Literary – November 16

Writing prompt: If your 18-year-old antagonist could tell his or her current-age self one thing, what would that be?

Literary – November 12

Writing prompt: List  10 things your protagonist believes there are too few of in the world.

Literary – November 8

“I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.” -Dorothy Day, born this date in 1897. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is forced to rely on someone whose talk and actions are incongruent.

Literary – November 2

Writing prompt: Describe your protagonist’s emotional / internal reaction to getting chewed out by her/his boss for a serious and legitimate mistake s/he made. Then describe his/her physical / external reaction. Finally, describe what s/he thinks and feels about any dissonance between her/his internal and external responses.

Literary – November 1

Novelist Nelson Algren had three life rules: “Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.” Writing prompt: Write your protagonist’s three life rules.

Literary – October 29

Consider the early lives of your protagonist and your antagonist. Writing prompt: What does each most miss about being a child? What is each most glad to have left in childhood?

Literary – October 20

Writing prompt: In the voices of your protagonist and your antagonist, answer this question: When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Literary – October 12

“I think there are perhaps two ways in which one can begin.” -Poet and translator Robert Fitzgerald, born on this date in 1910. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist learns the hard way that there was another way to begin something.