Monday prompt
“Make your characters want something right away even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”
~Kurt Vonnegut
Good morning, writers! I enjoyed reading your “one true sentences” last week! Some of you posted them in the comments of the prompt, and some in the comments of Feedback Friday, so if you want to go back and read everyone’s, check both those spaces.
This week I’m thinking about Kurt Vonnegut’s instruction (above) to make your character want something. I think a lot of us write non-fiction, so we don’t have characters in the sense that Vonnegut was talking about. But we do have the narrator (us), and if we’re writing about our own lives we are also the main character. So I think it’s interesting to think about what we want.
What do we want as narrator—why are we writing this? What do we hope to communicate or express? And what did we want as the person living the experience we are writing about? Even in writing non-fiction we are making choices about how to portray ourselves and others, what to mention and what to leave out. So I think it’s helpful to think about our “character’s” motivation.
So for today’s writing prompt, I’m going to give you two options.
Option one is to write fiction—a short story or part of a story—about a character that wants something simple like a glass of water. It could be water, it could be to find something they misplaced, it could be a dress that they can’t afford. Write about why they can’t easily get that glass of water (are they in a work meeting that’s going on and on? are the plumbers working on their building and turned the water off? are they traveling?). And write about what they do to try to get that glass of water. Make it challenging for them! Put obstacles in their way. Describe their frustration and desperation, and their joy when they finally get it (or their despair or resignation when they don’t).
Option two is to write about an event or an interaction in your life with the focus on what you wanted at the time. It could be something as simple as being hungry or thirsty, or it could be a job or other opportunity, or it could be wanting to be heard or understood or loved. If you want, you can write two short pieces: One about a time when you wanted something and didn’t get it, and another about when you wanted something and got it. Or, you could rewrite the ending so that you got the thing you wanted! Try to write about the desire and fulfillment or non-fulfillment in a way that makes the reader feel it deeply. Make them get up afterwards to run to get a drink. (Are you thirsty right now? I am! :)
Okay, writers, have fun writing! I’ll see you back here Friday to share what we’re working on, in response to this prompt or anything else.