10. May 2017

Mother's Day is this weekend, so I thought it would be appropriate to have a prompt about mother figures and mothering. Whether or not your character's mother is a part of your story, the shadow of her will undoubtedly affect who your character is in some way. So what's the deal with your character's mom? Is this relationship one of support or competition? Think of complicated mother/child relationships you've seen in other stories. What do boundaries look like? What does taking care of each...

03. May 2017

Many of us listen to music as we write. There are certain songs or artists that get us in a creative mood, and there are others that would disrupt the flow too much. But is there music that you associate with your story? If so, why is this? Does the tone match up? Do the lyrics remind you of your character's journey? Are you writing about another time period, and the music helps put you there? This prompt is a little different, because it's actually prewriting. In your notebook, write these...

26. April 2017

Have you ever seen that show Unlikely Animal Friendships? Dogs will be friends with lions and bears will be friends with giraffes. It's pretty fascinating, precisely because it is so unnatural. I've always enjoyed stories with unlikely friendships, but I hadn't played around much with writing my own until pretty recently while writing the sequel to The Closing Prophecy. I realized that these relationships are not only way more interesting than the expected friendships, but they're way more fun...

19. April 2017

This is one of those prompts where the first line is already done for you. Start with a character (or yourself) and the line "You aren't supposed to be here." Is this something spoken, or is it written by the narrator? What comes next? Is here "earth," and your character unexpectedly survived something horrific? Did your character get rejected from Yale, but he shows up to the classroom anyway? Is your character not supposed to be in the football player's locker room because she's an...

12. April 2017

Have you ever had a dream that stayed with you and you weren't sure why? What about a false memory or a moment of recognition that you know didn't actually take place? We've all been mistaken before-- your best friend's boyfriend wasn't really flirting with that other girl. That memory of your cousin stealing from the neighbor was actually a dream. The violent fight between your parents that you witnessed as a kid hadn't really gone down like that-- your imagination made up the part with the...

05. April 2017

When we think about what lead to a character's development or even our own development, I'm not sure if "sibling relationship" always appears on the list. But don't our brothers and sisters have a huge impact on how we see ourselves and the world? I remember reading somewhere that the biggest influence on who we become is not our parents or our friends, but our siblings, and I think there's a lot of truth to that. I have three sisters and a brother who passed away when I was two. If one of them...

29. March 2017

When we think of what impacts our lives and decisions, we often think of something tangible: a person we regularly interact with, our job, our pay check, our family. But often our choices and our self-concept are also defined by what's missing, or by who's missing. This missing piece floats in the background of our lives, rarely spoken of but just as real as something that is actually in front of us. Think of yourself or your character. What's missing in this person's life? Maybe what's missing...

22. March 2017

As someone who's afraid of everything, I think this prompt is really fun. Often what we fear does not match reality, and this exercise allows us to explore that. What's something that your character is afraid of? Write a scene where your character is exposed to their fear, but the expected result does not occur. Maybe a shared secret is not met with judgement, but understanding. Maybe just when they're sure the school bully is about to throw a punch, instead, he starts to cry. Maybe what...

15. March 2017

Welcome to our second Writing Wednesday! St. Patrick's Day is on Friday, and usually I'm not one for holiday-themed prompts, but I do think exploring the idea of "luck" can yield some rich material. What does it mean to be a "lucky person," anyway? Does it mean things just happen to work out for you, or is it more that that-- being born into a good family? Getting cancer, but NOT the fatal kind? Missing your flight on a plane that ends up crashing? When we think of what it means to be an...

08. March 2017

I'm excited about this! Every week, I'll be posting a writing prompt for people who want to get their creativity flowing. It doesn't matter how often you usually write-- this is for everybody. Get a journal and decorate it to your pleasing. Keep pictures of images that spark your imagination. (Or you could do this in a Microsoft document, but is that as fun?) Tailor each prompt to you and what you want to work on. Sometimes you may alter the prompt so it can be about your own life, and other...