, on a space ship, on a cruise ship, underground, in a forest, whatever you like.
  • You decide on the characters’ personalities. Remember, personality conflicts provide drama.
  • To make your characters more rounded, give us a hint of what they don’t want us to see about themselves.
  • You can reveal the source of the noises or not. It’s up to you.
  • You can give us a nice, neat ending, or leave the situation unresolved. Just make sure something is resolved during the story.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] The Little Old Lady

Today we’re concentrating on a character: in particular the kind of person who would have been known to me, when I was a child, as “a little old lady”.

CL Society 208: Old lady shopping

The Prompt

Write a story featuring a little old lady

Tips

  • Remember, in the days before hair dye and facial peels and gym memberships and HRT—in the days of hard physical labor from dawn to dusk—being a ‘little old lady’ could start at any age from your mid-forties! Those days were NOT that long ago…
  • Feel free to use your little old lady to play to type (cast her as a fairytale witch or a helpless old woman) or against type (have her, I don’t know, swimming from Florida to Cuba without a shark cage…).
  • The interesting part of this story is going to be perhaps less about how this character changes, and more about how our perception/expectations as readers are changed during the story.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] The Fair

Today you’re going to rely on memory to conjure up a vivid setting for your story.
We went to the Kimberton Fair

The Prompt

Tell a story set at a country fair

Tips

  • Use all your senses to place us at the fair, right at the start of the story
  • Paint a picture and include a character walking through that setting, his/her mind set on doing something (winning a prize perhaps? Meeting a particular someone in a particular place?).
  • Hint that there might be more to their desire than can be simply explained (he wants to be a big shot at the coconut shy; she wants to meet a boy). No, there is a deeper reason they want to do the thing they’re pursuing as we, the reader join them.
  • After you have squarely painted the fair scene for us, transition away from providing many details of the fair, and instead concentrate more on character.
  • Don’t forget to bring in something from your setting, near the end, to bring the reader full circle.

Yes, it sounds formulaic, but remember:

  1. It’s only an exercise and
  2. I’ll award a big fluffy panda to anyone who ends up writing something exactly like that of another StoryADay writer, by accident just because you’re using a formula!

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Twilight Zone

I’ve been binging on Twilight Zone recently. Things I have noticed:

  • The stories often, but not always, have a twist at the end
  • The weirdness is not constrained by the need for an explanation (last night I watched “Living Doll”. The story was about a creepy talking doll. The ‘how’ was never explained, but the character exploration was priceless nonetheless)
  • No matter how mundane or unusual the setting, the stories are always rooted in character. The opening scene paints a broad-stroke picture of one trait we’re going to be observing in the main character, and then throw something new at them. From there we follow the character until the consequences of his encounter with that ‘something new’ plays out.
  • Endings are not always happy. And sometimes that’s just fine.

The Prompt

Write a story featuring someone with a strong (or problem) character trait.
Throw a wrench into their nice, everyday routine.
See what happens.
Don’t feel the need to explain the ‘how’ if something unusual is happening (i.e. talking dolls, houshold objects that activate themselves; out-of-body/time experiences). Just focus on what it means for your character.

Special Announcement

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If you are serious about making a name for yourself using social media, you should check this out. The 50% discount goes away on August 30, so don’t delay. (And yes, this is an affiliate link, so I get a kickback if you buy, but I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t honestly think it’s great value for anyone looking to market themselves on social media.)

Important note: If you are still concentrating on building up your writing skills and don’t yet have anything to market, don’t get distracted. Don’t click on this link. Back to your writing, wordsmith!

Back To School

OK, so I know it’s not back to school time everywhere (or for everyone), but we’ve all had that clean slate, back to school feeling: starting a new project that is all promise and no disappointment yet; sharpening your new pencils; buying new notebooks; making timetables.

The Prompt

Write a Back To School Story

Tips

  • This doesn’t have to be a traditional ‘back to school’. Use this prompt to write any ‘fresh start’ kind of story
  • “Back To School” doesn’t always bring a sense of optimism.
  • Go beyond the obvious ideas. Dig deep. Try to write something with a rounded character or distinctive voice, or with a twist.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] 500 words

Time
Brevity is the name of the game this week.

The Prompt

Write a story that is exactly 500 words long.

That means you have about 50 words to set things up, 100 words send your character out on their adventure, 200 words to introduce a complication, 125 words for the crisis and climax, and 25 more words for your pithy summing up.

If you need a theme, use this: your character needs to do something/get somewhere quickly.  Time is brief, as is your word count.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Journeys

steam train
photo by K. J. Duffy

I’m reading an autobiography written in the 1830s — when steam travel was the new big thing. The author (a mother of small children) just gave a vivid and opinionated account of a trip she took from Philadelphia to Baltimore. With very few words she conjoured the layout of the carriages and the hot, smoky atmosphere inside — heated as it was by a coal-fired, iron stove in the middle of the carriage (no health and safety, clean air regulations in the 1830s!). She told an amusing story of an encounter with a fellow passenger, while she was at it. I feel like I was ON the train with her.

The Prompt

Tell The Story Of A Journey

Use any transportation technology you can dream up, but include details to allow us to see, feel and perhaps even choke on the atmosphere.

Don’t forget to make something happen, and then resolve it (or leave it unresolved).

Give us a character we can root for (or against).

[Writing Prompt] Holiday Stories

This week sees both Independence Day in the US and Canada Day in the north of the continent.

The Prompt

Write a holiday-themed story

Tips

It doesn’t have to be related to this week’s holidays. If fact you might want to start planning ahead for autumnal and winter holidays, especially if you’re interested in releasing those stories this year.

Did you know that magazines, online publications and anthologies are starved for date-appropriate stories?

And think about it, these stories are evergreen: release them yourself and talk them up every year on the same date. Or how about putting together a collection of date themed stories and releasing them as themed anthology of your own writing?

We’ve all lived through holidays – from the ones that give you a day off school, to the ones that come replete with custom and tradition and obligation and anticipation. Use your own experiences to bring the story (and its details) alive for the reader, but don’t forget to include a vivid character with a strong desire for…something.

[Writing Prompt] Mining Your Memories

Screen Shot 2013-06-26 at 12.06.54 AMDon’t forget: at 1PM (EST) today (Wednesday) I’m hosting a webinar on how to write, revise and release a story all in one week, with DIYMFA’s Gabriela Pereira. And we have a special announcement. Register Now  

 


Last week Neil Gaiman’s new novel The Ocean At The End of the Lane came out.

I like his books. But I LOVE his online journal. So on reading the book, it was clear straight away, that he was mining his personal memories: both as an adult attending his father’s funeral (which he did in reality a few years ago, and blogged about) and as a child growing up (one county over from where I would grow up during the following decade).

I’m reading the book slowly, but so far here’s what I see: the details. The details — of what the child sees, where the adult goes — are startlingly clear and appropriate to each voice. The adult goes for a drive to avoid the funeral hooplah, and sees the world as it is and how it has changed. The child looks unflinchingly at a dead body until he is hustled away by the grown ups. But he notes, disgruntled, that the body is draped in a blanket from his own bedroom. He takes in details of the body looked unlike the person as they had been, alive. He measures money in how many four-for-a-penny Blackjacks and Fruit Salads it can buy him (the pervasive, child-accessible sweeties/candies of Mr. Gaiman’s and my childhoods!).

The Prompt

Write a story based on one strong image from your childhood — or at least a decade ago

It doesn’t need to be anything as shocking as discovering a dead body. Just take a vivid memory-image and weave a story around it. Have your characters recall details that you recall. Have them feel the way you felt.

For instance, I remember being allowed (encouraged?) to visit an elderly neighbour of ours when I was very young. I went round one day and saw, in a window above her living room window, a stranger, cleaning her windows from the inside. This person was wearing a white, sleeveless top, hair slicked back, cheeks red. I can remember that the house was attached to other houses on either side, built of brick. The windows were sash windows. The door was up a step from the long path that ran between two strips of lawn. There was a garden gate made of wood with one of those metal latches you have to lift to open it. I still remember the physical sensations I felt when I said…

I *know* this character. I know the mistake she’s about to make and her reaction to it. Now, can I put that into a story where it turns out that the person upstairs is not who Mrs McKay thinks it is? Can I have my character go on to make a similar but bigger mistake? Can I have her triumph over her personality flaws, or will she be defeated by them?

What memory will you write about?

[Writing Prompt] Perseverance

 

This is the first weekly prompt since the end of StoryADay 2013. Congrats to all those who took part. If you finished even one story you’ll know something about this week’s prompt:

The Prompt

Write a story with “Perseverance” as the theme

Tips

You can write a fast-paced romp in which your protagonist perseveres against ridiculous, comic odds,

You can write a deep and thoughtful piece that reflects on the role of perseverance in a good or bad situation

You get to decide if your hero succeeds or fails and whether or not their perseverance (or lack thereof) helped. (Tip: Don’t be afraid to do the opposite  of what readers might  expect. Perseverance might *cause* things to fall apart…)

Go!

The 7DayStory

P.S. Did you sign up to take part in the 7DayStory Challenge? It’s a challenge I’m running with Gabriela Pereira from DIYMFA.com. It takes you through the process of writing, revising and releasing a story in 7Days (a luxurious pace, around these parts!). Check it out: 7DayStory.com

 

P.P.S. If you don’t want these emails to pop into your inbox every week, but would like to be able to save them for later, why not let your email software filter them so that they drop straight into an archived folder? Here’s how to do it in Gmail.

[Writing Prompt] When One Door Closes…

This is it. We’ve come to the end of StoryADay May 2013.

Thank you so much for being a part of it. I would love to hear how you’ve got on, what you have learned. If you post on your own blog about your experience, please leave a link to it here. If you’d be willing to be interviewed (for future articles here at StoryADay.org), leave a comment here and let me know.

The Prompt

Write about an ending (and what happens next)

Tips

  • Perhaps your main character is graduating from school or college. What is she feeling? What doors will open for her? How will what he wants be affected by what he has to do?
  • People leave our lives in many ways. How will your main character fill the void when someone important leaves their life?
  • Just for fun, what if your main character is a writer, or other artist, finishing up a project? What if he/she has had a work rejected? What other doors will open for them next?

Don’t forget to come back on June 3 for the 7DayStory challenge! And keep an eye on your inbox for next week’s regular Write On Wednesday writing prompt.

Most of all, keep writing!
Julie

[Writing Prompt] The Non-Memoir

Don’t miss this news about a new week-long challenge to keep you writing in June — and this one comes with a built-in revision component!

The Prompt

Take an event/experience from your own life and fictionalize it

Last year, at a writer’s conference I was struck by the reaction of a panel of agents every time someone asked them a question that started, “I’m writing a memoir, and…”

They rolled their eyes. They groaned. They composed themselves and gently tried to dissuade the writer from getting their hopes up about being able to publish a memoir. The reasons?

  • Everyone is writing a memoir. Competition is huge and truly compelling memoirs are few and far between
  • Even if you’ve had a tragic life event, that’s not enough to sell your story. By all means write it, but don’t expect to sell it unless you have a bigger story: how you triumphed after the tragedy; how someone else can learn from your experiences; how you met/become/already were a celebrity (OK, that last one’s a bit cynical, but not far from the truth).

The best piece of advice I heard was not ‘stop writing memoir’ but “why not take your story and turn it into fiction, with compelling characters, rich scenarios, drama, comedy, all the things that make for a great novel?”

The Prompt

Take an event/experience from your own life and fictionalize it

Tips

  • Use the truth of your emotions, reactions etc., to inform the story but use this chance to have your character be wittier/smarter/weaker/more vulnerable than you were.
  • Write a better ending than the one life gave you.
  • Use an often-told family story as source material if you don’t want to write about your own experiences (e.g. the story of how my grandparents courted and eventually married is a wonderful one that I fully intend to mine for a story one day)
  • Remember that you are not cataloguing history. You are weaving a story that will share some experience in a visceral way with readers. Go deeply into the emotions and/or the details at least once during the story. Make us feel it.

[Writing Prompt] Thwarted

One of the best pieces of advice I received for writing short stories was to make your character want something. Once your character wants something you have a structure for the whole story: put obstacles in their way and see how they react.

The Prompt

Create a character who wants something really badly, then thwart them at every turn.

Tips

  • This story can be realistic, or high-fantasy; historical or far-future; tragic or comic. The strength of this prompt is that it focuses on character. No matter where you set it, you can make it realistic by having your character react to being thwarted in a way that feels familiar to your reader.
  • You get to decide whether your character gets what they want at the end or not.
  • Read Fight City (An Irish Jimmy Gallagher Novelette) by last week’s guest prompter James Scott Bell for a really fun example of how you can spin out this kind of ‘thwartage’ for a whole novella (it’s only $0.99 but you may also borrow it for free under Kindle lending plan).
  • Here’s a short-short story from Mary Robinette Kowal that demonstrates how a simple ‘want’ can sustain a whole story and help create rounded characters out of somewhat surprising source-material. (I highly recommend the Writing Excuses podcast that Mary co-presents with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler. It doesn’t often focus on the short story, but it is always inspiring and only 15 minutes long.)

 

[Writing Prompt] The Child

Write A Child’s Story

This is ‘the story of a child’, not necessarily a story for children’s story

Tips

  • Children are adventurous. They are open. They are surprisingly insightful. They see the world in bright colors, not moral greys. They are, in other words, great hero material.
  • Children are inexperienced in the world and therefore, generally, not paralyzed by potential consequences. This makes them great hero material AND great villain material (Lord Of The Flies).
  • Around the age of ten children are aware of themselves, have some empathy for others, a growing facility to play with the more sophisticated language they hear from adults, and a fairly well developed ability to survive without an adult’s help. They are developing an awareness of their own personality and its affect on others and their ability to choose what they do with that. This is why so many great child-characters are written at this pre-teen stage. Consider making your protagonist this age
  • If you don’t have much exposure to children right now, consider writing a story in flashback, where your older character tells the story of themselves as a child (as Rob Reiner did in Stand By Me).

[Writing Prompt] A Holiday Tale

Today is a big day for last week’s Guest Prompter Simon Kewin: It’s the day his publisher is revealing the cover of his upcoming novel. Show him support and pop over to his blog to take a look at the cover. Leave him a comment to say ‘congrats’.

It’s Memorial Day here in the US. Unofficially that marks the start of the summer season. We get a day off work and school, and people have barbecues and open up their beach houses and generally goof off. Of course, the origins of this holiday are quite different:

Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service[3]. It typically marks the start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.
Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries.
From Wikipedia

The Prompt

Write a story that takes place on a holiday/special occasion where things do not follow the traditional or ideal path

Tips

  • Use this prompt to write a story centered around a holiday, with a view to submitting this story to publications. Many publications, such as EveryDay Fiction are actively looking for seasonally-appropriate holiday stories (for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, any holiday).
  • Write about a holiday that has just passed and is fresh in your mind. Put a note in your calendar to submit it to markets nine months from now (a month or three before the holiday comes around again)
  • You could write an Independence Day story where celebration and independence are NOT what happen
  • Family-centered holidays like Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas or other religious holidays, are fraught with tension and opportunities for comedy, drama and subversion.

Alternate Prompt

In honor of Memorial Day, write a story featuring a member of the armed forces

[Writing Prompt] Sunday Silliness – and a check-in

We’re almost there! This is the last week of StoryADay May 2013. Stay tuned on Thursday for news of another, short-term challenge to keep you writing.

Also, I’d love to know who’s been writing this month. Please leave a comment on this post if you’ve written at all this month, and let us know how much/often you’ve managed to write. Spread the word to friends who might have fallen off the wagon. Tell them to check-in and celebrate what they have achieved so far (and maybe come back for the last week?).

As always, thank you for playing. Without out you, this challenge simply wouldn’t be any fun! You inspire me and each year’s participants influence the shape and content of the next challenge. So thanks!

The Prompt

Write a story that includes these words:

  • official
  • corpulent
  • totem
  • panic
  • scratching
  • delicious

Tips

  • This is a silly prompt. Feel free to write a silly story.
  • The chances are, if you’re still here, you’ve started to take your writing quite seriously, in a good way. However, there’s always a danger of ‘serious’ becoming ‘solemn’. Use today as a break from whatever you’ve been writing and write https://storyaday.org/prompt-fros/ that is purposely silly, off-the-cuff, not to be taken seriously.
  • Consider posting your story in the comments here so that we can see how everyone chose to use these words

[Writing Prompt] Back To Front

After this week’s post about jumping into the middle of a story, I thought I’d go the whole hog:

The Prompt

Start At The End
Start your story with the character walking away from a situation (figuratively-speaking) and then go back and explain how he/she got there.

Tips

  • Think of TV shows that start with a funny/dramatic scene and then jump back to “eight hours earlier”
  • Feel free to use stage directions like that, if it helps
  • Maybe you could tell the entire story backwards (“three hours earlier”, “three hours earlier still”). It might not work, but it could be interesting