Writing Prompt #12: A break from habit (throwing dishes)

Write a scene where a character is making an effort to respond differently than he normally would to an emotional situation.

What is the situation, why is he fighting his nature to do things differently, and how can you play the cards make it even harder? (Judith Weston acting trick: has this ever happened before?)

***

If you’re stuck, here are some ways that a person (say, you) could modify their behavior:

Controlling your temper when you usually snap

Being really polite when you normally would laugh at this jerk, or bite his head off

Paying attention to what this person is saying when normally this is a person you ignore or shut up or move away from

Speaking your mind instead of clamming up

Keeping your mouth shut instead of mouthing off

Not giving orders, when you’re used to solving problems with mandates

Avoiding being violent, when usually you throw people through walls

Plunging into being violent when normally you are that sweet listener

Respecting boundaries instead of  bulldozing over people

When you're normally self-contained, throwing things.

A character making a pre-meditated decision ahead of time to throw things, that’s exciting to me. But I’m always a sucker for the story where the person really wants to be sensitive and massively bungles the thing.

I hope you have fun.  

 

Writing Prompt #11: Dissecting Nick Jr.

Today I challenged myself to take the concepts of little kids shows and break them down into component pieces, and my favorite study I’ve made was Blues Clues.

What if Blue was a little girl who refused to talk? Look at the ridiculous lengths her brother is going to in order to make her feel safe and the crazy games he’ll play in order to understand and listen to her. “Yes, I’ll pretend you’re a puppy and all the furniture can talk and I will play really time-consuming games with you, because this is the way you reach out to me, and I am going to listen. Because being here for you is more important than college or a job or a girlfriend or whatever else I could be doing right now. I am going to live in this crazy, brightly-colored talking world of yours until you’re ready to come home into mine, because I love you.”

 I am challenging you to write a story or a scene or a sequence focusing on the lengths someone will go to in order to understand or connect with a child…or some other person who is difficult to reach.

Writing Prompt #10: About the Ink

A character has a really strange tattoo- what's the story behind it and how did he get it?

Writing Prompt #9: Strangling Tinkerbell

Fairies exist! Now explain why you want to kill all of them.

Writing Prompt #8: CAPTCHA's; prove your humanity

I’ve been struggling with CAPTCHA’s trying to post links on a website, and it is pathetic. I cannot prove that I am not a computer.

And that gives me an idea. Write a scene where a character must prove his identity without ID…or must prove that he is, in fact, human.

Writing Prompt #7: Totem

When I was a kid, I wore a rock on a piece of yarn around my neck for more than a year because it made me feel safe.

Create a totem for a character and the history behind it…and write a scene in which they give it up.

If you’re stuck, here are some possible items:

A guitar pick
A ring from a gumball machine
The paper slip from a fortune cookie
A plastic watch

A friendship bracelet           
A scrunchy

A bullet
A lock of hair
A photograph
A ticket stub
A clay bead
A rock with a face on it
A tooth

Writing Prompt #6: Bad Self-Help

I am an enormous Schlock Mercenary fan, and one of the running gags in the strip is Howard Taylor’s “The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries” (link below).

http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries

I am challenging you to either take one of Howard Taylor’s maxims from the link above and create a story around it, or to create a wacky self-help franchise of you own…and a character that really lives by it.

Writing Prompt #5: When I was a boy...

I’ve always loved listening to older people, so here’s my challenge to you: create a “when I was a boy” story, but set it in an alternate world, another time period or a really weird circumstance.

If you're stuck: "When I was a boy...

-we didn't invite vampires to lunch; we invited them to duels."


-we ate our mammoth and you never heard one of us complain."

-the pirates were a hundred times worse."

-no one had heard of a wormhole."

Writing Prompt #4: a break with normal

I'm posting tomorrow's prompt early, because I'll be too busy Saturday. (See? One follower and already mega-responsible.)

In the last post, I mentioned rudeness in grocery stores. Where I live, people avoid eye-contact in public and work to ignore each other in produce aisles, dairy sections and just about all public places. When someone purposefully talks to you, even just to ask you where the bread is, it makes a big impression.

Think about what the normal, acceptable behavior is in some arena of your public life, and then create a character with a motive to break your unspoken rules.

And if you’re ever in my grocery store, feel free to say hi. I’ll direct you to the bread.

Writing Prompt #3: Monologues for Evil

The best villains are the ones that almost convince us that they're right. Write a monologue putting forward a viewpoint you heavily disagree with. Like, the government should control reproduction, or smoking is good for you, or people should always be rude in grocery stores.

Writing Prompt #2: Communal Fridge

The article in the last post mentioned that you should label your squirrel brains if you have a communal fridge. Write a scene where someone finds something abnormal in the fridge...and explain what it's doing there.

Writing Prompt #1: Squirrel Brains

I was looking for a name for this blog and I came across this article.

http://www.lifesongadventures.com/2007/10/how-to-brain-tan-a-squirrel/

The author is explaining how to take a squirrel that was hit by a car and turn it into a wee soft furry rug to “honor the animal.” One of the steps given is rubbing the pelt with the included squirrel brains.

Grossed-out, fascinated and ready for your prompt? Find a how-to for something foreign to you (or use this one) and write a scene where the action is important to your main character, whether it’s a center of conflict, a sacred ritual, or a triumph.

And mad props if you’re now really tempted to make a squirrel rug.