Writing Prompt #255: Humbling the Proud

Someone formerly of great power has been brought low.

[This is the post for the 28th and it is early. My apologies.]

Writing Prompt #254: Exception to the Rule

Today, I said hi to someone, avoided having them carry my bag, and walked on.

A friend caught up to me and asked me what had just happened, because I had frightened her.

She knew that avoiding anyone was not my normal behavior. She knew that my normal modus operandi involves being really friendly and welcoming and enjoying the people I meet. She knew that what for most people would be normal-friendly in me was a sign that something was seriously wrong.

Write a scene about an exception to the rule, about someone your character treats differently than other people.

And if you get the chance, would you pray for wisdom for me? I don't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily, but people are dangerous, and I want to make the right exceptions.

Writing Prompt #253: Abnormal Courage

Something that would normally be scary, isn't.

Writing Prompt #251: Think Fast

Someone has to answer a question very quickly.

Writing Prompt #250: Missing

Someone who was expected to be somewhere, isn't.

Writing Prompt #249: Taking Back Words

What if you could unsay something you'd said?

Writing Prompt #248: Unexpected Response

Write a scene where someone responds to a query or a concern in an unexpected manner.

Some things that can be unexpected?

"No problem."

"I'm glad this happened."

"I have something more important to tell you."

"I love you."

"Get in my backpack."

Writing Prompt #247: Benign Secrets

Sometimes even the most honest people can't share things. "It's not my secret." "It would just upset him." "She'd get mad at my friend."

Put someone in a conversation with something they cannot say.

Writing Prompt #246: End of Procrastination

Someone goes at a task that has been left undone for a long while.

Writing Prompt #245: A Difference of Opinion

Two parents respond to the same issue in entirely different ways.

The cliche approach would be "Yes, you can," and "No, you can't," but why not challenge yourself? Why not let the character go to two people for advice, and get really different responses?

I have a weird reminder to add here: Parents are super invested in their kids. Sometimes this means that they freak out and stress and before you get a chance to deal with whatever you brought to them, WHOOOOSH!! there are all these feelings and issues that seem unrelated or even offensive spewed all over the table. And before you know it, you came with a question about one, simple, tiny thing and you are receiving a hysterical lecture on the disintegration of society and your own inevitable doom.

Because yes, you have feelings and questions and stuff to work through, and so do they.

Parents have feelings too. And sometimes, they're bigger and scarier than the kids' are.

Writing Prompt #244: Physical Affection

Someone unaccustomed to physical affection expresses or receives it.

Writing Prompt #243: Happy Birthday

Write a birthday message that addresses a problem.

Writing Prompt #242: Misjudging

Your character discovers that s/he misjudged someone.

These moments are so beautiful and so humbling.

Writing Prompt #241: "I'm Fine."

Some months ago, I started keeping a video diary. It started as a way to tell stories about things that were too happy to forget, but very soon I fell into the habit of chronicling when I was confused.

The upshot is that I've spent a good bit of time watching myself deal with agony.

Pushing aside the strange, dissection-like fascination of watching myself in pain, there is one thing I see over and over. What I'm saying and what I'm blatantly, obviously feeling are almost always opposites.

"I'm fine." *snot running down face*

"I'm fine." *shaking in tears*

" I'm alright." *buckles like a folding chair*

Write a scene where someone who is obviously not fine tries to say that they are.

And if you get a chance, I hope you try video-journaling. You see a lot more than you expect to.

Writing Prompt #240: The Satisfaction

There are so many times in our lives when we'd like to know the truth, but prudence dictates that we hold back, keep our peace, bite our tongues, lock our smiles and accept a world in which we'll never have the "why."

And then sometimes we find out.

Write a scene where someone finds out a "why," or in which someone gives up the hope of knowing.

Writing Prompt #239: Breaking Radio Silence

Two people talk again after a big event.

An apology. A forgiveness. A disagreement. A resolution. Something has challenged the fabric of their friendship. Now, on the other side of that, how do they break the silence?

Writing Prompt #238: Good News, Bad Time

After a whole day of being calm under pressure and pleasant under a loss that hurt, I got the kind of shocking good news that people write Hallmark films about. After a whole day of calmly working through sorrow and continuing to work with kids like I was okay, after a day of calmly BEING okay, I panicked. I broke. I lost my composure and went to pieces and cried like a little kid in front of people I don't cry in front of and I didn't calm down till someone gave me a soda.

Good news can be scary. Good news can take more energy and pain to process and accept than the bad stuff does. And good news can destroy the composure you think you have.

Write about a moment of good news, but don't write, "and she was happy." Write the terror of relief. Write the shock of something going right. Write what is scary and horrible and hard. Good news is eventually good, but sometimes to get to that we have to go through quite a bit of bad.

Writing Prompt #237: Harrowing Juxtaposition

Pick a really crazy physical task that you are personally familiar with. A routine in show choir. A mountain climb. A chess game against a five-year-old. Bathing a dog.

Now write a dialogue scene using that task as a metaphor for the conversation the whole way through.

Writing Prompt #236: Appreciation

Write a scene where someone really appreciates someone else.

I'm not talking about saying thank-you a lot; I'm talking about appreciating. Enjoying them. Admiring all that's good about them. Letting yourself discover and delight in everything they are, without asking them to be something else.

This only works when you're not afraid. But it's wonderful.

Writing Prompt #235: Limits

Your character has to draw a line as to how far he will go to attain a goal.

Need a new perspective on this? Research Business Ethics quandaries for ten minutes.

Writing Prompt #234: Blunt

A character deals very frankly with something tense and emotional.

Why? I don't know. Sometimes life happens like that.

A tip if you're getting stuck: You can deal with someone else's situation frankly.

Writing Prompt #233: A Splendorous Invitation

Write an invitation to something normal and make it very strange, or write an invitation to something strange and act like it's normal.

Writing Prompt #232: Made to End

Your character treasures something, even knowing it's going to end.

A friendship? A time out of prison? ...a cookie?

Everything ends. What's worth goodbye?

Writing Prompt #231: From the Blue

Someone meets your protagonist at an unexpected time.

Writing Prompt #230: Wrong and Wonderful

A character is happy to be proved wrong.

Have I done this one already? So much of my life right now is being deliciously, wonderfully, beautifully wrong.

Writing Prompt #229: Partial Recall

Some names slip my mind because I was caught up in the person and forgot to remember.

Some names take multiple tries because remembering then seemed easy, so I didn't put in the effort.

Some names stick in my mind from the first moment, without me ever trying, as if my brain knew the person was going to be important, even before I realized how precious the name could be.

And every once in a very great while there is a name that my mind flat refuses to vomit up just because I've wanted to forget meeting the person since I met them.

Write a scene in which someone remembers a name they shouldn't remember, or doesn't remember a name that they should.

Writing Prompt #228: Lecture

I receive lectures a lot, from a wide range of people. I generally take it as a badge of honor, because I figure it means they think I'm valuable enough to lecture. But I had a weird experience today.

A friend brought up a problem and began to lecture. Not recommend or discuss, but lecture. It was heavy. It was uncomfortable. And I had this choice on how to receive it. (You always have a choice.) And in the midst of this very uncomfortable, strange conversation that I hadn't expected, I realized that this was a step of intimacy in our friendship. I realized that the way we responded to each other in this, the way I'd choose to respect and disagree, the way he would respond and mediate and if he'd listen and how he related this to me, this heavy, awkward, strange piece of communication was more important than dozens of conversations we'd had previously. This was a step of trust or a rejection, and we chose.

I'm challenging you to write a scene where your character receives a lecture from someone for the first time. The judgements can feel unfair. The assumptions can be overbearing. The advice can seem extreme. But if you let yourself experience the intimacy of the moment, a lecture can turn into something wonderful.

Writing Prompt #227: Conversational Kata

What if people studied conversation the way they study fighting styles, the way they study music, or the way they study art? What would the process of learning be like? What would be the differences in different schools of thought? And how would it change the way you related to people?

Write a scene about a person studying conversation, or pursuing a conversation he or she has prepared for.