characters

Prompt: Character Secrets and Relationships

The following prompt comes from the must-attend Be Writing Conference in Eugene, Oregon, presented by the WordCrafters writing group. It is a two part prompt and works best when done with a partner, though it may be done alone.

With your own character or select a personality or behavior characteristic from list one and a job description from list two and write about the resulting character using the prompt under these two lists:

List One: Personality and Behavior Characteristic:
- Pyromaniac
- Abused
- Humiliated
- Convicted
- Egotistical
- Kleptomaniac
- Lying
- Time Traveling
- Barbaric
- Bigoted
- Suspicious
- Curmudgeon
- Pompous
Job Descriptions:
- Kindergarten Teacher
- Doctor
- Baker
- Dairy Farmer
- Grocery Clerk
- Nurse
- Mother
- Truck Driver
- Housekeeper
- Janitor
- Accountant
- Lawyer
- Bank Clerk

Describe the following for your character, keeping it fairy concise:

Name.
Description as if pointing to the person across the room.
Where does this person spend the majority of their time and why?
What is their deepest secret, something they might never tell anyone including their best friend?

The next step is to either do another character or do this with someone else.

Share your characters with each other described in one to three sentences.

Answer the questions:

How would these two people know each other?
How did they meet?
What do they have in common?
What is there relationship? Is it friend, acquaintence, co-worker, family?
How does this relationship change your characters?

Possible

The following is by William Stafford, a member of Writer’s in the Grove.

He really did believe it could be possible.

He had been collecting possible all during his 70 plus years. He had stacked them in the corner of his room and the stack was about 4 feet high. The weight must be considerable.

He was always wanting to dig through it, but had a hard time. There wasn’t any light in the room, except for the light coming through the small gap at the bottom of the door and when that light was out it was a black, black place.

He knew that the basis of his possible was prejudice. He also knew that common consensus was prejudice was synonymous with racial problems, well he thought that was sin ominous. Prejudice was learned and perpetuated by all of those surrounding the younger generations and through actions and words planting bad seeds. We can be prejudiced with food, politics, weather, color, smell and almost anything else that we face daily.

What he wished for was a new plan.

He wanted everyone in the world to get a box and each morning write those things that they were prejudiced about, on a piece of paper. Vow not to be that way today. Fold that paper and put it in the box. At the end of each month everyone in the community met at a central location and burn those boxes. He hoped the heat would sooner or later end prejudice and end his search for possible.

The Car Had a Mind of Its Own

The following was written by Writers in the Grove member, Lorelle VanFossen, inspired by Prompt: The Haven, to write an anthropomorphic description of something.

The car had a mind of its own. Warm morning starts were appreciated, purring with the welcome strokes of affection. Cold mornings were greeted with angry whines, coughs, shutters, and sighs, none too eager to leave the comfort of the cave.

On the flat, it raced and roared, a lion exploding from a crouch among the grasses with a burst of speed, seizing the nape of the road with blood thirsty glory.

Hills made it gasp and wheeze, an old man dragging himself, cane in one hand, banister in the other, up each dreaded step, questioning each one, evaluating the true reward at the top.

Downhill, I swear the car held its arms over its head and shouted “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” like a child tearing down a wintry hill barely holding onto the cardboard under its body. Downshifting to control the free fall brought little result save billowing clouds of blue smoke out the back in protest of being called home for dinner when there was fun still to be had.

The job of the little car was to get me there and back safely. It took its responsibilities seriously, never letting me forget how hard it worked for me. Thus, it deserved its name: Martyr.

Prompt: The Haven

The following prompt comes from the book “Beasts in My Belfry” by Gerald Durell from chapter 2, “A Lust of Lions.” The following describes an official building at Whipsnade Zoo in the UK, one of the first zoos to attempt to provide “natural” quarters for their wildlife, and his adventures as a young man working there, determined to become a wildlife specialist.

The nerve centre of the section was a small, tumble-down hut hemmed in by a copse of tangled elder bushes. The hut wore a toupee of honeysuckle at a rakish angle, practically obscuring one of its two windows and so making the interior dark and gloomy. Outside it sported a battered notice-board on which was the euphemistic title “The Haven.” The furnishings were monastic in their simplicity – three chairs in various stages of decay, a table that rocked and jumped like a nervous horse when anything was planed on it, and a grotesque black stove that crouched in one corner pouting smoke through its iron teeth and regurgitating embers in quite incredible quantities.

The prompt was to describe something, preferably an inanimate object, using anthropomorphic descriptions. Make us see the character of the thing.

The Fiery Red Head

The following is by member, Lorelle VanFossen, and based upon the Prompt: I Fit the Description.

Brakes squealed on the street net to where we walked. I glanced over to watch a car jam in front of another to reach a parking spot.

“Asshole.” It slipped out unconsciously.

The client walking next to me, a middle aged man with a problem he determined I could solve during one just completed lunch meeting, responded, “I just love red heads. Such fiery tempers. That’s why I hired you on the spot. With hair the color of yours, I knew you had what it took to get the job done.”

If I didn’t need the money, I would have called him an asshole, too. Instead, I made a mental note to check the bathroom trash at home to retrieve the box of hair dye.

– – – – – – – –

We define ourselves to differentiate, then expect society to change. I live and work in an industry where the freedom of speech can be a death sentence and the invisibility of the virtual world comes with a magnifying glass.

Prompt: The Party Conversation

The prompt this week was to imagine observing two people in a party or large social event having an emotional interaction, displaying physical signs of frustration, distress, anxiety, etc. It looks normal, but isn’t. Show us so we can tell what is going on.

November 21 Prompt – Leaving Home

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.

Your character or character’s child leaves home for the first time to kindergarten, college, army, or even a sleep away camp.

November 18 Prompt – Good and Evil

The following prompt is by Everett Goodwin 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.

Put your character(s) in a situation where they have to explain the difference between good and evil and how it guides their choices.

Prompt: From Two Points-of-View

The prompt was based upon a fictional perspective between the thoughts of a dog and a cat, telling the same story from two points of view. Other suggestions were with a doctor and patient, husband and wife, police and prisoner, and mother and child.

The children’s book, I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat by Donald Hall is a good example of a story told by alternating points of view. A famous alternating point of view is Gary Larson’s famous Farside comic strip featuring what the human says and what the dog hears.

The prompt is to tell a story from two opposite points of view.

Prompt: T-Shirt Said “Not Responsible for Lost or Stolen Virginity”

This prompt is based upon a news story about a person wearing a controversial t-shirt at a university sports game, created by a local sports bar.

“It was pretty much towards the end of the game when things were getting pretty exciting,” said fourth-year medical student Erin Avondet, who spotted the T-shirt. “I spotted it and at first I was just totally taken aback, just completely shocked. I didn’t know how to comprehend it.”

The shirt reads “We are not responsible for lost or stolen virginity!” which appears below the Blue Jay Bar logo.

“The big thing I perceived was the use of the word stolen. That obviously implies it’s just being taken away from you without your permission,” Avondet said.

Avondet posted the picture online and it has been shared thousands of times. She said many people share her disapproval of the message.

“There are so many people that are victims of rape, and I think having that open conversation, starting that conversation is important,” Avondet said.

The prompt was to write about a situation where your character is outraged about an insensitive t-shirt, garment, or situation. Discussing the prompt, we realized that there are layers here in writing such a character driven moment. There are times when a person is offended by something but must constrain their response due to social norms. We can’t throttle everyone we don’t agree with, and protect freedom of speech while promoting responsible behavior.