Your Monday Prompt #25
Write about a character who is affected by the weather. Perhaps it makes them feel a certain way or remember a particular memory. The weather may possibly prevent or enable them to do an activity or job. Maybe the weather is extreme enough to impact their chances of survival, like something out of a Jack London story. This is an opportunity to explore setting and environment as boons to your story and link them directly to your character. You may try placing a character you’ve already worked with into a weather-related environment and see how they react.
Please give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time. Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #24
Write about accomplishment. A character finishes an important milestone, a team pulls together to win a competition, good triumphs over evil, etc. Let the accomplishment and circumstances of the event be the dressing - focus on the emotions of the character(s) in terms of what the accomplishment means to them, their reflection on their journey, and where they believe they will go from there. Remember, it’s about the journey, not the destination.
Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time. Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #23
Write a story in which characters meet for the first time. The occasion for their meeting is up to you, as well as how they interact, but make it clear it’s the first time they are truly interacting. You might try a third-person omniscient narrator so you can get the inner-perspectives of every character in the story. Whatever your approach, focus on the characters’ emotions and how they perceive this initial meeting. Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time.
Write it up and see what happens,
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #22
Write a story in which two characters who don’t get along have to work together to come up with a mutually-acceptable solution. Use a third-person omniscient narrator to tell the tale in order to show both characters’ perspectives as the story progresses; this will allow you to depict both action and each character’s reflection on their relationship. Perhaps two mortal enemies must defuse a bomb before they both explode. Maybe a feuding mother and daughter need to rally for their husband/father’s surgery. Or it could be two high school friends who had a big fight want to reconcile before graduation.
Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time, though if you’re truly getting into your characters it may take you longer to really get the story going.
Write it up and see what happens,
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #21
Write about a character who’s desperate to find something lost or misplaced. Perhaps it’s something physical, like a long-lost CD running over and over in their head and they can’t find it. Maybe it’s something metaphysical, like a solid relationship with a parent. Explore your character’s feelings as the stakes of their search heightens throughout the story. Do they find what they’re looking for? Will they know they’ve found it? That’s up to you.
Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time. Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #20
Write a story in which a couple is being interviewed about their relationship. Explore what they’re comfortable saying in front of each other, as well as what they might be holding back. Do they manifest this in other ways, like body language or silence? You might have a real couple in mind to act as your inspiration, or you might completely invent a new couple.
Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time. Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #19
Write about either the most sinister character in the most innocent setting or the most innocent character in the most sinister setting. Perhaps a serial killer lives in suburbia across the street from a playground. Maybe a bright-eyed, job-seeking college graduate finds themselves in the red light district. Whatever the mix, make it clear why the sinister elements are sinister and why the innocent elements are innocent. Discover how the two opposites intermingle and co-exist, as well as how they effect each other as you write your story. Give this exercise at least fifteen minutes of your time.
Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #16
Minimal directions today…
Write and don’t stop for fifteen minutes.
Set a timer, create an alarm, whatever. Don’t look at a clock and don’t hesitate - just write anything for fifteen minutes solid. See where it takes you. Even if it doesn’t make sense, don’t w0rry about it, just keep going no matter what.
-nm
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Your Monday Prompt #15.
Write a story in which the main character is an expert on a topic or process. Let the character take the readers through their area of expertise in vivid detail. Perhaps she knows the best way to clean and fillet a fish. Maybe he can take meticulous care of houseplants so they last years and years. Or it’s possible she can set up that magical combination of ten peripheral devices to one TV. There’s even a more fantastical route - he’s an expert dragon slayer or she can reprogram a robot not to destroy all humans.
Whatever their area of expertise, let the personality of the character guide how they tell the story. Their topic may be fascinating, but it should take a back seat to the way the character’s personality; concentrate on how they tell the story. Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your time.
Write it up and see what happens.
-nm
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Discovering writing websites: Three-Word Wednesday.
Earlier this week, writer and blogger Barbara Torris commented on a recent Monday Prompt, which led me to her blog to check out her resulting story (a fun tale about a girl strapping on her roller skates, all complete with a great photo, I might add!). While scanning Barbara’s blog, I found she’s a regular participant with the Three-Word Wednesday Prompts provided by an Alabama writer and blogger who goes by the online handle “Bone” and posts regularly at If You Only Read One Blog This Year…
Three-Word Wednesday is a prompt in which Bone gives visitors three words to inspire them to write any story they see fit. Writers are encouraged to then post their stories in the comments to share with other writers, just as I recommend patrons of Monday Prompts here at The Scrawl post their resulting story at Scrawlers. The TWW prompt has run for quite some time (the seventy-second entry is posted today) and has in recent weeks been given it’s own space on WordPress. The only way TWW prompts would be cooler is if the RSS feed showed the three words rather than the prompt-numbered post titles. It’s a unique way to prompt writing, and it reminds me a lot of one of my favorite websites, ExplodingDog.com, where artist Sam Brown creates artwork based on simple sentences or words emailed to him by visitors.
Perhaps with your help, dear reader, we can find blogs with writing prompts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to round out the weekday writing prompt circle.
-nm
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About
Brought together by mutual interest in creative arts and web development, Minnesota duo Barry Hess and Nathan Melcher founded Scrawlers.com in 2006. Scrawlers marries creativity with a web-based outlet for aspiring writers and The Scrawl blog seeks to add fuel your creative fire.
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