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brightknightie) wrote2024-03-19 08:12 am
brightknightie) wrote2024-03-19 08:12 am
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On addressing writing prompts
Something I always remind myself of when I'm not immediately clicking with a writing prompt -- that is, when I'm writing for myself or a challenge like FKFicFest, not when I'm gifting to an individual, of course! -- is that it's totally okay to turn the prompt around and around until it blossoms for me. I could straightforwardly fulfill the prompt on its face, or I could make it a red herring, a subversion, a reversal... as long as the end result recognizably shows the prompt's influence.
Just for example, the prompt "an unexpected event leads to chaos" can produce exactly what it says on the tin! Yet it could also produce a story centered on a character who fears (or hopes for) that outcome, regardless of whether the outcome happens. Or one where a character's meticulous preparations for every eventuality manage to avert chaos, or a character's overconfidence or carelessness results in a completely expected event causing chaos. The unexpected event and the chaos could be from a story within the story: a book or movie or play or game the characters enjoy. The event and the chaos could be tiny, local, personal, domestic, or enormous, global, social, public. Maybe everyone except the character totally expected the event, or maybe the character is the only one who expected it, and everyone else is taken by surprise. Or maybe only the character views the result as chaos, and everyone else finds it quite orderly, or vice versa.
:-) How do you brainstorm with writing prompts?
Just for example, the prompt "an unexpected event leads to chaos" can produce exactly what it says on the tin! Yet it could also produce a story centered on a character who fears (or hopes for) that outcome, regardless of whether the outcome happens. Or one where a character's meticulous preparations for every eventuality manage to avert chaos, or a character's overconfidence or carelessness results in a completely expected event causing chaos. The unexpected event and the chaos could be from a story within the story: a book or movie or play or game the characters enjoy. The event and the chaos could be tiny, local, personal, domestic, or enormous, global, social, public. Maybe everyone except the character totally expected the event, or maybe the character is the only one who expected it, and everyone else is taken by surprise. Or maybe only the character views the result as chaos, and everyone else finds it quite orderly, or vice versa.
:-) How do you brainstorm with writing prompts?