The Writing Workshop

Writing Prompt: 5 Characters, 1 Locked Room

There's a TV trope called Locked in a Room, in which two or more characters who don't like each are trapped together for what appears (at least to them) to be an indefinite but lengthy amount of time. As such, conflict arises and the characters are forced to come to grips with their animosity. The more general use of this is the Bottle Episode.

Write a story in which five characters who already know each other (and possibly hate each other) are trapped in the same room.

Why is this story so much more difficult to write than it is to tape? Mostly because you're going to have to do a lot of dialogue choreography to make this story about more than just the description of wherever you've trapped them. Also, you've got 5 characters - making sure the reader understands whose talking when and keeping the plot moving along is going to be a pain. Since there's no movement, the plot will be basically completely emotionally driven. For writers who focus more on action, this prompt will be a challenge.

Writing Prompt: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

The origin of Spider-Man helped create a new type of superhero: instead of being just merely powerful, these poor saps had horrible lives. Peter Parker was bit by a radioactive spider and then tried to use his new powers to get some money, failing to stop a mugging when he easily he could have. The mugger then went on to kill Peter's Uncle Ben, his adoptive father. Spider-Man, ever after, believed in "With great power, comes great responsbility" and used his powers to help people.

Creating a didactic story (a story in which a lesson about life or morality is learned by the characters and is supposed to be absorbed by the readers) without sounding preachy is incredibly hard to do. And that's why we're going to try!

Write a didactic story.

Notice that in the Spider-Man origin, a story that's been barely altered when it appears in cartoons or movies but was originally written and published in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, that Spider-Man has to truly suffer something horrible to learn his lesson: the death of his father figure.

To avoid the preachy moral lessons, you still have to write a good story. Don't be afraid of destroying your character's body and soul before you build them back up again to create a better person. No deus ex machina will work here.

Writing Craft: The Basics of Plot

The basic plot structure is pretty easy to understand, but I hate to say it: most writers can't/won't/don't follow it as well as they should. There is something to be said for being experimental, but if you analyzed even the most experimental books from Joyce and Woolf, you'd still find the standard narrative plot structure underneath all of their experimentation.

(Now, this is definitely true for novels, but in short stories, you can get away with a little more deviance from the norm.)

As far as just what the basic plot structure is, here's a nice diagram:

The start of the story is the Exposition or Inciting Incident. This is basically the moment where the story begins - narratives, on the other hand, can begin anywhere. It's a rule of movie-making that you begin literally as late in the game as possible, to avoid backstory at all costs. Novelists tend to forget this rule - often to their novel's detriment.

This idea of starting late in the plot comes from an even older idea: in media res, meaning, in the middle of the story. A novel should begin after the plot has begun, or, at the very least, the moment the plot causes conflict for the main character(s). Why? Because you really only need a page or two of Exposition or setting the scene before the reader understands what's going on.

Next up is the Rising Action, essentially a slow build of plot twists, all leading to the Climax. Rising Action is pretty much easy to identify - it's the biggest part of the narrative structure and is basically everything from the beginning of the story until the point when the shit hits the fan. The goal here, for a writer, is literallymaking every scene lead to that Climax - that's the whole point of Rising Action. Each scene must increase the tension and conflict in some way. Otherwise, it doesn't belong in the book, since it's not "rising" the action.

The most important moment in the book is the Climax, which is the moment that decides the entire fate of the plot. The plot's problems are resolved here, the tension that's building in the Rising Action dissipates, and the characters (those that survive, of course) either get pushed towards their happy ending or, at least, their conclusive fates. Normally, the reader can see where everything is going from this point on. The major plot points are finally understood, and the mysteries have been solved.

Some novels end directly following the Climax, leaving little room for the Falling Action and the Resolution (or the Denouement). Others continue on for a while - there could be a flashfoward in time to reveal the characters' fates, or simply a suggestion of what happens to the characters once the reader leaves them. These moments are called the Falling Action and the Resolution, with the Resolution literally being the narrative's final scene.

Essentially, in modern stories, the Falling Action and the Resolution are combined to form probably only a chapter, perhaps less. Readers today have far less patience for a story with a long ending - they want to know what happens and then they want out. If the reader has already seen the plot points resolved, they're going to want the book's resolution to happen within the next 30 pages or so. Otherwise, they're going to get bored.

And that's really why the standard plot narrative structure is the backbone of all stories. Sure, you can play with the order (telling things out of order can be fun, but just remember to avoid backstory), but in the end, the reader needs to be able to still feel the Climax of the book. Without the Climax, the ending will be feel unearned to the reader, and the book's power to emote will be utterly diminished.

So, remember, plot stucture is good. Even when it gets annoying or hard to follow.

Writing Prompt: The Return

Returning home, returning to work after an absence, getting back to the basics are all common literary themes. That's because these moments happen in real life - the boomerang generation, for one, often returns home to their parents' house after graduating (and living alone at) from college. Mothers (and fathers!) return to work months after the birth of their child. Family members are reunited after the death of one of their own.

These returns are a favorite staple of literature because they create instant internal conflict for the characters - and often, in turn, create outward emotional struggles. Trepidation, fear, and overbearing nostalgia often accompany return trips.

Write a story about a return.

In this prompt, ask yourself, "What does a return mean to me?" You can simple and direct, like the examples above, or go more oblique and experimental, but the idea of returning to something should be present. After all, as the trite saying goes, you can't go home again.

Prompt: The Duel to the Death

Since pretty much the dawn of storytelling (yes, that's hyperbole, duh), people have loved to hear stories of duels to the death. Why? Pretty much since there's so much inherent drama going on. But also, I believe, because when someone chooses to partake in a duel to the death (actively chooses, not forced into it), then there's also character motivation there - why should someone do something that only gives them a 50-50 shot of surviving?

Write the story of a duel to the death.

So, in essence, your focus here is not only the plot, but making sure that the character motivations are believable. Even better? Set the story in the present day, where duels to the death are pretty much non-existent.

Prompt: The Reality Show Contestant

The reality show, whether it's The Amazing Race, The Hills, or The Real Housewives of Atlanta, will go down as one of the greatest pop culture gamechangers of the last ten years. I find it interesting that while we have lots of books by reality show contestants out there (don't get me started on Lauren Conrad), we really have yet to see a great literary work that portrays the fractured psyche these people must possess from having their lives and interviews edited into storylines for mass consumption.

So, why not do it yourself?

Write a story from the point of view of a reality show contestant. Show the effects the show has on the person, their fellow contestants/castmates, and their family and friends and how drastically their lives change.

Change always has inherent conflict, so focus both on that conflict and show us the difference between that person's multiple personalities - their original one, their show one, their real one after fame, and what happens to them when the spotlight disappears.

So, yeah, tragedy might be in order. Just don't kill everyone at the end like the Greek playwrights did.

Prompt: Scheherazade

Scheherazade is the narrator of One Thousand and One Nights, wherein each night, she tells a story so appealing that her ordered death has been put off for one more day.

Essentially, Scheherazade is a huge frame story, where her own story (of trying to outwit the king who will kill her if her stories stop being so damn interesting) is just as conflict-filled as the stories she tells. This is why One Thousand and One Nights is believed to have been created in the 9th century, and why it's still studied and read today. You've seen Aladdin, right?

Create a framed story, with at least three other complete stories interrupting the main story. Remember that the main story must also have conflict, so that the reader is not disappointed when returning from the stories-within-the-story to the actual main plot.

The basic genesis of this plot is why the characters are telling the stories. Chaucer, for example, had his characters be pilgrims on a long journey to Canterbury Abbey, wherein they each told tales that reflected who they were as people.

Prompt: The (Melo)Drama Queens

Melodrama (for most literary people) is the antithesis of good writing. It makes schlocky moments and force-feeds emotionally-charged gut punches, just for the sake of a false pull of the heartstrings.

But, really, what is the difference between melodrama and real drama? Essentially, it's that melodrama just feels forced. There's too much, it's not real. Think daytime soaps, and how outlandish some of those plotlines are. Especially, the whole, the kids who age from six to sixteen in a day thing (and then are played by actors in their twenties).

For today's prompt, take a scene of worthy of a daytime soap (a return from the dead, an evil twin, etc.) and turn it into a gut-wrenching story filled with true emotion. Your goal is to make the outlandish story believable, without ever resorting to fantastic elements.

If you need help with your inspirations, click here for TV Guide Canada's Top 10 Soap Opera Cliches.