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.