writing prompts

Still looking for some NaNoWriMo inspiration. Here are 5 more writing starters to get you creating.

16. Head to your local bookstore or library with a friend and your writing journal. Take 2 envelopes and lots of small pieces of paper. For 5 minutes wander the store and write random novel titles on the small pieces of paper and put them in your envelopes. At the end of 5 minutes, exchange envelopes. Dip in and pull out a title and brainstorm a story that would go with those words. Maybe you could use the words as a line of dialogue to begin your story or in the opening sentence. Keep playing until one story starts to claim your full attention. Start writing.

17. Begin your story with your character in motion—driving, running, flying, riding. What is your character running from? What is your character running to?

18. You’re walking home with a friend after dark.  When you look at her, her eyes reflect light like a cat’s.

19. Your character loses a backpack/ purse/briefcase containing one thing that his or her future depends upon.

20. Free write around one or all of the following words: box, watch, garden, window, ship

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug.”  Mark Twain. 

Here’s the next instalment for NaNoWriMo plotters. Have fun!

11. Play with the word “needle.” How many different needles can you visualize? Put one or two of them in your character’s hands or just out of reach and see what happens—someone away from home for the first time sewing on a button, fearing a dentist’s needle, needles clacking while heads roll… Or have your character needled or needle someone else.

12. “I never start a novel until I’m satisfied with the title.”  Ed McBain.  Work on your title until it’s right.  It’s the cup you are working to fill.

13. Look at your favourite CD cover.  Hide everything but 1 square inch.  What do you see?

14. Write an opening sentence in which something or someone falls.  What happens when they get up–or don’t!

15. Turn off everything and try writing in silence or change your background sounds.  Try jazz, blues, Benedictine monks, Mozart.

 “When you are telling the story you are meant to tell, you are actually going to feel the truth of it, and in feeling that truth, your spirit is going to soar.  When you are telling that story the way it needs to be told…you are going to feel that, too.”  Elizabeth George. 

More ideas for NaNoWriMo writers and other creative folk.

6. Think of the skills you have: putting up a tent, downhill skiing, solving crosswords, cooking. Add these skills and interests to your characters or make learning them essential for your main character’s survival.

7. Think of the places that you know well: a neighbourhood, a city, a school, a cruise ship, a gym, a museum, a library. Now imagine them as places where your characters can fall in love or be shocked or frightened in. They can be places where a murder takes place or where people reveal secrets.

8. Decide what frightens your characters or grosses them out. Make sure this appears in your story somewhere (think Indiana Jones and the snakes).

9. What does your character value the most? Is it an object like a ring or a photograph? Or is it a reputation for honesty or an influential position or the chance to find true love? How can you put what your character values most at serious risk in your story?

10. Elmore Leonard said, “I once named a character Frank Matisse, but he acted older than his age; and for some reason he wouldn’t talk as much as I wanted him to.  I changed his name to Jack Delany and couldn’t shut him up.”  Try renaming one of your characters and see what happens.

“Nighttime is really the best time to work.  All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep.”  Jessamyn West. 

Here are the first 5 writing starters for the week.

 1. Find a place where you can do some serious people-watching. Pick three strangers and, one by one, imagine them saying good-bye. Decide what they are saying good-bye to–their homeland, their family, a lover, a job, a threat. What has happened to bring them to this moment? What lies ahead of them? Is the good-bye the beginning of their story or the end?

 2. Draw a map. It could be of a country, a city, an island, a kingdom, a space station. Add lots of details and place names. Now send your characters on a journey through the imaginary world you have just created, making sure that they get into lots of trouble along the way.

 3. Start with the sound of sirens. How does that sound affect you? What do you imagine has happened? Where has it happened? Who is affected?

 4. Have your character find or receive something small enough to be held in two hands. Now create a story around that small thing that turns your character’s life upside down. Think of Bilbo and a ring, Arthur and a sword, Snow White and an apple.

 5. Free write using one or all of the following words: sage, match, corner, light, border.

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”  Samuel Johnson