Often we have the itch to write, but the muse just doesn’t hit us. Put more bluntly, “we got nothing to write about” or nothing is hitting us.
That’s a tough feeling when we want to write, but have no ideas. I often see it in my students after they turn in their first story. And for them, it’s not only that they want to write… they have to write. No second story? Then no workshop. And then no finished story. And then failing the class. (That’s never happened, but I still sometimes see the panic in their eyes when they realize they have seven weeks to write a story and seemingly nothing to write about).
That’s where writing prompts can help.
Here are three that I use. They are usually for starting short stories, but I can see where they could be used to start a novel or even a novel chapter that needs a jump start.
Here’s three possible scenarios. I keep them intentionally vague so students can make them their own.
1. Your character is in a line. (grocery store line, line at the bank, waiting room at the dentist, line at the soup kitchen, etc). Being in the line brings its own frustrations (and likely interactions with/eavesdropping on strangers), but the character is also mulling over some deeper problem going on in his/her life. Something with real consequence.
(Sometimes I’ll even challenge students with… “Can you write the entire story while the character is in line?”)
2. Your character is somewhere unfamiliar (business travel, vacation, another country, etc). The unfamiliarity of the place brings its own challenges (surface conflict), but your character is still carrying the troubles of home. The character doesn’t have to be alone, but like in the first prompt, they are mulling over/troubled by what’s happening on the home front.
3. Your character is returning to their childhood home after a long absence (military service, living in another city, college, etc). The greetings are already over, and the character is back in their childhood bedroom looking around at what’s the same/what’s different. Unresolved conflicts of the past come up. You’ll need to take some time to figure out why the character is home (funeral, wedding, little sister’s high school graduation, sudden unemployment, etc)
If you find my blog posts instructive, please consider purchasing a copy of my new book of short stories, The Neighborhood Division, as a donated payment for the "class."
Given where your students are at in life, I very they overwhelmingly pick number 3.
ReplyDeleteI teach at a community college, so get a more diverse range of students in age and experience. The prompts they usually go with are 1 and 3. I have seen some interesting stories come from them.
Delete