You can write the challenge as long as you want, even if it leads to a short story or a longer work. But when we share them at the meeting, we need to remember there are more people with something to share. Because time is limited, we need to keep a reading to approximately 500 words or a couple of pages.
May 2020 Prompts:
1. Write a short story about your experiences with solitude.
2. Think of a situation that has currently got you stumped. Describe how one of your heroes would resolve it?
3. A diner in a swanky restaurant finds a worm in his salad and wants his dinner free; management finds his request excessive. Create an interaction between two characters written entirely in dialogue.
4. Pick a historical event that has always fascinated you. Write about it from the point-of-view of someone who wouldn’t have been mentioned in the history books.
Random Words:
Hotdog – Frozen – Dull – Particle — Snap
Exercise:
C. S. Lakin provides an eight-step checklist for creating perfect scenes. Using the eight steps listed below, create your own opening scene.
- Identify Its Purpose (If it doesn’t have one, start over.)
- Identify the High Moment (This will help identify the purpose.)
- Emphasize Conflict: Inner and Outer (Every scene should have either or both.)
- Accentuate Character Change (This helps to advance the story)
- Determine the POV (This should be the character with the most at stake.)
- Eliminate the Boring Stuff (Cut anything that doesn’t advance the scene’s purpose.)
- Perfect the Beginnings and Endings (Important to keep your readers reading.)
- Inject Texture and Sensory Details (Allows the reader to feel a part of your scene.)