Writing Prompt #406: Breaking Open

A character experiences an emotional upset in the presence of someone they weren't planning on including.

Sometimes you don't get to choose when you break. You don't get to choose when a truth hits your face like icewater and you're driving down the road and don't remember what the colored lights at the intersection mean. You don't get to choose when pain splashes up from your depths and cripples you in a movie theater.

But the Author chose. And He knows what he's doing. Sometimes, what we wouldn't have chosen is still the very best thing.

You're the God of this story. Break a character. And make it the best thing possible.

Writing Prompt #405: Equipment Removed

Your character has to perform a task without a tool he's used to using.

As I am currently bereft of my laptop, I will be cheering your character on.

Writing Prompt #404: Unorthodox Meal

A friend of mine once ate a dinner of goat cheese and Cheerios.

Last night, I had the most delightful romantic dinner with the pasta from an off-brand Kraft macaroni package and 2 boiled eggs.

Write a scene that means something, that accomplishes something, and make your characters make-do with food.

Writing Prompt #403: Doesn't Get Old

Write about something that someone does not get tired of.

Writing Prompt #402: Misguided Comforting

Someone tries to comfort a person, and their method does not work.

You're not going to give up there, are you? You care about this person, right? So do the waiting, do the silence, do the staying and the listening and the hoping and the reaching and FIND another way to comfort them.

They don't need Plan A. So what's Plan B?

Writing Prompt #401: In the Waiting

Someone has to wait a long time for something they really want.

Instead of showing us the completion, and instead of showing us the beginning, give us a little piece of the waiting.

There is heroism here. There is overcoming here. There is truth and wisdom and vulnerability and intimacy and strength and weakness and light.

And sometimes, oh, so many times, we are better for the overcoming.

Good is worth the wait. Happy writing.

Writing Prompt #400: Decisions Under Impairment

Your character is not thinking clearly, and knows it.

Hypoglycemia? Chemical impairment? Emotional Distress? Sleep deprivation? Lots of things can make us less capable of thinking than we've been before. How do we make decisions when we know we're not at our best?

Writing Prompt #399: Remembering Everything

I have ONE friend about whom I remember almost everything.

There is no logical reason for this. I met lots of people the day I met him. He was pleasant, but I firmly disregarded him as a romantic candidate.

I can tell you the location where he told me each story, replay his facial expressions in front of my eyes, give you the names of people mentioned, recount every deduction and decision regarding him I made the last nine months. Most of the time, I struggle to remember names.

Challenge: There is something, or someone, about which/whom your character remembers everything.

Is there anything about which you remember to an intense degree?

Writing Prompt #398: Not-My-First-Language

Two people communicate in a form that is not second-nature to either of them.





Why is this important enough to them that they're putting in the effort? Is it something intense that they have to say, or is it just the need to communicate at all? What are the barriers, and how are they surmounted? And what are the mistakes along the way?

Writing Prompt #397: Salubrious Contact

Someone's company is GOOD for someone else. How?

When I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, the doctor asked me if there was ever a time when I was calm. And I looked over my whole life to that moment and realized that the only calm I remembered was sitting next to one friend.

I've since been cured. I've since fallen in love with that friend. And I've since gone on to discover more and more ways that people can be good for each other.

So write yours.

Happy writing. Blessed adventures. I'll be pulling for you.

Writing Prompt #396: The Tell-Tale Heart

Your challenge: Someone's vital signs give them away.

A quickening heartbeat? Intestinal gurgling? Sweat on their shirt? Drooping eyelids? Catching breath? What is the secret, what is being revealed, and why does the person discovering it care?

You can hear a lot with your head on someone's chest. Just saying.

Happy writing. Blessed adventures. <3

Writing Prompt #395: The Silver Iterance

Someone borrows someone else's words to say what they want to say.

Movie lines? Poetry? Quoting back something someone said to you before? Sometimes someone has already said it better. Sometimes the history of words makes them mean more than they would on their own.

Happy writing. Blessed adventures.

Writing Prompt #394: "You're Happy for What?"

Someone shares their anticipation for an event with someone, and is met with incredulity.

I did this today.

"You're happy about seeing your boyfriend?" 



The old woman in question was confused and disgruntled by this. I don't know why.

Questions to consider: Why is your character sharing what they're excited about? What do they expect?

Writing Prompt #393: Goodness in Destruction

Something an enemy meant for wrong works for the character's good.

Can I give you a little nudge on this one? Sometimes the destruction is still there. Sometimes all the wounds and all the hurt are still there. Sometimes the enemy makes his mark and the damage is done.

But then, in that sometime, sometimes you get the chance to forgive.

You get the chance to reach beyond yourself. You get the chance to step out of the ashes and embrace repentance and turn away from what you did wrong and do the right thing. And your rise is making your life a better story than if everything had stayed peachy and you weren't wounded.

Sometimes bleeding makes it a better story.

If only every story I wrote could be as good as mine.

Writing Prompt #392: Cliche Redeemed

Take a cliche, and make it actually work.

Kissing in the rain? The waiter takes people for a couple? Work with it.

Writing Prompt #391: Bad Timing, Good Thing

Someone says something at an inappropriate time. How does it work out?

Writing Prompt #390: First Time

Someone is doing something for the first time. Using a cash register? Kissing a boy? The first time at anything is hard.

How does another character help them, or fail to help them through it?

Writing Prompt #389: Excuses, Excuses

I'm...four days of no-blog late. That is horrible. Also, I was fifteen minutes past my curfew tonight. And that is ALSO horrible.

(And I do apologize but you don't care so let's get to work.)

Your challenge today is: make a character break a promise. Now find the excuse that makes that excusable.

You were late the baseball game because a pterodactyl attacked you and you lost your right arm? ...excused.

Writing Prompt #388: Dialogue Snippet #1!

Today I yelled this across a grocery store and it caught my imagination.

Write a scene where SOMEONE says: "This will never happen again."

Writing Prompt #387: Reserve

Your character must hold back feelings or impulses.

Avoiding PDA? Keeping a secret? Propriety in addressing a monarch?

For me, this is really hard. Everything I think goes across my face. I'm so used to everything I want to do being perfectly appropriate that not diving into the arms of the one I love is really difficult, no matter whom we're in front of.

But I'm learning that it's alright to have secrets, and that there's no cowardice in occasionally holding back. As long as there is someone you tell everything, and a time when you don't hold back at all.

Happy writing.

Writing Prompt #386: Believe Me

Today (as of writing this, not publishing it), I brought pizza to a friend's house.

I called ahead to let him know I was bringing pizza. Then I discussed it with him on Facebook. All was jolly and fine, and he bid me a good day.

And then I showed up with the pizza, and he met me at the door with this bewildered look of wonderment on his face and stared and said, "...you actually brought pizza."

"I called ahead. I told you I was bringing pizza."

"Yes, but I didn't think...why would you bring me pizza?"

I'd made a promise, but it hadn't quite sunk through.

Your character makes a promise. Why does the person not believe them? What will it take before they trust?

Writing Prompt #385: Change of Plans

A couple of days ago, my plans of filmmaking were upturned when a tree crashed through the roof of my co-director's house. No one was harmed, but instead of filming and editing and then having a nice date, we spent the day hauling branches and hauling rubbish and hosing down tarps.

It was wonderful. I had such a delightful time getting to be near him.

Can you drastically destroy plans your character was really looking forward to- and give him something better?

Writing Prompt #384: Trainee and Sensei

Your character is taken under the wing of someone more experienced.

Why is the person helping them? Pity? Expediency? What is your character already good at? What do they have to learn from this person?

Not just on the job. What do they have to learn about life?

Writing Prompt #383: See You Again

Someone goes to an abnormal length to see someone they love.

Writing Prompt #382: Helping a Hero

Someone does something to honor someone they see as a hero.

Donating money to buy coffee for the troops overseas? Stooping to aid an elderly veteran? Who are your character's heroes, and how can he help them?

Happy Independence Day. We need all the heroes we can get.

Writing Prompt #381: On the Job Blunder

Your character makes a big mistake on the job.

What happens?

Writing Prompt #380: Personal Questions

In today's writing prompt, people ask questions about things that are really, REALLY none of their business.

What is it like to be on the receiving end of this? More than that, why is the other person prying?

Insensitivity? Loneliness and voyeurism? ...really meaning the best and worrying about someone?

I'm getting a lot of practice putting myself in the shoes of people who "get up in my business." Most of the time, I think they really care. But no matter what, it's always a good opportunity to find the right thing to do.

Happy writing.

Writing Prompt #379: A Conversation with the Past

Someone speaks to their past self.

How? A photograph? An alternate dimension? Therapy?

With what? Forgiveness? Reassurance? A promise for the future?

What do you say to the past? And can the past ever speak back to you?