Writing Prompt #104: Defining Conversation

Two characters argue on the definition of a word.

Writing Prompt #103: Giant Wall

Create an impossible barrier to a relationship.

And no, I don't mean, "create a barrier you can jump over by having a deep conversation and killing a few characters," I mean, "actually create an obstacle that makes a previously tenable relationship impossible."

Writing Prompt #102: Reverse a Trend

Create a character with a perceivedly unflattering characteristic, and then make it admirable and/or endearing.

Easy: physical characteristics and handicaps.

Moderate difficulty: personal quirks and psychoses (phobias, fixations, obsessions and compulsions).

Hard: Bad habits- belching, scratching self, blowing nose on table cloth, drooling

Writing Prompt #101: The Least of These

You know how there's that person in your life who you have to be patient with, because they know less? Either you're more educated in a subject or you're more experienced in a craft or they're awful at not yelling embarrassing things across the room while you're trying to play chess or they're just generally five years old.

Write a scene where your character gets schooled by someone who knows way less than she does, whether it's a child or an old person or a mental patient or someone who acts like a mental patient or just that guy who's bad at all things life.

Write a scene where your character learns something vital from one of "the least of these." And while you're at it, I challenge you to pay attention when the weak in your life speak.

Writing Prompt #100: Inappropriate Response

Write a scene where a character laughs about something which causes him pain.

Writing Prompt #99: Unappreciated

A character does what they consider a good deed and faces ingratitude.

Writing Prompt #98: Trust

Write a scene where a character must teach someone to trust them.

Writing Prompt #97: Show-Off

Usually we avoid putting ourselves forward, but every once in a while, we're called on to go whole-hog and show what we can do. Every once in a while, it's not in our best interest to demure. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is show off.

Put a character in a position where their talents cannot be hidden. Make modesty impossible. Shove them to the front and give them incentive to take center stage.

It only happens every once in a while, but when it does it's really fun.

Writing Prompt #96: "You're Wrong," a love story

Have you ever had to stand up to a friend? Have you ever had to tell someone you loved that you believed something they were doing was wrong?

Write a scene where your character has to. Compel him. Make it important. Think about his reluctance and the stakes necessary to overcome that.

It's not fun to risk the anger of someone you love. It's hard to risk hurting someone you care about. But sometimes, when you really love someone, it's the only way not to betray that love.

Writing Prompt #95: Scholastic Error

A teacher makes a mistake.

Writing Prompt #94: Mercy

Write a scene where a character is kind to someone who doesn't deserve it.

Writing Prompt #93: Worst Face Forward

Write a scene where the character is trying to leave a deliberately bad impression.

Writing Prompt #92-and-a-half: Kill Something

I apparently made a terrible error when setting up the schedules for these things and even though I have the next two weeks on automatic today did not post.

Your writing prompt is: kill an animal.

Hopefully the next prompt is up on time.

Writing Prompt #92: Problematic Drive

"The drive to reproduce has been more problematic than predicted."

That's it. That's your prompt. Have fun.

Writing Prompt #91: Movie Mash-Up #1

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz meets Gone with the Wind.
I thank my dad for this one. He wanted to stump me. Instead he gave me my favorite historical fiction idea.

In 20 years, I so want to make this.

Writing Prompt #90: Treasuring

Have a character treasure an object that's out of character for them, because it reminds them of someone special.

Is it a gift? How did they get it?

Writing Prompt #89: Time Shift

The saddest thing about the present is the way it changes the past.

My writing prompt for you today is two scenes. One scene offering a central event, a relationship, and an image, and a second scene occurring later that changes the way we view the elements of the first.

Our present always colors our memories. New experiences with people change the way interpret past experiences. Even if we remember the same pictures and details and faces and words, what we've felt since colors and changes everything. Laughter lends golden hues to awkward moments, comfort lulls and softens the darkest hours- and betrayal washes sunny portraits out to gray.

Moments of clarity are best portrayed in writing prompts. The poetry doesn't last past 4 am very well.

Writing Prompt #88: Whoa, what? Haircut? o_o

It's actually been several weeks since I wrote yesterday's prompt- that's how the workflow on these goes. I walked into the first week of college ignoring the existence of my wretched haircut, cocky in the knowledge that as I had been ignored almost completely the semester before, I had nothing to worry about.

Then, everything got weird.

People were noticing me and making the effort to talk to me and learn my name and pressing my hand instead of shaking and what on earth, was that guy flirting? Then this one guy introduced himself and talked to me on purpose and I was so surprised that all I could think of to say, over and over, was "Glad to meet you." That works great till like, the fifth time you say it.

But what on earth? I was invisible last semester. And NOTHING about me has changed. I'm wearing the same shirts, the same pair of jeans, the same scuffed-up shoes. I have the same zits, the same weight, the same slap-dash makeup design I pulled out of an 80's book in tenth grade. What could possibly be different that would change the way people saw me so much?

I'd like to think I suddenly developed poise and confidence and chutzpah over the summer, but my mom laid it out for me. I walked in exactly the same- except for hair like a Shetland pony.

Prompt: A physical change alters the way your character is perceived by others.

Is that cliche? Yes. But it happens. And, boy, is it weird when it does.

Writing Prompt #87: Bad Hair Cut

I look like a Shetland pony.

My coping mechanisms for haircuts (which are inevitably horrible, and fall exactly when I start liking my hair again) are pretty simple. They start with martyrdom.

"This is more important to the stylist than to me. What they want is more important."

The coping continues through denial, "It'll grow in no time. I can use bobby pins. If I use enough hairspray it'll work. If I don't wash it for days it'll fit in a pony tail."

Then I hit frustration. "Stop asking me if I like my hair. Stop wanting me to like it. I will like it when it has grown out to where it was a half hour ago."

And inevitably, more denial. "Hair? Who cares about hair? I can see through this fringe. ...almost."

I am challenging you to take a character who is very sure of who he or she is and his position relative to others, and change some part of his physical expression. Is the way he relates to his environment the same? How does it change his interactions with others?

And how does not looking like yourself change the way you look at the world?

Writing Prompt #86: Twisted Metaphor

Create a metaphor that is completely opposite to your story, and make it work. If your story is about asylum escapees fighting werewolves with ice-picks, go for kindergarten and ice-cream and Silly Bands. If your story is about duck hunting, go for International Diplomacy.

If your story is about International Diplomacy, I suggest bodily fluids. Everyone loves a good metaphor with bodily fluids.

Writing Prompt #85: Recurring Setting

Re-purpose a location in your story. The happy-jolly family dining room from Act I is now headquarters for Hitler's command staff. Last chapter's ballroom is the setting for a kung-fu battle. Last chapter's torture chamber is the site for a tryst.

Mad props to Michael Grant's book, BZRK, for the most subtle use of this I've ever seen.

Actually, mad props to Michael Grant's BZRK for almost everything.

Writing Prompt #84: Comforting Presence

Have a character find comfort in someone's presence.

What's the weirdest person for them to be comforted by? Can you pull it off?

Writing Prompt #83: Betrayal

I offered to betray my dream today.

It still feels odd, residual terror squeezing my lungs. It's been nine hours since I said I'd walk away.

I'm still spinning.

I got out this time. But what about your character? What would make him do that? Is there a price he could be offered? Is there a person whose pain could sway him? Because it isn't all Star Wars and giant lasers and "I will never talk." Sometimes it's "Joy, I'm scared," and "Don't be. What do I have to do?"

I hope if a day like this ever comes to you, that the person you love is as merciful as the person who had power over me. I hope that even if you're weak, your quest stays strong. Mostly, I hope you chose the right quest. I hope I have.

Bring your hero to his weakest. Find the things he didn't know drove him. Torture him with them. Crush his will. What is more important than his quest?

See if he comes out strong.

Writing Prompt #82: Speaking Code

Write characters using words that don't mean what they say.

For instance, see Schlock Mercenary's : "When I say, 'bake me a chupaqueso,' commit regicide."

(Also see my sister's and my use of "llama tractor duck cake.")

Writing Prompt #81: Superfluous Comforter

Write a scene where someone is comforting someone who doesn't need to be comforted.

Writing Prompt #80: Reversal

Pick a relationship and change the statuses. Switch the lowest rung employee and his boss, the warden and the prisoner, the rescuer and the rescued. Change who is powerful. Change who is needy. Change who is helping/hurting/threatening/begging/saving/pursuing who.

We love that. I don't know why, but reversals are fun.

Writing Prompt #79: Meeting Younger You

An older friend of mine recently had a really weird experience at a local college. She was waiting in line for something, and met this girl who was planning the same career she had pursued. The chick had the same back-up plan she had had, she was dating a guy with the same career as my friend's husband, and she was making all the same miscalculations and mistakes about her future. My friend was in the weird position of talking to a younger version of herself, trying to convince her to change her path.

And it made me think. What would it be like to meet myself, thirty years from now? Would I tell me to go ahead with my plans? In thirty years, if I talk to people who are where I am now, what will I say?

Write a scene where a person meets a younger individual who is about the make the same choices that they did.

Writing Prompt #78: Bogeyman

Yesterday we talked about childhood fantasies. Now, go dark. What scared the daylights out of you as a child? Something in the closet? Monsters under the furniture? Make it real.

Writing Prompt #77: Reversion

Think about the things you day-dreamed about as a kid, and write a story that satisfies one of those wants.

Dreams of flying? Imaginary friends that were super powerful? Tap into something primal and go all-out with it. Wish-fulfillment sells.

Writing Prompt #76: Opportunity Cost

The concept of an opportunity cost is that for everything you get, you give up something else. For instance, the time you spend reading this blog is time you spend NOT watching Nyan-cat.

Today, push a character into a situation where he has to make choices on opportunity costs. Make his desires mutually exclusive. Force him to decide what he's going to give up.

The more innocent children you can squeeze into this the better it will be. And by better, I mean horrible for everyone involved. Ask anyone who's had to deal with co-op schedules.