Title & Chapter Number: For all us writers... even if it's just the closet writers *looks at a few* 1/1
Author(s): - Author's Index
Fandom: None? All?
Rating: NA
Disclaimer: NA
Warnings: NA
Betas: NA
Cast: NA
Timeline: NA
Spoilers: NA
Summary: NA
Notes: Now, this is something I've had hanging around on a disk since... last summer... was going through my stuff... though I might as well post it... since that was why I wrote it... Char
On a very hot and boring day I decided to flip through a book I had only looked at maybe three or four times. The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron. My main interest in buying it had been the loads of prompts it held. I very often got stuck halfway through stories I had so much fun writing when I began them. It’s sometimes hard to get back in the swing of things when ideas aren’t flowing. I’m not getting to the point am I? My point is only this, I simply picked out the prompts that would be fun and different to try. I mean how many times do you read a book that tells you to go to a restaurant or airport and... eavesdrop? Now, doesn’t that sound like fun? Those are just the prompts we happen to start with. Who said spy games were just for kids? But there are also prompts that, although they don’t sound like fun, may still be helpful.
Note: All prompts are taken word for word from the book. If you like the few prompts I’ve chosen, I suggest buying the book for yourself.
Prompt #1
Go to a public place and eavesdrop. That’s right: Invade people’s privacy. Of course, don’t get caught. But if you feel comfortable with this, try to overhear some conversations. Write down what you hear. Try to record it exactly as it’s said. Restaurants are great places to do this. You can be anonymously scribbling in your notebook, not even looking at the people, and writing down what they say. Another great eavesdropping place, according to writer and friend Tom Chiarella, is the airport. You can get pretty close to conversations and yet seem a disinterested bystander. Also, at airports people often are parting. They’re trying to sum up, to put everything in order before leaving.
Prompt #2
This one I stole from comedian George Carlin. He called it "spy at the airport." He would try to pick from the bustling crowd the person who was an international spy. As a writer, it would be better if you played the spy. Give yourself a spy persona and watch people. Something about pretending to be a spy or some type of security person will make you much more aware (not that I’ve, ahem, done this myself). Write brief observations in a notebook, and keep your eyes and ears open.
Prompt #3
Writer Thomas McGuane goes to his study at a certain time every day and stays there for a scheduled length of time. He sits at his desk. "I don’t have to write," he explains, "but I can’t do anything else." Try his approach for a week, scheduling a specific period of time, during which you must sit at your desk or wherever you write. You don’t have to write, but you can’t do anything else.
Prompt #4
Write a scene that is set at night. It should possess an element of intrigue or mystery. Write this scene at night. Push yourself to take risks with the language or the images or simply with the events in the scene. Allow the scene to end without resolution so that at least one more scene will be needed to provide some sort of closure. Write that scene in the morning. Put the scenes away for a few days, then take them out and read them. Do they connect? Do the actions and the tone match?
Prompt #5
Write down every idea you’ve ever had but didn’t use in a piece of writing. I’m serious. Get cracking. Note every one you can remember. Give yourself time to do this prompt. It might take days, even weeks. Make it a ongoing project. You’ll never remember them all, but you’ll be surprised by how many you do recall. Do a cluster or a freewrite or a brainstorm. As your list grows, choose ideas from it that still interest you. Write them on a new list of ideas for projects. If possible, dig up what you wrote before abadoning the ideas you like. Check the computer files or the pages in your notebook. In fact, pull out all of your old writing notebooks and read them. Again, you’ll be surprised at what you find. You probably have enough good ideas to last you awhile. You’ll see some of them through new eyes, perceiving possibilities that you missed before. Perhaps an old idea connects with a more recent one.
Prompt #6
You are afflicted with a rare (and getting rarer) disease in which you can only tell the truth, the whole truth. Now, introduce yourself to someone you don’t know--on the page, of course. Explain to the stranger who you are. Go into detail. Tell your life story if you have to. The stranger is fictitious and will listen intently for hours.
Prompt #7
Write about your family, making them the First Family, plopping them into the White House. How well do they represent the country? Which member becomes the media darling? Which member causes no end of embarrassment? (Note from Charlene: If you don’t want to use your actual family, how about your clone family? That would prove interesting at any rate.)
Prompt #8
Put a character in a place where he doesn’t speak the native language. Explore the problems this barrier creates.
Prompt #9
What favorite line from a movie speaks to your view of the world? Write it down. Begina piece of writing by explaining the context of the line in the movie: Who says it? To whom? Why? Where? What is its significance? Then explain your affinity for the line, detailing why you believe it is true.
(Note from Charlene: Another prompt this gave me the idea for is much simpler. Use a favorite quote and just go from there.)
Prompt #10
Write a letter to someone who is or was angry with you. Apologize, if necessary, or explain your reasons for doing whatever made that person angry.
(Note from Charlene: I’m really only including this prompt for one reason. In the cyber world I’ve noticed people get angry with each other all the time, most times for the stupidest reasons. And this "world" we live in is so large, unlike our own towns where we’re usually forced to run into each other, we can cut off all communication and continue being angry. Think back on every thing that a "cyber friend," or even if they weren’t actually a friend, said to you that made you really angry or even a little peeved. Would you act the same way if your very best friend or a family member said it? Now, I know this is just a prompt and you’re not encouraged to actually give that person the letter but I thought this would give everyone something to think about at any rate.)
Prompt #11
Write a scene in which you let loose of your characters. Allow them to do whatever they want. Write down whatever actions occur to you first, without worrying if the action fits the scene or the character as readers know her (him). This experiment will help you practice letting go of your characters. Some writers have an easy time letting go, espeically if they’ve spent some time with the characters and know them well. Other writers never let go.
Prompt #12
Rewrite a famous ending, or one you know well. Save the character who dies at the climax. Get those loves together. Change a bittersweet ending to a happy one, or change a happy one to tragedy.
Prompt #13
Write at least four possible endings to your piece. End in different places in the piece, or try different methods.
Prompt #14
Tell your story as a fly on the wall, offering no entry into the minds of participants.
Prompt #15
Change the nature of the characters. If you’re telling a story of three people, for example, turn them into something else--dogs or apples or angels dancing on the head of a pin. Or, if you’re feeling less adventurous, simply change the genders. Stay as close as possible to the events of the story as you imagined them before shifting the characters.
Prompt #16
Change the ages of the characters. If you’re writing a story of the friendship between three teenage girls, turn them into septuagenarians. As above, don’t change what happens in the story. Simply change the ages of the people involved.
(Note from Charlene: Again for the clone writers. How do you imagine Legolas, Snape, or Ardeth would be if they were suddenly a ten year old? Perhaps Snape’s wand or potion backfired?)
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