Category: Prompts

  • Setting The Mood. Prompt #49

    Prompt #48 was about how to “Grow Your Character.”  We’ll talk about location as character (exterior and interior) in this post and how to set the mood, or the tone of the scene.

    Let the reader know right away where the scene is happening, include details such as place, year, season, weather, and perhaps time of day. Not in an information dump, rather, weave in these details.

    Furniture tells a lot about a person. Sparse? Elegant? Are there cooking utensils on the kitchen counter?  Neat and tidy? Cluttered?

    The city (setting) can be a character in the story. Examples:  Dashiell Hammett and San Francisco, Lisa Scottoline and Philadelphia.

    The Christmas tree in The Nutracker becomes a character as it expands.

    As you write details about the setting and location, try to use dialogue and action. Think Casablanca and the Maltese Falcon.

    Elements of setting the mood:

    Where does this scene take place?

    City (real or mythical), urban, suburban, small town, hamlet, metropolis

    Time of day

    Season

    Weather can match mood of story

    Furniture

    Example of a freewrite, using details to set the mood:

    Martha pulled back the Coventry lace curtains, squinting past the newly pruned rose bushes, past the edged lawn and noted the weather. She raised her coat collar high above her ears, and picked up her fur-lined gloves from her bureau. One more look in the mirror to check if her seams were straight. It wouldn’t do to meet Monsieur Blanchard looking like a two-bit whore.

    She walked downstairs.

    “Good night, Father. Don’t wait up. I’ll be rather late.”

    Mr. Edmonton lowered his reading glasses and glanced at his daughter.

    “Setting out in this weather, are you?”

    “Yes, Father, I have an important client to meet.”

    “I don’t like the looks of this. Where are your rubbers? You aren’t dressed appropriately. You’ll catch your death.”

    “I’m fine, Father. You worry too much.” She brushed his bald head with her lips and was out the door before he realized a limo had stopped in front of their flat.

    Your turn:  Write details about setting and location, using dialogue and action.

    For more prompts on location:

    A place where you find satisfaction.  Prompt #25

    Physical location and action and to describe emotion state  Prompt # 12
    Favorite place form childhood. Prompt #11

    Location, or place as a character   Prompt #8

    Coventry bottom hem

    Photo of hem of Coventry lace curtain

    Marlene C

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  • Grow your characters. Prompt #48

    Grow your characters.

    For the next three writing prompts, we’re going to build our repertoire, so that we’ll have characters, location and a problem leading us to write a scene.

    One step at a time.

    First step:  Write a brief description of character or characters.  If  you have a work in progress, use this time to discover something new about your characters. If writing memoir, same thing . . . find a new way to describe character.  Include flaw or flaws.

    Example:  Self-doubt, what would be challenging to character?  What does the character fear? What big events molded character? Character’s likes and dislikes.  What drives character? How does character react to pressure? Give your character a personality quirk, add internal conflict. These examples are from Sheldon Siegel’s 2011 talk at Writers Forum of Petaluma.  Sheldon Siegel is one of my favorite authors.

    Need more ideas? Fill in the blanks. Answer these questions for each of your characters.

    Character’s name
    Nickname

    Personality trait character is most proud of.

    How did character get this trait?

    What do people like least about character?

    What habit would character like to change?

    If someone looked in character’s bathroom garbage right now, what would they find?

    What scent does character like and what does it remind him/her of?

    What scares the character?

    Answer these questions for each of your characters (whether fictional or real). Real people become “characters” in your story once you start writing about them.

    For more prompts about character:

    Develop Character, put your character in an unusual situation and see what happens – Prompt #4

    Interview Character – Prompt #6

    Your Character Has A Surprise Secret – Prompt #7

    Marlene C

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  • Things you fear. Prompt #47

    Make a list of things you fear or have feared.

    Using items from your list, write a story, poem or essay.

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    Marlene C

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  • Yellow Submarine – Prompt #46

    The Beatles were a hit sensation on the Ed Sullivan show 50 years ago, 1964. Write about The Beatles, a band you like, a catchy tune, 50 years ago, 50 years from now or 1964. Or write about Yellow Submarine.

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    Marlene C

  • Essence of you. Prompt #45

    Step 1. Make a list of significant events that have happened in your life. Start with the year you were born . You can list important dates such as the year you graduated, got married, started jobs, vacations. Also, list emotional highs and lows:  betrayals, losses, inspirations, revelations, epiphanies.

    Step 2. Choose specific years from this list and research historical events that happened during those years.

    Step 3.  From your lists: Choose an event that you think people would want to know more about.  Or, choose events that capture the essence of you.

    Step 4: Write about the event. Include specific details and use anecdotes.* Tie in your personal events with historical events. For example:  My junior high friends and I swiveled on cherry-red stools at Woolworth’s in 1962 in San Francisco, not realizing that folks with certain colored skin were not allowed the same privileges in other parts of the world.

    *Anecdote:  A short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature.

    Next step:  Turn this freewrite into a personal essay.  For ideas about personal essay, click on the Just Write category on The Write Spot Blog. 

     

    Lighting the path for reflection

     

     

    Marlene C

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  • Who knows more about you than you? Prompt #44

    Imagine a room full of people, they are looking at a speaker behind a podium. They want to know more about the topic. In a way, they want to be entertained, even though it’s a somber occasion.  They are talking about you . . . in the past tense.

    Who knows more about you than you?  Who best to talk about the essence of you, than you?  For today’s prompt, write about you. Provide enough information so the reader or the person in that room has a view of your life.  Write about high points, achievements, life markers. Write about what is important to you.

    You can make a list in chronological order of events that have shaped you.

    You can look up various years and discover what historical events took place in particular years. Write what your life was like during those historical events. Did they affect you?

    Today’s prompt:  Write about you. We can call it Life Changing Events or The Chronicles of [insert your name here].  Or we can call it your eulogy.

    remember old timey

     

    Marlene C

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  • What trolley did you get on? Prompt #43

    When using prompts for writing, you can answer from your personal experience, or from your fictional or real character’s point of view. Feel free to let your imagination meander.

    If you only know where the trolley you got on would take you . . .  What trolley did you get on, and where did it take you? What other trolleys were running then? What if you had taken one of them?  Not had kids, had kids, chose to live on the Atlantic instead of Pacific, gave up art or gave up law, married him/her or didn’t. Tell us about your trolley.

    Prompt:  What trolley did you get on?

    Marlene C

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  • I stand on the edge of . . . Prompt #42

    When using the freewrite style of writing . . . write freely with no worries about the end result. The editor that sits on your shoulder, the inner critic. . . out the door.  Give ’em the boot. Not invited to this party.

    It’s not about the writing . . . it’s about the process.

    The process of letting go. Trust yourself. Go with your imagination. Go with what’s on your mind.

    Today’s writing prompt: I stand on the edge of . . .

    Marlene C

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  • How to write fiction based on fact. Prompt #41

    Part Two of how to write fiction based on fact.  Part One is Prompt #40.

    Alla Crone-Hayden began one of her first historical novels with this opening line:

     On the cold Sunday of January 9, 1905, the pallid sun hung over the rooftops of St. Petersburg trying to burn its way through a thin layer of clouds.

     The weather matches the mood of character, of story.  Perhaps draws you in.  Maybe you want to know more   .  .  .  does the sun succeed in burning through?

     Second sentence:

     By two o’clock in the afternoon the dull light had done little to warm the thousands of people milling in the streets.

    The second sentence answers the unasked question about the sun. Notice the word choices:  cold, pallid sun, thin, dull light . . . words match the mood or tone of the day/event.

    Alla used weather to match the narrator’s mood. The weather matches the tone of the story. It’s probably not going to be a pretty story. It’s probably going to be gritty.

    Writing Prompt:  Take a pivotal event from your life and write it as fiction.  Suggestions:

    Use weather to mirror your narrator’s emotions.

    Add any details you want. . . whether they really happened or not. Remember, you are writing fiction based on a true event.

    Here are some lines you can start with:

    In the early morning light, while still calm and quiet. . .

    The sun played peek-a-boo . . .

    Just as day was fading into night . . .

    I could feel the storm gathering . . .

    The sky opened and rain bellowed down . . .

    Sunset, that quiet time of day, good for reflection . . .

    Mid-afternoon, hot sun beating down . . .

    Mint julep time, or as Granny/Grandpa used to say . . .

    You get the idea. . . use weather or time of day to match the mood of your story.

    For brilliant fiction based on fact, check out Alla Crone, author of Captive of Silence, Winds Over Manchuria, and more.

    Marlene C

  • Make a list of pivotal events. . . Prompt #40

    Today’s Prompt is Part 1 of 2.  Part 2 is “How to Write Fact Based on Fiction,” Prompt #41.

    Part 1

    Make a list of pivotal events in your life. Those times when, at night, you were not the same person you were in the morning.  By day’s end, you were a different person.  Just write a list.

    When you are finished writing the list:  take something from your list and write the details . . . as you remember them.  You can be as detailed, or as general as you want to be.

    Write about an event that altered your life:  all the gritty details. . . be as honest and as genuine as you can. Bleed onto the page.

    Part 2 will be the next prompt post.

    Marlene C

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