Write about a time you swallowed your pride and admitted to something you did that you regret. . . or a time you wish you had spoken up.
You did it, now feel free to own up to it. . . . you don’t have to actually tell anyone what you did or didn’t do . . . just write about it here and now.
Walk through your house, apartment, garage, barn . . . look at your knick-knacks, trinkets, souvenirs, keepsakes, treasures. . . pick one item to pass on to someone, perhaps a grandchild, or great-grandchild, or a beloved friend. Write about a special object you want to give to someone in the future.
You can respond to this prompt as your fictional character would respond, or write as if you are going to give this item to someone.
” . . . [my] profession, like anyone’s, requires constant innovation if it is to remain fresh. I feel alive when I’m immersed in my work—when I’m fully employed, as Leonard Cohen says, as a songwriter, ‘You have to keep cracking yourself open or you become a parody of yourself. ‘” —Roseanne Cash in an interview by Geoffrey Himes, “The Long Way Home, Smithsonian, November 2014
Note from Marlene: How about you? What keeps you immersed in your work? If your writing has hit the doldrums, how about mixing it up? If you usually write memoir, try fiction. If you are a fiction writer, try poetry. If you want ideas for freewrites, click here for writing prompts.
We’ve been working on character development on The Write Spot Blog. Your character could be fictional, based on a real person or someone in your memoir.
Kurt Vonnegut says to “make your character want something.” There are several ways to go about this.
Have your character do something unexpected . . . something that surprises everyone and weave in a problem.
You can put your conservative character in an improv situation where he/she has to rap or act in a scene.
Your male character might find himself on stage, learning how to hula or belly dance.
Your female character might find herself in a lumberjack contest.
Have your wild character volunteer to help with bingo in an assisted facility.
Have your character do something unusual.
Remember these are freewrites, where you write freely for 12 to 15 minutes. This doesn’t mean you have to use these character vignettes in your novel, essay or memoir. Have fun playing around with characters.
Have fun making your character uncomfortable, make him or her squirm. Worms on a fishing pole come to mind.
Now, here’s how to really get into the heart of your character:
What does your character want? What gets in the way?
For prompts on character development, take a look at:
Character development, discovering characters, prompt #132
Flesh out your character, prompt #131
Other character’s point of view, prompt #109
Grow your characters, prompt #48
You can also type “character” in the search box on the Write Spot Blog for posts about character.
For this two-part prompt, we’re going to develop a character, either fictional or based on reality (especially if you are writing memoir).
How do writers develop characters? How do you get to know your character beyond their looks, their desires and where they went to school?
Step One: Give your character a hobby or an interesting job. The more unusual, the better. Bee-keeping? Needlepoint for a man. Bucking horses, art aficionado, chemist, skywriter, laundromat manager, tornado chaser. You can look up unusual jobs that pay well by clicking here, such as: Cruise ship entertainer, ice cream taster, human statue, hot dog vender, dog groomer, personal shopper, funeral director.
Sketch how your character might spend an hour of their work day, or hobby time: gathering honey, purchase yarn and patterns, ranch and corrals, visits to art galleries and museums, mixing potions in the basement. You might paint a picture what an hour of their job looks like: what do they see, who do they interact with, what do they think while working.
Spend some time with this before going to the next step.
Step Two: Interview your character as a journalist would. Stymied? Look at interviews in magazines, newspaper articles or look online and see what others have done.
You can interview your character from Prompt #131, or create a new character.
We’ll continue with character development with the next prompt.
Skywriting photo by Breana Marie
You can use this prompt for fleshing out your fictional characters or for characters in your memoir.
In works of fiction, we think of characters. When writing memoir, we think real people. But, when you write about real people, they become characters in a story.
With this prompt, you can create character profiles for the real people in your life and for your fictional characters.
Prompt: Make a three-column list. Label the first column “What I know,” the second, “How I know it” and the third, “How I show it.”
First column – create a list with one or two-word descriptions about the character. Second column – write down how you know the particular characteristics.
For example, if the person is known to be cheap, in column 2, you could write, “brings own teabags to restaurants.” Or, “carefully saves paper bags for lunch, been using the same bag for six months.”
Third column, How I Show It: Jot down short notes about how you might convey the characteristics to a reader. In the case of the cheap friend who brings his teabag to restaurants, you might write, “Scene: character pulls out several teabags from jacket pocket, just before entering restaurant.”
Your turn: Bring your characters by showing vivid details about their everyday habits.
This prompt was inspired from The Writer magazine, June 2005, “Frank Talk About Writing Your Memoir,” by Sol Stein
Guest Blogger Clara Rosemarda reveals how to write with depth and clarity.
Clara writes:
Many years ago I took voice lessons from a master teacher. He worked with people
who believed they were tone deaf. I was one of those people. My voice seemed flat as the ground I walked on, and I was too embarrassed to sing unless I was in a group large enough to swallow the sound of my voice.
My teacher, robust and powerful, sat opposite me on the floor of his music studio. With full-bodied fingers born to make music he plucked the strings of his tambura going up and down the scale. Then he sounded a note and had me repeat it. At first I couldn’t reproduce the exact sound, but after a few tries and great concentration, I was able to. He told me I had a good voice which was a surprise to me. Once I got the hang of it, whenever I missed a note, he looked straight at me with his burning brown eyes, and asked where I had gone. Then he’d have me try again, and again, until I finally got it.
These few lessons taught me that the problem was not with my voice, but my inability to stay focused and present. Although I was capable of deep concentration in many other areas, the life-long belief that I couldn’t sing disrupted my ability to listen and to replicate what I heard. Frightened that I would get it wrong, I tried to think my way through instead of trusting that if I listened I would be able to repeat the sound.
Even though I don’t plan on giving a recital in Carnegie Hall or anywhere for that matter, I do enjoy singing now for the pure pleasure of it. Most importantly, I no longer consider myself tone deaf. I have developed the ability to concentrate when I’m singing, to listen deeply, and to be present with the sounds. When you are of two minds, neither one can be used to its fullest.
The same is true with writing. When your mind is concentrated on a single thought or image, when you ARE the writing, and not jumping ahead of yourself, or thinking of HOW you are writing, you will write with depth and clarity.
In the initial creation, all that is required is that you put pen to paper and keep your hand moving. Stay with your original thought, rather than allowing the editor to sit on your shoulder telling you not to say that, or how stupid this is, or what makes you think you’re a writer? To sound a clear note, you cannot be of two minds; your mind must be fully present and focused on a single point.
EXERCISES:
CLARA ROSEMARDA M.A. is an evocative writing teacher, poet, memoirist, intuition counselor, and workshop leader. She has been in private practice in Santa Rosa, California for over thirty years where she works with beginning as well as mainstream writers. Clara teaches workshops at Santa Rosa Junior College and internationally. In her private sessions as well as her teaching she helps people connect to and act from their most authentic selves. She was co-creator and coordinator of the popular writers’ program, The Writer’s Sampler, of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Her prose and poetry are published in literary journals and anthologies. She is co-author and co-editor of the anthology, STEEPED: In the World of Tea (Interlink Publishing, 2004). Clara has two poetry chapbooks: “Doing Laundry” (a letterpress limited edition, Iota Press, 2013) and “Naked Branches” (WordTemple Press, Small Change Series, 2014).
Note from Marlene: If you have a chance to take a workshop with Clara. . . do it! I did and it was a transformative experience.
Pretend we’re at a party, sitting together talking quietly. Then you see someone you know and you want to tell me about that person. They can’t hear us. What will you tell me about that person?
Or: Imagine any two people having a conversation about a third person.
With this prompt, you can practice writing dialogue, revealing more about the conversants than the object of their discussion.
Remember what Ted A. Moreno said in yesterday’s quote, “Making a pronouncement, judgment or criticism about someone else reveals little about them, but reveals much about you.”
We’ll expand upon these characters with the next prompt on The Write Spot Blog.
Today’s prompt: If I didn’t care what anyone thought . . .
Gather your supplies. Pen, pencil, paper and/or computer fired up. Set your timer for 12-15 minutes and write. Go for it!
Photo by Breana Marie
Today’s writing prompt: Color.