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.