People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Apply this Emerson quote to the main character of your current story or novel–how does your character’s opinion of the world reveal his character? What might it reveal that he doesn’t want revealed, or that he would deny if it was brought to his attention? How can you use this to subtly explore him within your writing without having to spell everything out for the reader?

You could also journal about how this quote applies to you. How do you see the world? What might this reveal about you? Try to find at least one difficult truth about yourself in Emerson’s quote.

“I don’t tell my characters what to do. I just take dictation!”
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Write “hope” and “despair” at the tops of two sheets of paper–one word per sheet. Under each, list and/or free-write anything you associate with that term, or which you feel could be used to thematically represent it. Try to fill each sheet completely without stopping. When you’re done, look through both sheets and try to find one item, thought, or image from each that particularly appeals to you or strikes you. Work both of these into a single piece of work: a short story, a poem, a piece of artwork, a journal entry, an essay, or an article. Try to contrast them in some way, or use them to offset each other.

What if… you or your main character stumbled across an ancient library?

Somehow the manuscripts remain intact and readable. You carefully pull one off of a shelf, handling its stiff leather binding with reverence and care, and lay it on a worm-eaten table in the middle of the room. The light in here is pale and dusty and you light a lamp to supplement it, placing the lamp off to the side where it can’t possibly cause any harm to the books. Even with the additional light you can’t read the worn title of the book; time has erased all but a few flecks of gold leaf.

You open your chosen book, wincing at the stiff crackle of parchment, but the pages remain intact. You squint at the aged handwriting, trying to make out individual letters and words.

What do you find? What happens next?

blank journals

Imagine that you’re watching a story unfold from behind a pane of frosted glass. Outside there’s snow on the ground, and the pink and blue of sunrise color the sky. Bare trees rise up against the horizon:

(Click through the above thumbnail to see the full, beautiful photo by Watermark of Merni.)

Tell the story as you see it happen.

Today’s prompt-on-the-web comes to you courtesy of The Student Story Starter. The Starter provides you–at the click of a button–with the following tidbits of information:

• Protagonist’s Gender
• Protagonist’s Job/Profession
• Antagonist
• Key Object or Symbol
• Setting
• Theme

It’s aimed at the modern world, and here’s one randomized selection to get you started today:

My protagonist is a female. My protagonist is a florist. The antagonist in my story is a day laborer. A key object or symbol in my story is a traffic light. My story will be set in a motor home. My story is about revelation.

My personal experience with this tool has been that it tends to provide one piece of information too many–usually I end up leaving out one thing, I think most often the setting, in the interests of not overloading the piece–but your mileage will, of course, vary. Regardless, I’d rather have it provide more than I need than not enough, since it’s easy to leave out a piece! I highly recommend visiting this little tool now and then and auto-generating a prompt or two.

Today I have another quote from Michael Michalko’s second edition of Thinkertoys (reviewed):

In Greek, the word dialogue means a “talking through.” The Greeks believed that the key to establishing dialogue is to exchange ideas without trying to change someone’s mind. This is not the same as discussion, which from its Latin root means to “dash to pieces.” The basic rules of dialogue for the Greeks were: “don’t argue,” “don’t interrupt,” and “listen carefully.”

Today, treat every conversation–including those you hold online–as though it fell under the old Greek definition of a dialogue. Force yourself not to argue or interrupt. Listen carefully to those you speak with. Offer up your thoughts and ideas for consideration without attempting to convert or change the minds of others. Treat those you speak with as your equals in conversation and examine their opinions accordingly.

At the end of the day, write about your experiences. How easy or difficult was this? How well did you succeed? How did it change the dynamics of your conversations? What did you learn from it?

While we haven’t yet had a chance to put in redirects from the old blogs since we still have one to go, I might as well start posting new exercises here so there’s something for folks to play with when they get directed here. In the meantime, if you see any rough edges do let me know–we haven’t quite finished up yet and might have missed something.

I’m currently reading Michael Michalko’s second edition of Thinkertoys (review), and found a quote that I think could inspire some interesting writing:

A lion has to be a lion all its life; a dog has to be a dog. But a human being can play with and bring about one of a huge number of different identities; the one he finally chooses will be determined by neither reason nor common sense, but by imagination.

There are many different ways to use this quote in an exercise. Journal about it. Free-write based on it. Create a character from it. Use it as the basis of a story. Pick something and go!

Today, pick a work of fiction or non-fiction you’ve been working on and read through it (or a chapter of it if it’s a long piece). Try to list out the various assumptions you’ve made. You’ve assumed the protagonist must make a certain choice. You’ve assumed your reader will care to know only a certain subset of information about your subject. You’ve assumed readers of your how-to guide will tackle their projects in a certain order. You’ve assumed your readers will only come from a certain age group.

Change those assumptions. Substitute new ones. Reverse them. Brainstorm alternatives. Then re-write your piece with those new ideas in mind.