Author: Charlottesville Writing Center

Charlottesville and central Virginia's most celebrated writing resource center. Founded in 1996, the CWC is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that continually raises the bar for community stewardship in art and education every day.

Writing Prompt 1/24/13

Make a list of everything you actually do when you can’t sleep.
Make a list of everything you actually could do when you can’t sleep.
Make a list of everything you would never do when you can’t sleep.

Think about these lists when you are creating characters. My guess is that some of your characters suffer from insomnia.

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The Charlottesville Writing Center 2013

Writing Prompt 1/23/13

By the end of the day, make a list of interesting snippets of conversations you heard, scenes you saw, and your moods as they connect to what you heard/said and saw. Just hold onto that for a while. Do it for the next few days and check back at the end of those days and see if you can see a pattern.

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Writing Prompt 1/19/13

Think about some of your “favorite” pet peeves. Ask some friends if they have other pet peeves they are willing to tell you.

Write a list of several of them.

Pick one or two and start to frame a character (not yourself) around them. For example, a business executive who really dislikes lukewarm food. Or a movie producer who can’t stand when his son wears his shirt inside out. The sky is the limit here.

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Writing Prompt 1/17/13

Make a list of some really yummy foods that you like to eat. Assign those dishes/snacks to characters in a story or poem as part of their personality. Outline a few reasons why this character eats this or that. EG: the bland diet fits the person with poor digestion, eaten out of physiological necessity, but the character has always been kind of boring, one never to make decisions in relationships, or never to take vacations.

Play with it, and eat up!

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Writing Prompt 1/16/13

A recent Facebook status update read: “You could probably never even tell, but I am a closet ______.” Friends of the poster used the comment box to fill in the blank with some delightfully funny and off the wall possibilities for their friend, ranging from music-lover, to professional, to strange behavioral quirks. In this prompt, think about a character who is a “closet_____” and use that as the groundwork to build your character, or use this idea to add more dimension to your character.

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Writing Prompt 1/9/13

The Bible is a incredible repository for story/poem ideas. Each story is a metaphor with limitless ideas for retelling.

Place Lot’s wife at a school board meeting in Kansas.

Tempt Eve with a diamond ring rather than an apple.

Turn Job into a bus driver and give him a new set of tests to undergo.

 

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