Category: Writing prompt

The Comfort Zone

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I am terrified of heights, so you’d never find me zip lining over the rainforest canopy, standing on the precipice of a canyon or climbing the side of a mountain.

But what if my life was threatened by rapidly rising waters? Would I climb a tree to save my life? Most likely I would, but not without first trying to come up with other less risky options.

What are the parameters of your character’s comfort zone? Is she so terrified of spiders that she freezes when one lands on her? If a snake slithers across the trail, will he turn around and go back to the car?

You need to think about this. Begin by making a list of possible scares that fit within the parameters of your character’s personality. For example, someone who loves flying might be willing to bungee jump off a bridge, but would never swim in the ocean.

Try to come up with at least five things that fit within the comfort zone and at least five that do not.

Now, write a scene in which your character must face her fears. Make the stakes high enough that the story is intriguing. No if I do this I win a candy bar stuff, but rather if I don’t do this my friends will tell everyone that I’m a wuss, further damaging my already fragile relationships.

Or even make it life threatening. If I don’t jump out this window, I’m likely to die in the fire or be shot by the robbers or be bitten by the frothing-at-the-mouth dog.

When you are finished, reread, adding tension whenever it is appropriate.

Have fun with this one.

Illness

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There are times when we fall ill.  It’s hard to raise a child without recurrent bouts of ear infections and colds, and as adults we are susceptible to a variety of germs. Think of all the possible ills: bladder infections, pneumonia, cold sores, viruses.

If we are lucky there are medical treatments to help us recover. Children often go through antibiotics like adults go through booze. We suck on throat lozenges, spray sore throats, guzzle cough syrups and rub on any variety of ointments to ease sore muscles.

Your characters are exposed to disease as well. You have to decide what types and for how long they suffer. What medications or courses of treatment they follow. How they handle being ill. Does he tough it out, refusing to let fevers and chills slow him down or does he fall into bed at the slightest indication of illness and stay there, being miserable, until it passes?

These are things that you must decide.

Your task is to write a scene in which at least one of your characters gets sick. Before you begin, make a list of possible ailments. Go online and do some research, looking for symptoms and cures.

Once your list is established, narrow it down to those things that you feel most comfortable writing about. You might stick to those things that you have personally experienced.

Then write. Have your character fall ill. Based on her personality, have her react in a logical way. Send her to the doctor or hospital. Put her in bed. Give her reactions to the course of treatment.

Who will tend him, providing food, clean clothes and nurturing?

Who holds her hand and places cool clothes on her brow?

These are all the things you must consider as you write.

Now, make your character sick!

Have fun with this one.

Setting Aside Time to Write

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I’ve read countless times about how important it is to set aside time, every single day, to write. Some advocate writing in the morning before work. Others say as soon as you get home from work. And then there are those who write after the kids go to bed.

This is a particular problem for me. I think about writing every day, topics rolling around in my head, being rewritten several times over before finally committing to paper.

Considering that I’m retired, you’d think I’d have whole days before me, but that’s not true. I’m busier now than I was when I worked!

So what works for you? Are you a morning person? Do you get up extra early, turn on the computer and type away? Or can you only squeeze in time once dinner is over and the dishes put away?

I do think it is important to read every day in your genre and to think about story as you read. To analyze story beginnings, middles and ends. To examine how characters are introduced and developed. To look at major plot points, how story surges forward and then falls back.

Have you done this? If not, this is your task for the week.

Pick up a book you’ve been dying to read. From the first word on the first page, think critically. If it will help, take notes. What happens on page one? Ten? Twenty?

How does the author end each chapter? Begin the next? How do the characters interact? What kinds of things do they do together? Apart? When they are together, who is dominant and how does that impact their relationship?

For example, who decides where they go for dinner, what movie to see, which party to attend?

So, your work for the week is to read and take note, thinking all the while how this will impact your own writing.

Have fun with this one.

Establishing Setting

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I’ve always had a hard time getting the introduction of setting on the first page. I realize that it’s important that readers know when and where a story takes place, but how do you insert the details without being pedantic?

I’ve tried beginning with a description of the scene, such as John  Steinbeck did so well in both Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. What seemed to come naturally to him is forced from me. Steinbeck was able to set the scene so well that you could almost hear the wind blowing through the trees and smell the smoke from the cook fire.

Science fiction writers have to describe a whole new world in such a way that the reader understands exactly what’s going on. Many might begin with a map, naming places and drawing boundaries in such a way that readers will feel at home as characters pass through the different areas.

Stories set in the past have to establish historical accuracy from the get-go. This includes foods, dress, language, environments and so on. It requires a great amount of research to make sure that this world depicts the way things were.

My stories tend to be contemporary in my world, which means in the San Francisco Bay Area. I do this on purpose. First of all, it’s a world I know and understand. Secondly, I don’t have to use too much imagination to place my characters in the world and set them in motion.

So how do you establish setting? I recommend looking at authors that you respect. Reread the first pages of many different books. Take notes. Imitate what you read, down to the sentence structures, replacing a noun for a noun and a verb for a verb.

Do this over and over until you feel comfortable working on your own.

This is your task. Think of a story that you want to tell.  Using one of the models that you have created as a beginning, tell the story. When you are finished, go back and reread. Does the setting work? When you start reading, do you know the time period and the place or do you have to guess?

If you, the writer, don’t know, then neither will your reader. In this case, go back to your models and try again. Repeat this process until your setting works.

Have fun  with this one.

Coming Home

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Your character has been away from home. Hopefully the trip has gone well. No fights with family. Interesting things to see and done. Good food shared. Nieces and nephews played with and hugged. A wonderful time.

All vacations come to an end and the travelers must return home. What emotions go through them at this time? Do they sense impending loneliness and so don’t want to leave? Is a loved one ill and they fear they this individual might die?

Or do they yearn for the solitude of their own home? I believe that most people love going home, whether that home is a deluxe mansion or a tidy studio apartment. It is theirs, filled with their things, a space that is special to them, no matter how poor.

It is time to bring your character home. As they pack and say final goodbyes, what goes through her mind? We want to know for it tells us quite a bit about the character’s relationship to significant others in her life. But don’t tell us, show us in her tears and words.

As he travels home, whether by plane, train or car, what goes through his mind? Is he missing his dog/cat? Is he dreading going back to work? Is he already missing the places he has gone and the people he has seen?

This is a hard one not to just share with us. You could use phone conversations or texts, but for the most part, for this part of the scene, we will have to be in the character’s head.

Your task is to bring the visit to a close and put your character on the road. Also include the arrival home and the emotions that she feels. What are the first things she does when she arrives? We want to experience this with your character.

Have fun with this one.

Going Home

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Your character has been traveling to new places and having interesting experiences, but has she been thinking of home?

Does he miss his dog, wondering how lonely the poor animal is?

Does he dream about home? Being among her possessions and having a variety of clothing options?

It’s time to bring her home. Plan her route home.

Think about what goes through his mind. The emotions he experiences.

Write the story of her longing for home and how she gets there. What goes through her mind as she nears home.

Describe the emotions he feels when he walks through the door and is greeted by his cat.

Have fun with this one.

Exploring

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Today I flew in a tiny propeller plane high over and through the mountains of southern New Zealand. I was terrified until we were in the air and then I relaxed and enjoyed the view.

Your characters also need to try new things. With your character in mind, make a list of things she might be afraid to do. Think extreme, such as jumping off a bridge or letting a tarantula walk on her arm.

Next imagine how he would behave just imagining the experience. Think fear, terror, panic, anxiety.

Write the scene using descriptions that let the reader be with your character.

Have fun with this one.

On Vacation

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Since I am on vacation, it got me to thinking about our characters. They go places, do things, see things.

Why not send them on a trip? Design the vacation to fit her personal interests.

For example, if she loves Shakespeare, why not go to London?

If he’s into wine, then off to California’s Napa Valley.

Your task is to write a scene in which your character travels. Choose a location that you’ve been to so that you can speak with authority.

Have fun with this one.

 

Companions

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The vast majority of us do not walk through life alone. We have best friends who listen to us, support us, advise us when we need it the most. They go places with us, visit when we are ill, bring us happiness and stand by us when we are afraid.

Sometimes our friends come to see us, sometimes we go see them, and often we meet somewhere in between. We go out for lunch, dinner or drinks. We go to movies or the theater. We walk in parks, sit on benches, sip coffee in a coffee house.

What about your characters? Do they have best friends? If not, is there a reason why they don’t?

For example, some mentally ill people see conspirators wherever they go, so they hide alone, in some cramped room, terrified to live.

But most of us do meet with others. So must your characters. Reread one of your stories or a scene from your novel. Is there a substantial friend? Not just a convenient conversationalist, but someone to whom the character leans?

Add in a good friend. Give them meaningful dialogue. Have them walk together, go someplace together, meet up regularly. Make this acquaintance not just a one-time occurrence, but something that happens with regularity.

After you’ve done this, go back and reread. How is the story now? Does it have a more natural flow? Is your protagonist more interesting? Does she have more depth? Do we get to see inside her and understand her better?

Hopefully this is so.

Have fun with this one.

Character Flaws

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A character’s flaws are not always visible. For example, a hearing loss will not show unless the individual is wearing a hearing aid. Because of this, no one meeting the person for the first time, or even the tenth time, will suspect a thing unless the individual repeatedly asks for clarification.

Mental and emotional disabilities are the same. There is no physical sign that indicates that a person is suffering or unstable. Unless, of course, the person is staggering around talking to himself.

But on first meeting a person, we would not know if she was bipolar, suicidal or developmentally disabled. It would take heart-to-heart talks and even then the information might not be revealed.

How do you write about a character who’s disability is not visible? You show it by building it in slow degrees. Perhaps some element is disclosed in a casual conversation. Or maybe the character comes right out and admits that he is deaf.

Jennifer Niven, who has published several YA books, expertly handles the invisible disabilities. Read All the Bright Places or Holding up the Universe. In both books you meet characters who are suffering. In the first book, both protagonists hurt inside. One, Finch, tends to “disappear” or “sleep” when his anxieties take over his life. The other, Violet, is depressed over the death of her sister. But we don’t learn these things in the first chapter. Niven slowly develops the characters’ flaws through the things they say, do, and think.

Your task is to write a scene in which a character has an invisible disability. Before you begin, do some research into that disability. Find out how it manifests itself and how it affects life. Then make a list of things your character would say or do based upon your research.

Then tell her story.

Have fun with this one.