[Write On Wednesday] Occasional Places

I just read this charming blog post from an online friend (and fellow knitter & writer). She talks about her recent trip to France and shares some of her husband’s fabulous photos.

Celtic Memory Yarns Blogspot

It got me thinking….

The Prompt

Write a story set in a place you have visited

Tips

  • Ideally this should be a place you have vivid memories of, so you can use little details to color the story — for example, in Jo’s post (above) there are all kinds of details that a French person make take for granted (the sweet peas growing wild in the verge; the red dust in Camargue), but that bring the setting alive for readers.
  • It doesn’t have to be anywhere exotic or ‘foreign’. It can be your favorite corner of your local park, as long as you remember to give us the local flavor: what is the light like? What can your character smell? What color/material are the nearby buildings?
  • Do remember to tell a story. Don’t just write a description of the place. What kind of person might be there and why? Do they want to be there? Why? What would you expect to be happening in this place/at this time? What if something completely different happened? Why? With what result?

Go!

Guest Writing Prompt from Joe R Lansdale

Today’s guest writing prompt comes from master storyteller Joe R. Lansdale, who has won the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker awards and The Horror Writer Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award among others!

Our thanks to Mr Lansdale for taking the time to provide this provocative prompt for us.

The Prompt

On the day they saw the blue star swell to gigantic proportions, everyone went blind but Hardy. He was already blind, had been from birth,but he had lifted his head to the heavens because he felt a peculiar warmth.

Moments later the others were still blind, but he could see. All the colors of the spectrum. Even viewed by moonlight, the brightness of it all frightened and puzzled him.

joerlansdaleAbout Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. 

[Write on Wednesday] Fear Itself

A Month Of Writing Prompts 2015First: The ebook is here! The ebook is here! Get all yer writing prompts ahead of time and start planning your month, today! Only $2.99. Don’t wait, the price goes up to $6.99 on May 1!

Now, on to the last Write On Wednesday prompt before StoryADay May 2015!

They say you have nothing to fear but fear itself.
What they don’t mention is that fear itself is pretty darned terrifying!

The Prompt

Your character is on the precipice: about to do something that terrifies them.

Tips

  • Think about who your character is and what would frighten them the most (maybe your character is committing to an extreme writing challenge in a few days’ time…)
  • Can you make it even more frightening? (If your character doesn’t post in the Victory Dance group, there are sharks. Sharks delivered by tornado…)
  • You can start the story with the decision—they do it or they run away—and then the rest of the story becomes the unraveling of why they made the decision and what the consequences were.
  • You can start the story slowly and allow the character to fill us in on all the details. In this case let the reader in on what the stakes are, and then, at the end when the character make her decision we understand the ramifications already.
  • You can decide to do a hybrid of the two and allow the character to make the big decision in the middle of the story. Set up some stakes at the beginning, show us the decision, then take us through some of the consequences (internal or external).
  • Give us lots of details about the thing that’s frightening them as they decide to do it, or run away from it. More detail slows things down (like during a car crash).
  • Try to hold in your head a sense of the shape of the story, while you write. Remember that you’re aiming for an emotional connection with the reader.

Go!

Just for practice, if you finish this story today, either post in the comments below or in The Victory Dance group. And if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, leave a comment and I’ll give you the super-secret entry code to get in to the community.

[WriteOnWednesday] The Day My (Blank) Quit

Today I want you to think of a character and a relationship that should never be broken. Then break it.

The Prompt

The Day My _______ Quit

Tips

  • You might think of a professional relationship. We don’t normally think of dentists or therapists or trainers or doctors or laywers firing their clients. But it happens. It happens for innocuous reason (they’re moving away) and for hostile reasons (they think you’re a jerk).
  • You might think of a family relationship. Parents shouldn’t give up on their kid. What if they did?
  • You could go surreal or fantastic: the day my pet rock quit. The day the aliens stopped calling…
  • Thnk about what could cause such a rift. Is anyone at fault? Who?
  • Is it a good thing or a bad thing for the protagonist? Does it feel that way?
  • You can show us the break up or the aftermath (or even the events leading up to it). But you probably shouldn’t show all three in a short story.
  • Make sure you show us why the break up matters to at least one character.

Go!

 

 

 

[Write On Wednesday] Insults

I read this delightful essay on the literary insults writers hurl at each other, and it inspired a writing prompt!

The Prompt

Write a letter or review full of insults

Tips

  • Imagine a correspondence between two writers, one whose writing you admire, one whose writing you loathe. What would your favorite writer pick up on, in the writing or reputation of the other, to criticize. What style would he/she use?
  • Write an insulting letter to someone who regularly annoys you or someone who picked on you at school. Banish compassion. Write it with style, wit and ruthlessness. Be clever, artistic, snide. Have (guilty) fun.
  • Write a rebuttal of an imagined unfavorable review of your work. Be sure to point out the critic’s shortcomings in the most colorful, inventive language you can, but challenge yourself to keep it fit for print (no profanity).
  • Damn someone with faint praise.
  • Create a rich picture in your head of each of the characters in your story (insulter and insultee). Allow their personalities to shine through you words.

Go!

[Write On Wednesday] Metaphor To Reality

Yesterday’s Reading Room story started out with magnificent metaphors and then flipped to a story about a suburban guy. It brought back the metaphor at the end.

It was an extreme example and tough to pull off (I’m still not sure it entirely worked), but today we’re going to try something similar.

The Prompt

Start a story with a vivid image and weave the metaphor throughout the story

Tips

  • You still have to make this story about a character. Think of something that matters to your character and create the metaphor/story imagery from that. (e.g. if your character gardens, all the metaphors could be horticultural)
  • You can weave the tie-in metaphors throughout the story or, like the Reading Room story, start with a vivid image and come back to it only at the end.
  • Try to dig deeply, and go beyond the obvious, clichéd metaphors. I worked with a reporter on a weekly newspaper who would open a file and think of all the puns and metaphors he could, on a particular topic, before he started writing an article. The top of every file he wrote was a groan-fest! Try creating your own list of imagery before you start to write, to help yourself push past the cliché.

Go!