The following prompt is by Mary Jane Nordgren of Writers in the Grove and is a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
This is a simple or complicated prompt. Use it as you wish.
Wind
The following prompt is by Ann Farley, member of Writers in the Grove, and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
Wake your characters up. What is their first thought upon waking? What surfaces?
Do they remember a dream? Have a plan of action? Face a fear?
The following prompt is by Bev Walker, Writers in the Grove member, and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
Put your character in a favorite chair. Describe them in the chair and why this is a favorite.
It’s the half way point in NaNoWriMo and our Prompt-a-Day project is also half way through, hopefully inspiring you to look at your writing and characters in a new way.
Writers in the Grove now has 10 members participating. One participated last year, so this is a huge leap and we are so proud of everyone.
Because our group is so diverse in writing subject matter, age, and skills, we’ve made a few adjustments to the NaNoNoWriMo guidelines. Those that are willing to stick with the word count as a score card are continuing to do so, report in to NaNoWriMo’s check in for the region. Those who are intimidated by such accounting have committed to write for a minimum of an hour a day.
The same challenges that face the word count writers face the timed writers. What to write, how to say it, self-doubt, self-worth, and the dark cloud of wonder about how this will ever amount to something. The challenge is to let all of that go and just write. Edit on December 1, but for November, just write and see what happens.
We’ve heard from several people that their goals of plotting first went by the wayside as their characters took over. Now they are pantsing it, just writing by the seat of their characters’ pants, as one described it. “I just hang onto my keyboard and hope they take this thing somewhere.”
In the Portland region, we are getting closer and closer to 16 million words for those keeping score. That’s amazing.
To keep the momentum going, we’ve put together some guides and helpful resources and wanted to share them with you.
Novels aren’t written by muses who come down through the ceiling and shoot magic through your fingers and out onto your laptop’s keyboard. Before NaNoWriMo, some teensy part of me still believed that because writing is a creative act, it should feel easy. But fairies don’t write novels. They’re written with one simple equation:
Time + Work = Novel
Stephanie Perkins on NaNoWriMo Blog on the rewards of not giving up on your story
The following articles and guides should help you get to the half-way point, or help you through the rest of your month long writing experiment. It is an experiment. Sometimes you know where you are going, and sometimes you have no idea, and sometimes, both are true. Edit on December 1 but keep writing through the month and see where it takes you.
Along the way, hopefully the following will help, inspire, and motivate you.
The following prompt is by Gretchen, a Writers in the Grove member, and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
Put a hat on your character.
What would it look like?
Why would they have a hat put on them?
Would they wear it?
Describe the hat, the situation, and the character’s reaction.
The following prompt is by Susan Schmidlin, member of Writers in the Grove, and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
Stop your characters in their tracks to admire a sunset that takes their breath away.
Describe the moment in meticulous detail using all of your senses.
The following prompt is by Marilyn Schmidlin of Writers in the Grove and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
What if the Internet was never created?
The following prompt is a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
The following was written by Writers in the Grove member, Lorelle VanFossen, inspired by Prompt: Write About a Dream.
He says he doesn’t dream. Never. No memories of dreams. Ever.
He lies.
I awake to find him jumping on the bed, hitting the wall. “I got it! I got it!” He shouts at shadows.
“Rough night last night?”
“Nope. Slept like a baby.”
He lies.
Woke to murmuring sounds, cursing. He’s kneeling on the floor picking up invisible things from the floor, carefully placing each on his naked lap. I vaguely recall spilling a box of straight pins onto the carpet a week ago.
“You were up in the night picking things off the floor.”
“No, I wasn’t. I was fast asleep.”
He lies.
After a long international flight home from a business trip, he discussed engineering specs with me in bed. In France, he tried to straighten the pictures bolted to the wall. On Orcas Island, shadows brought screams of something in the tent. After his grandmother died, he ripped the bed apart, me in it, screaming and looking for her.
“You talked in your sleep again last night.”
“I don’t do that.”
“You do. You do so often.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.”
He doesn’t believe me.
He lies.
The following prompt is by Maria Locatell, a Writers in the Grove member, and a part of our Prompt-a-Day project to support NaNoWriMo during November 2015. Each prompt was generously donated by our Writers in the Grove members. You are welcome to take this prompt in any direction you wish.
You or your character tiptoe around personality conflicts in groups of friends.
Why?
Writers in the Grove 