Writing Prompt #75: Re-purpose

Re-purpose an object. Those scissors someone was threatened with a scene ago? Use them to escape. The hoodie from the romantic scene? Clean up a spill or make a tourniquet or hold a baby in it.

Easy thematic resonance? Check.

Writing Prompt #74: Peace-maker

Write a character who is trying to settle a dispute. Pick out why this is important to him and the sacrifices he'll have to make to put hostilities to rest.

Writing Prompt #73: Beauty and Eloquence

Write a scene where someone does a really good job of standing up for what's right. Write a scene where the bad guy get's trounced, and make us feel good about the people we're supporting in the story. Write a scene that makes us feel good, period. People spend so much of their lives feeling isolated and alone and surrounded by malevolent groups that hate them. Screw that. Write the most feel-good, good-guys-win, bad-guy-devastating scene you possibly can.

And if you want, throw in a rousing chant and a few classic rock songs. It's working for the RNC.

Writing Prompt #72: Child in the Room

Sometimes everything changes when you have a kid in the room. Write a scene where a character's actions and attitudes are altered by the presence of a child.

Writing Prompt #71: Unsolicited Advice

Write a scene where your character must respond graciously to unsolicited advice.

Why is it imperative to your character to respond kindly? Is this an external imposition or an internal one?

How can you make the advice more and more outrageously annoying?

I hope you have fun. My failure to maintain a generous attitude earlier today should be good for something besides jamming my foot into my mouth.

Writing Prompt #70: Giving Up

Write a scene where your character gives up something important to him.

Writing Prompt #69: Fail

Write a scene where your main character fails.

Writing Prompt #68: Trash

Somehow involve garbage.

Writing Prompt #67: Winning Respect

A character has to win the respect of an underling, and has to do it fast.

There are lots of variations on this. A student who's ahead of the pack. An actor or crew-member who's worked with people way more professional than you. Or a situation where you've been promoted and the people under you think the job should have been theirs.

You need these people to respect and work with you. You need to accomplish this fast. How?

[A few things I've learned since utterly failing as a high-school teacher at age 15:

1. Never emphasize that something is going to be easy, even if it will. It leads to people taking the work and you lightly.

2. Make it clear that you respect the capabilities of the people you're working with, and that you take them seriously and appreciate their contribution.

3. Enlist your most problematic elements in maintaining order. "Hi, [most anti-authority student.] We'll be working with a lot of younger kids and people with less experience today, and I'll be really strapped for help. Would you mind helping me keep the peace?"

4. Shock and awe. If there's a way to swiftly demonstrate competence in the thing you're leading them into, be it writing fiction or speaking Chinese or beating everyone at chess, do it. And do it as fast as possible.

5. If there is a way to dress the part, do it. If you can't dress for success...walk in like you did anyway.

Writing Prompt #66: Challenging Perceptions

Write a scene where a character takes an action that is radically different from the way another character perceives him.

For instance: Mary thinks Joe is a sadistic monster. Joe carefully frees a kitten from a fishing line. Terry thinks Shannon is the kindest most non-violent social worker ever. Shannon pistol-whips a mugger into submission. Amy thinks Mary is the strongest person alive. And Mary goes crazy.

Writing Prompt #65: No Kvetching

Write a scene where a character does not complain about something.

Writing Prompt #64: Straightjacket

Write a scene in which the character is unable to physically respond to her world.

Writing Prompt #63: Ability Leap

Something that was really hard for your character is now easy. Why?

And why is it really, really important to what he/she needs to do?

Writing Prompt #62: Misplaced Object

Your character has misplaced something. Why is she glad?

Writing Prompt #61: Reunion

Two people meet each other after a long separation.

Make sure each party has an objective in the scene, whether it's "ferret out the truth" "get her to marry me" or "don't show weakness."

If you can throw in an impediment to their reunion (an annoying waiter? An importuning boss? A hovering relative? A death threat?), bonus points.

Writing Prompt #60: Fish Out of Water

Take a character completely out of his element.

The more overwhelmingly capable he is in his own circles, the more fun this can be.

Writing Prompt #59: Unsentimental

Write a scene or a story where a character is unfeeling, unsentimental or heartless compared to those around him, and this is a not a bad thing.

Thankfully these publish so far after the events that inspire them that my acquaintances cannot feel victimized.

Writing Prompt #58: This is Not Amnesia

I recently found a passionately un-hinged paean  of suffering I wrote as a teen, and I have no clue what it's talking about. Something was apparently really important to me, and now I don't know anything about what was going on.

Stories about loss of memory don't have to be dramatic. No one has to have a concussion, or amnesia to forget. I'm challenging you to create a story where a character is finding memorabilia, records, or letters from their former self that they do not remember, and the contents affect decisions they should be making now.

Writing Prompt #57: Yellow Brick Road

Kids' stories are full of Oz-like stories where the lead character can go on one massive quest and solve everything. The sick relatives get better and the house is saved and the bad guys lose and Christmas and springtime hit at the same time and even if it was hard, it was the lead character who had the power to change everything.

And then huge chunks of our adult life consist of being powerless to help the people we love.

Write a story with a huge quest that can fix lots and lots of things. Stack the odds, send out your powerful hero. And if you're feeling bold, draw the line and delineate what he does and does not have the power to change.

Writing Prompt #56: Apology

I wrote screenplay right through the time when I was supposed to update this blog. I was so tied up in my world that I forgot my commitment, which I intended never to do. I am sorry.

Now is a bad time to tell you that a screenwriter friend blew my mind open to subplots and life is a wonderland of beautiful.

My challenge for you today is to write an apology. Have you ever apologized for something that wasn't really your fault? Is your character lying about anything? Are they choosing a path of expediency, or taking responsibility from some sense of honor? What will be the consequences of this apology, what is the worst thing that could happen, and what do they have to gain?

Being over fifteen and a half hours late today was totally my fault. Even if this thing is free, I do try to keep my promises. I will endeavor to improve the reliability of these posts in the future.

I hope your week is beautiful.

Writing Prompt #55: Mr. Perfect

The one thing every book on writing agrees on is this: when you're creating a protagonist, you can't make them perfectly good and they can't be good at everything.

The writers of Code Geass blatantly ignored this when they created Suzaku Kururugi.

This guy has no character hang-ups. At all. If he has a flaw, it's that he is too self-sacrificially good. Cats hate him, but he loves them anyway. The nation scorns him for his racial heritage and he loves and serves it anyway. His goal in life is to make peace so no more people have to die in war.

And it works, because he's the antagonist. It works because Suzaku's skills are all pitted against the side that we're rooting for. It works because he's so different from the hero we're watching throw people's lives away. It works because they use his self-sacrificing nature against us, and we hate his do-gooding because we love him too much to see him die.


How can you use a character who is intensely, overwhelmingly "good"?

Alternately, can you create an antagonist who we can root for as much as your hero?

Writing Prompt #54: Anime

With all the work I've been doing preparing for Season 1, I haven't put a word toward Season 2 this week. Goodbye, themed posts.

What I have done in the hour before I fall asleep is watch and dissect an anime called "Code Geass" with a couple of my best friends. And while I initially had heavy reservations about this story, there are quite a few things they are doing brilliant that I haven't seen before.

So today I'm tooling the prompt from an anime.

In Code Geass there are a lot of characters that are really horrible people. Like, "kill lots of innocent old people and children" kind of horrible people. We don't like them.

So the writer introduces someone who does.

They make you love this sweet, innocent, self-sacrificing person...who loves these people we hate. She has fond memories of these monsters. She has loving relationships with these creatures. And because we care about her, we are drawn to them as well.

I'm challenging you to create a character who sees a different side of your villain. Take the character that you have made us hate the most, and make us love someone who loves them.

Can you do it? Because this weird animated thing with pink hair and people yelling in Japanese has done a good job of it. If you don't mind way too much pointless fan-service, you might want to check it out.

Writing Prompt #53: Too Late

Write a story where a character misses a deadline, an opportunity, a meeting, a chance. Why did he miss it? Were the choices that brought him here the right ones? What are the consequences?

Write a story where the character is too late.

And please forgive the writer of this blog for being two hours and seven minutes tardy.

Writing Prompt #52: Make Him Cool

Take the most obnoxious character you have- not your "favorite" obnoxious character but the one who annoys you- and go-to making him cool. Give him a fantastic hobby. Make him smart at something. Give him good wisecracks and one-liners and let him win when he argues and put people who admire him into the scenes.

Make sure the characters you disagree with get as much or more loving care than the ones whose ideas jive with yours. Because a character isn't your enemy. And making him awesome can only better your work.

Writing Prompt #51: Weird Interest

In Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hague mentioned that one of the ways to make us like a character is to make them really good at something. I'm asking you to push it a little bit further.

Can you make a group of people good at something most people are outsiders to, and use it to bond us to them? Can you make us feel like insiders because we know them now?

I was really nervous about trying this, and I'm grateful for friends who pushed me to do it.

Even if I did end up publishing my blog with two minutes to spare.

Writing Prompt #50: Season Two

I have the opportunity starting in September to begin filming for a web series I wrote called Homeschoolers vs. Zombies. I love the people I get to work with and I'm really excited to get started but the weird thing is that while we don't know whether season 1 will be a success, if there's going to be a season 2 it has to be written now.

So, for the next 7 days I'm going to give you a writing prompt based on what I'm getting to do right now.

Prompt-of-the-Day: Look over the characters you've already established and figure out what they all agree on and have in common. Then, introduce a character who espouses the opposite of whatever beliefs and traits they share.

Things that you took for granted are called into conflict.  People who seemed like polar opposites unite.

THIS IS SO MUCH FUN AND YOU NEED TO TRY IT.

Writing Prompt #49: Might Made Right

Can you write a situation where an act of violence is the right thing to do? Is there a line your character stops at?

Writing Prompt #48: A Sense of History

Evoke the history of a place- an old space station, a ruined temple, a farm house...bring us there. And keep us rooted in the objectives and experiences of your characters while you do it.

Writing Prompt #47: Waiting

Write a scene where the entire time, the character is waiting for something.

Writing Prompt #46: Punishing

Your character has to punish someone.

Writing Prompt #45: Unwanted Guest

Create a small, private get-together- and then invite someone that no one wants to be there.