Here’s a list of seven more prompts to help you get to know your character, while also developing some new scenes for your story.
1. Warm Up: Five Words
Include the following words in a scene: phosphorescence, wonder, coral, poppy, inhale.
2. Images
Choose an image and use it to inspire a new story, or incorporate a new aspect of a setting into an existing story.
3. What would your character do? Places of Safety
Your character has a need to be alone, and so heads somewhere they consider safe; however, when they arrive they discover someone else is already there. Why is each character there, and what happens next?
4. Dreams
When your character was very young, what was one dream they had for their life? How close (or far) are they to/from that dream now?
5. Playlists
What is your character’s favourite ten songs? When and how did they first come to hear them? What memories do each of the songs evoke for your character?
Take it one step further and create a Spotify playlist for them; play it as you write your story.
6. Returning
Your character returns to a setting they encountered earlier in your story. How have they changed since the last time they saw this place? How do they see this place differently as a result?
7. Obituary
Write your character’s obituary. What has your character made of his or her life? Who has remembered him/her? Who attended the funeral? What memory does each attendee have of the deceased person?
Over to You
Which prompts will you experiment with first?
And remember, the hardest part about writing is often starting in the first place.
Just begin.
