The Prompt

Write a story with a pivotal scene where your a character tastes a food they haven’t tasted since childhood.

Tips

How our characters react tells a reader as much about them as anything they say or think. In fact, we can use our characters’ reactions to subvert what the character says (or believes) bout themselves and their motives.

• You might use this prompt to expose the truth in a lie, when a character, for example, says they cared nothing for the place they were raised, only to swoon at the taste of that region’s signature cuisine.
• Tastes and smells are some of the most evocative things in life, bypassing our brains rational areas and going straight to something more primitive.
• You might want to build up the character’s anticipation of this tastes and then examine how the reality matches up…and what what says about life in general (at least your character’s view of it).
• Conversely, the moment might be an observed reaction in a seemingly inconsequential character, that nevertheless means something to your protagonist (and, by extension, your reader).

Think back in your own life: what do you miss from your own childhood vocabulary-of-tastes. How could you work that into a story?

This prompt gives you a chance to delve into senses other than sight and sound. It gives you the opportunity to play with expectation and reality, with how a character presents themselves and what they really feel…and how others observe them in the act.

Try to write a complete story today, then leave a comment to let us know how you got on.