{"id":3551,"date":"2015-08-14T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T08:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=3551"},"modified":"2015-08-11T16:19:16","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T23:19:16","slug":"what-if-prompt-178","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/what-if-prompt-178\/","title":{"rendered":"What if? Prompt #178"},"content":{"rendered":"

What if you start from reality and then use “worst case scenario” to do some writing?<\/p>\n

Here’s how it could work: Recall a time when you desperately wanted something. Could be a good grade on a test, or a good health check-up, or the biopsy comes back negative, or a divorce, or the cute guy\/girl to notice you, or a good job, or any job.<\/p>\n

Just choose a moment when you really wanted something. Now, shift . . . as you write about this desire, this longing. . . the narrator becomes a character in a story. We’re no longer talking about “you.” We’re focusing on A Character Who Wants Something.<\/p>\n

\"Down<\/a>Next, as you write, throw in some curve balls, some roadblocks. Give that character an obstacle to overcome. . . the worst case scenario. What is the worst thing that could happen?<\/p>\n

For example, the character fails an important test, doesn’t get into college, can’t get a job, becomes homeless. . . keep going. . . what is the worst thing that happens?<\/p>\n

Or, the biopsy comes back negative. It’s cancer. Lots of doctor appointments. Sleepless nights. The character feels betrayed by his\/her body. Lots of decisions. Surgery? Chemotherapy? Radiation? Keep going. What happens?<\/p>\n

What if He wants a divorce, but She doesn’t. There are children involved. The divorce happens. He happily dances off into the sunset. What if She falls apart? She can’t function. Can’t get up in the morning. Gives her children cereal for dinner with orange juice because there is no milk. What if she sinks lower and lower and then . . . what happens?<\/p>\n

Prompt:<\/strong> Start with something real, creating a character who has a problem, a need, a desire. Then. . . what if?<\/p>\n

Inspired from July\/August 2015 issue of Poets & Writers magazine, “Preparing for the Worst,” by Benjamin Percy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if you start from reality and then use “worst case scenario” to do some writing? Here’s how it could work: Recall a time when you desperately wanted something. Could be a good grade on a test, or a good health check-up, or the biopsy comes back negative, or a divorce, or the cute guy\/girl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,6,105,329,342,10,16,11],"class_list":["post-3551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prompts","tag-freewrite","tag-freewrites","tag-just-write","tag-the-write-spot","tag-the-write-spot-blog","tag-writing-freely","tag-writing-prompt","tag-writing-prompts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-Vh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3555,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3551\/revisions\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}