The Writers Corner is a new community with the following goals:

A haven for writers, it is our intention to provide writing prompts, contests and other such means of enticing the imagination into overdrive. Supportive hands will guide you through your journey into the world of publication, or so we hope.

It includes a ton of wonderful of prompts for you to enjoy and explore. Today, try this one:

In 400 words or less answer this. If time stopped but you did not, what would you do first and why?

Also consider this: just as folks like to say that pleasure without pain has no meaning, so freedom has little meaning without limits. Free-writing is often best done with a definitive, planned end-point, whether that’s planned in word-count (”400 words or less”), space (one side of a sheet of paper), or time (20 minutes). Otherwise you can end up pushing past the point where you’re still coming up with real material, and you go back to spinning your wheels.

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

What if you (or your favorite fictional character of your own creation) suddenly became a celebrity? How would it happen? What would you or he be known for? How would celebrity change things–both life and yourself? Would wealth accompany celebrity, or not? How would celebrity improve your life? How would it make things worse? For a fictional character who is already part of a story you’re working on, how would celebrity affect the plot and events of your work?

What if… you woke up one day and had an epiphany? You suddenly realize you’re on the wrong track. It’s time to eat organic and get in shape, to quit your job and do something you really love, or leave your emotionally abusive spouse and learn to be independent. In just one realization, everything changes.

Start writing.

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What if… the next knock on your door was the police coming to take you away for a crime you’re certain you didn’t commit?

You could journal about the real-world possibilities, or you could put a fictional character into this situation and see what happens. This needn’t be as straightforward as it seems. Did your character commit the crime or not? Was she framed or is it a misunderstanding? Are the police themselves after your character, are they the agents of something far more sinister, or are they the unwitting dupes of someone who has cooked up some very convincing evidence? How will all of this affect your character’s life?

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If you’re a fiction writer, pick or create a character that has a definable career he or she engages in. If you’re a non-fiction writer, use yourself in this exercise.

Imagine that your character commits the proverbial “career suicide”–he does something so ill-thought-out, foolish, or unintentionally blundering that it’s virtually determined to end his career. Perhaps at a party he accidentally spilled scalding hot coffee on the wife of the luminary he needs to impress in order to get a promotion. Maybe he said something scathing about a piece of artwork, only to find out his boss painted it himself. Depending on the career, the possibilities are almost limitless.

How does this come about? How does your character handle it? Tell the story of the mishap or its after-effects.

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There’s a lot of talk lately about the possibilities for science “finding the cure” for aging. So today, imagine what would happen if the human lifespan expanded to two hundred, four hundred, or even a thousand years. How would that change crime rates, birth rates, romantic relationships, family relationships, friendships? How would it change education, careers, emotional development? Free-write, brainstorm a story that explores this issue, or begin writing a story.

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This quirky little article got me to thinking a bit about the role of animals in life and literature:

Fang Peng, from Pingsai town, Guizhou Province, claims ‘Submarine’ responds to his name being called out.

Fang says the fish developed his ability to understand human speech from his father who used to spend four hours a day with him.

There are scores of articles about family pets that have saved their owners from deadly house fires or the like. Many pet-owners believe their pets have complex emotions and motivations, and animals often play intricate roles in fiction and literature–whether as symbols, ordinary animals, or something “more.”

Today, free-write a bit about the roles animals can play in literature or popular fiction, in a particular genre or in general. Free-write about what you’d like to do with an animal in your writing, or begin a story that involves one. Your imagination is your only limit–your animal can be as normal or supernormal as you’d like.

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Take a look at this collection of infrared photographs by Allon Kira and keep in mind a line from an old Queensryche song, “I only see in infrared.” Imagine a person(?) who sees in infrared, whose vision is much like these pictures. Who or what is he or she? How does he live? What happens next?

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Imagine for a moment that a fundamental assumption you hold regarding your life is false. It’s a lie. You aren’t who you thought you were; someone close to you isn’t who you thought they were; a major incident or force in your life is something other than what you believed it to be. Write about this–what it would be, how you would find out, how you would react, how the secret was kept from you so successfully, and how the discovery would alter your life.

You can also apply this same exercise to a fictional character.

Technorati Tags: fiction, free-writing, journaling, prompts, what if, write, writers, writing