Last month we had a few members who took up the writing challenges. Let’s see if more of you try them this month.
February Writing Prompts, Words, and Exercises:
Prompts:
- With respect to love, there is one thing I will never do again
- Two coffee shop regulars frequent the same store at the same time. One day they finally meet and share a table. What starts off as a casual conversation turns into much more.
- Clarence the Candymaker rubbed his hands gleefully. On February 14, he would introduce the world to a whole new kind of Valentine’s Candy.
- End your story with these words: I turned around and shrugged. There was nothing left to do, and besides, I had to go to work in the morning.
- Genre/Person/Problem prompt: Your genre: hardboiled crime / Your person: a fetish model / The problem: Time-travelers from the future have arrived, and they’re not very nice.
Words:
Deprive – virtue – linger – goofy – sample
Writing Exercise:
Showing Emotions through the Action/Reaction Cycle (C. S. Lakin)
Try using the action/reaction cycle to express your character’s behaviors and feelings in a story of your own choosing or using one of the prompts above.
The action/reaction cycle in writing follows a realistic flow of behavior.
Action > Reaction > Process > Decision
Here’s an example:
Joan hears a crash. (action)
She turns around to see what happened. (reaction)
She sees her favorite bowl lying on the floor and her cat sitting on the table where the bowl used to be. (process)
Joan cursed and put the chipped bowl further back on the table so it couldn’t fall again. (decision)