Tag: Emotions

In the Listings

On By Terry ConnellyIn prompt, Uncategorized, Writing promptLeave a comment

            The next time a flyer for an open house arrives in your mail, save it. Look at it carefully, studying the layout, the furniture, the decorations. If it’s within driving distance, go take a look. Check out the neighborhood. How far apart are the lots? How close are the nearest schools? What types of businesses are nearby?

            Attend the open house so that you can walk through the rooms and step into the backyard. If photos are displayed, check them out. Who lives here? A family? A group of friends?

            What stories would they tell if you could interview them?

            Using your imagination, write an interesting story that takes place in this house. Is it a murder mystery? An invasion of pests? A romantic-comedy? Ghosts floating about?

            There needs to be tension for the story to be interesting. Begin by mapping out your characters. What do they want? How hard are they willing to work to get it?

Include both description and dialogue. Maintain a good pace so that the story does not get bogged down.

Have fun with this one.

Self-Reflection

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            Sometimes it’s good to look back over the things we’ve said and done. It gives us a new perspective as to whether we should have approached a given situation differently or if what we did still feels okay.

            If we would change things, how would we do it? Would we walk up to the person and apologize? Send an email? Text? The method we choose might affect the outcome in ways that we hadn’t foreseen.

            Your task is to write a scene in which your character realizes that she didn’t behave the way she should have. She then contacts the injured party to try to make amends.

            This should be a tension-filled situation. Your character has no idea how the other person will react. She’s going to be nervous and possibly rehearse what she’s going to say. She might practice with a trusted friend before the meeting.

            The other person could accept the apology with grace or could strike out with hurtful words. Both scenarios work because sometimes we need a feel-good ending.

            This situation calls for dialogue and body-language. Include sensory details so that readers know exactly where the meeting takes place.

            Have fun with this one.

Helping Hand

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            Everyone needs a little help now and then. Perhaps while driving on the freeway your car gets a flat. Do you change it yourself or call for help?

            You see a senior citizen struggling with two heavy bags. He smiles and you offer to help. The man’s shoulders relax after you’ve relieved him of his burden.

            How we ask for help, how we react when help is given says a lot about us. Imagine the car driver barking into her phone, demanding a tow truck driver drop everything to come to her aid. What if the senior citizen yelled instead of being grateful? How would these reactions change the giver or receiver?

            Your task is to write a story in which a helping hand is needed or offered. Begin with a plausible situation, perhaps something you’ve experienced somewhere along the way.

Identify your protagonist’s personality, which is the key factor in determining how she behaves.

Establish the setting so that readers know where the event is taking place. Put your characters into motion. Use both description and dialogue to bring the story to life.

Have fun with this one.

Chance Encounter

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            Some of us are outgoing and enjoy talking to complete strangers. We relish every opportunity to meet others, share stories and seek common ground.

Others of us find such meetings intimidating. We avert our eyes, turn our heads and walk quickly away.

What happens, however, when you run across someone you don’t know when you are alone in a situation that allows for no escape? For example, you’re hiking in a local park, enjoying the view, listening to the birds sing as you walk up and down hills. That is until someone you’ve never seen before comes up from behind or appears on the horizon?

There’s no place for you to go to avoid the individual. Think about what emotions you experience as you go over what limited options you have.

Your task is to write a story in which your character finds herself in such a situation. Begin by establishing the setting and her feelings about being there. Let readers walk along with her, seeing what she sees, hearing what she hears, smelling what she smells and feeling the dirt beneath her feet.

Suddenly the stranger appears. Readers want to know what she experiences at that moment in time.

Assume dialogue takes place. Who initiates it and what do they talk about? When it’s time to continue their separate journeys, how does she feel as the stranger leaves?

Have fun with this one.

Water Cooler Gossip

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            Imagine the scene: a group of employees gathered around the cooler, sipping on ice water, sharing news about everyone that wasn’t in the group. They speak of divorces, poorly behaved children, who’s cheating on who and who’s lost money on the stock market. Then there’s the subject of who isn’t doing their job, who’s spending too much time flirting with the boss, and who’s up for promotion. So much gossip, so little time.

            Change the scenario to a group of parents standing outside the school waiting for their kids to emerge. What stories do they share? Who’s being talked about and why?

            These are the scenes that can make for a juicy story. There’s tension and drama. Dialogue and description. Cattiness and seriousness. So much opportunity waiting to be told.

            Your task is to write the water cooler scene. People it with enough characters to make for a lively discussion, but not too many for you to handle. Make sure that their disparate personalities and interests come forward.

            You might have them focus their energy talking about one individual, making for an easier writing. Or, if you’re feeling brave, allow the conversation to cover a wide variety of topics.

            Have fun with this one.

Phobias

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People are afraid of all kinds of things, but most notably, creatures that silently creep about. Often such creatures have hairy legs, drop from ceilings, and build sticky webs. They might hide in shoes and then sting when you try to put shoes on. They might slither about the garden or in between corn stalks or hang from trees waiting for someone to pass by.

Some are afraid of heights, water, flying or riding in elevators. Many are terrified of going new places and trying new things.

If the phobia is mild, the person might take a deep breath before doing that which they fear. However, if the phobia is extreme, a person might lock themselves inside a dark house and refuse to leave.

Your task is to write a story in which a person’s phobia has a major impact on his life. Find a way to reveal the phobia without telling the readers exactly what it is. Setting development is critical, for it is the location that will show readers not only what the character fears, but how she reacts when confronted with it.

Have fun with this one.

Pause to Reflect

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Impulsivity can lead someone in the wrong direction, in a relationship, on a job search, or even out on a hike. Imagine a person who, after knowing someone for two minutes, jumps into a serious relationship, only later to discover that the lover is married. Or think of a situation in which an individual believes she heard a piece of scandalous news and then runs to the boss. Or a hiker who takes off without a map, intentionally goes off-trail because he thinks there might be a terrific view just around the boulder, only to become hopelessly lost.

Impulsive behaviors can get a person into serious trouble.

Now consider how different the results would be if, before rushing off, the person paused to reflect. For example, after writing an angry email, what if he put it aside for an hour, thought about it, then deleted it. The outcome would be completely different.

Your task is to write a story in which impulsive behaviors negatively impact your character’s life. Dialogue would be useful here to give readers insight into what your character is thinking. Descriptions are also important to allow readers to understand where the character is.

Have fun with this one.

False Assurances

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            An assurance is when you tell someone that something is true or will happen in order to make them feel calm or less worried. When statements given are based on perception rather than fact, then those are false assurances. Such statements might make the person feel better even though the basis of the pronouncement has little to do with actual facts. In other words, false assurances often lead people astray.

            Imagine if a doctor told you your blood pressure was in the normal range, but it really wasn’t. You continue eating foods with high salt content. What happens? Because of false assurances, your behaviors might lead to a heart attack or death.

            What if your boss told you that your job was secure? Two days later you’re terminated along with a bunch of other employees. Because of false assurances you hadn’t begun a job search and so might have missed out on opportunities elsewhere.

            Your task is to write a story in which false assurances plays an important role. You might want to use something that happened to you because you know exactly how it felt and what the results were.

            Dialogue is important so that readers see and hear what’s said along with the reactions of both the speaker and the listener.

            Have fun with this one.

Complete and Utter Chaos

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            There are times when anything that could possibly go wrong, does. It feels like the game when you stack dominoes with the intent of controlling their fall. But then your hand wiggles or someone’s knee jiggles the table or an earthquake hits and down they go, not when you intended, but do to some type of chaotic movement.

            Perhaps your car is due to a check-up. You make an appointment with the mechanic, but before you can get there, something horrible happens. Maybe your car breaks down in the middle of a busy major thoroughfare. Perhaps you get hit by a driver who wasn’t paying attention. Or it could be roadwork that causes a huge delay making you miss your time.

            Things happen, often in a bunch, that derail our activities. Some we can laugh off, but others cause a huge inconvenience.

            Your task is to write a story in which a series of unexpected things happen. How your character reacts will tell readers quite a bit about her personality. Make the events large or small, or a combination of both. Most importantly, allow readers to be there with the character.

            Include sensory details and emotional reactions.

            Have fun with this one.

Dear Diary

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            Journal writing has been popular for many, many years. Young girls were often given a diary in order to record their thoughts. They were encouraged to write every day, even if they had little of interest to report.

            Diaries were often padlocked with a tiny key. The girl would hide both the diary and the key in order to prevent parents and siblings from reading their thoughts.

            Diaries became important as a tool for historical research. By reading such records, historians are able to deduce what life was like during times of peace and war, during turbulent and peaceful times.

            Your task is to imagine the diary entries that your protagonist would write. These do not have to be complete stories, but rather figments of time capturing the emotions that the individual experienced. Later on these thoughts might inspire a story, but for now the task is to simply write what the person most likely worried about, dreamt of, feared and yearned for.

            Have fun with this one.