Writers write for different reasons: some of us love a good story, others like the wordplay. For some, it's the rhythm of a sentence that drives us, while others need that emotional tug of the heartstrings. But for most of us, it's still about making sense out of black and white blobs on the page.
In today's prompt, we're going to take that literally.
Take a piece of paper and cut it up into small pieces, at least 24 of them. Write down the names of your favorite 4 movies, 4 characters, 4 places to visit, 4 items you'd take with you in case of a fire, 4 great quotes, and 4 flavors of ice cream. Put all the words in a hat. Pull out 4 pieces of paper. These words should combine to be the basis for your story.
For the movie titles, you must use the plot of that movie. For characters, an analogue of that character must appear in your story. For places to visit, that must be your setting. The items must be used (although you don't need the fire), the quotes must be said, and the flavors of ice cream must be tasted (although not necessarily in ice cream form). If you get more than one type (two plots for instance), then you must merge the two together.
Repeat the process to create a new story.
The more crazy your words are, the more exasperating this prompt will be. Fun times!
Wow! Really amazing idea! I'm always dying to think of a brand new topic but I always come up to clichés. It is really hard to think of a good topic but with this prompt, I can surely come up to a good and new topic. Really excited to try this trick. Thanks a lot!
Posted by: writing an essay | 11/05/2012 at 02:27 AM
PattiIt's funny you chose both those books, because I diekslid them both for probably the same reason: I couldn't stand the voice of the characters. I felt they were privileged and whining about it and that irked me. CIR was the worse of the two; I got to the end and thought, WAH! I read it when I was about the same age as Holden Caulfield, so I should have felt more connected to the story, but I didn't. But so many people love it, so maybe if I wrote the same basic story but without the aspects that bothered me I could appreciate it more. Just the act of attempting to rewrite it might help me see why other people do like the story.One Day was a little bit different egg I liked it more but I still diekslid the whiny voices. The biggest lack in that book, for me, was not being transported back to the days of my youth. Since the characters are close to my age and therefore, came of age around the same generational nuances as me, I should have felt connected to them, somehow. Rewriting it to give a better sense of those times might make it a better story for me. Now that I'm reading Writing the Breakout Novel, I can see what aspects of the story DO work well, things I didn't see when I was just reading it.I don't think this prompt was at all about rewriting things you didn't love as much as those you did, but I almost think it would be even more instructive to do the opposite rewrite the stories others loved and you didn't to reflect what you think was lacking. It certainly is interesting to think about how you might write a story differently from someone else.
Posted by: Eugenia | 09/14/2012 at 09:55 PM