Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Improvised Writing Prompt - August

Welcome to Augusts Writing Prompt! I decided to do it a little different this time around. I am calling it the “Improvised Writing Prompt”. Back when I taught Theater camp this year and last, we did a class over improvisation. I’d give the students choices to pick from each category: Setting, Character, Dialog and from their choices they write a scene and then act it out.

Today, the choices are:

Setting

  • Carnival
  • Beach
  • House

Character

  • Clown
  • Depressed Mother
  • Grumpy Old Man

Dialog

  • “What the hell?”
  • “Hold me.”
  • “It never works that way.”

Now, what you do is pick one from each category. Your main character does NOT have to be the type of character you pick (it can if you want), just make sure the character you pick shows up somewhere in the story. In theater class, I put a lot more choices for dialog and had them pick 3, just so they could experience how each group did something different with the same dialog. But today, I figured I’d be simple, so you can use 1 or if you feel like, all 3.

So get to writing! If you have a blog, please link to it here in the comment section. If you want to practice hook/pitch lines, you can add the line in the same comment with the link. Example: Jenny thought she knew what she was doing until a child screamed, a ride fell a part, and the entire park went up in flames. (link here)

If you don’t have a blog, you can either post your prompt here in the comment section OR (which I would prefer this à) e-mail your prompt to me and I will post it here on my blog for you. You can add your hook/pitch line (it really is great practice people!) if you want at the top of your story. My e-mail address is under my profile, or you can facebook message me.

Happy writing!

8 comments:

  1. Very exciting prompt! I might give it a whirl this go round.

    Is there a deadline, per se? Or any timeline you have in mind?

    Thanks, ChristaCarol!

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  2. I am going to try to do this one this time.

    Any suggestion on length?

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  3. Length: Whatever you want it to be, though I wouldn't go passed 2K just because people may not want to read that much.

    Deadline: Last time I made it a week and only got a few participants...I should start these at the beginning of the month and just have everyone do it by the end of the month, but I didn't get the chance this time. Soooo...you know, whenever for now lol. Obviously in enough time to get people still checking the comments to see who's posted...plus, I'll make an update blog linking to this one to keep people aware.

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  4. I gave myself my lunch time to try to craft a story using the prompt. It was a fun exercise to stretch my creative writing muscles. Thanks, Christa!

    When depression overcomes an unhappy mother, she must decide between letting her soul sink and float.

    http://jessieharrell.livejournal.com/1660.html

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  5. I'm quite enjoying these.

    http://www.freewebs.com/christophermcolavito/apps/blog/show/1638434-august-writing-prompt

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  6. awesome stuff you guys! I'm watching my kids +2 and trying to get math homework done today and history study tonight, but I'm hoping tomorrow morning I can get something whipped up! Keep em' coming!

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  7. Jessie, I can't comment on your post cause I don't have a LiveJournal account, but wow! Beautifully written. I've never been a fan of present tense, but I think you pulled it off. Love the descriptions, especially "denim sea" which keeps from being cliche. Well done!

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  8. Thank you SO much for the compliment, Christa. I'm sorry I'm just now checking in to read it. You made my day.

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