If you’re a non-fiction writer: What’s the biggest disappointment you’ve ever faced? Free-write for 10 minutes.

If you’re a fiction writer, pick a character and: What’s the biggest disappointment he or she has ever faced? Free-write for 10 minutes, or write the scene itself.

This morning I got to thinking about gender roles in some books. So today, I’m going to suggest that you grab a sheet of paper and a pen, set a timer for 10-20 minutes, and write about gender roles in your own writing.

Let this take you wherever it happens to go. You might start out writing about a recent story you penned, and end up describing an unusual character you want to create for your next book. You might start out describing a character you aren’t sure how to write, and end up ranting about someone else’s depiction of gender roles. Go wherever it leads.

got loot?

Writers of all people tend to be familiar with the power of ritual in one’s life. After all—that’s one of the reasons behind engaging in writer’s prompts. The familiarity of ritual can help to put one in a particular mindset, go after a certain goal, work on a difficult project or personality trait, etc.

Today, write about a lifelong (or career-long, or the equivalent) ritual that a person uses and how that affects his or her life. If you prefer to write non-fiction, journal about the place of a ritual in your own or a relative or friend’s life. If you prefer to write fiction, create, examine, or explore the place of a ritual in the life of one of your characters.

For a beautiful example, read Jervis’s blog entry The Next Rank, about a ritual that saw him through his years in the military.

Here are more questions you can ask of a fictional character to help you flesh him or her out a bit more. The number you decide to answer will probably depend on how much detail you go into—the more inspiration you find in a single question, the fewer you need to explore on the whole. If you want a ton of questions to choose from you can visit our page of writers’ resources, which has a link to our pdf of 365 character questions, but I recommend only answering a few questions per character so as not to burn out on an individual character.

• Debonair: Where does your character fit on the suave-to-bumbling scale?
• Deadly: How deadly is your character? What could make her kill someone, and how would it happen?
• Daffodil: What does your character think of bright, sunny, happy flowers?
• Drawing: Does your character have any artistic skills to speak of? If so, what are they and how good is he at them?

Sometimes the most unlikely or seemingly meaningless question can yield unexpectedly interesting results. You never know which characters are hiding odd habits, abilities, or events from you. Any strong word—particularly a verb or noun—can be used as the basis for a question, so if these options don’t do it for you, look for more options elsewhere.

If you prefer to write non-fiction rather than fiction, ask character-building questions of yourself and journal about the answers.

Today’s prompt is called ‘childhood memories’ and it’s from another Heather over at A Creative Journal:

[S]pend some time writing about a safe place you remember from your childhood. This could be someone’s house or at the top of a tree in your backyard. Once you’ve written that one up, also spend time writing about a scary place you recall from your childhood. This could be a particular house you didn’t like to pass on your way to school or a room in your own house.

I particularly appreciate Other Heather’s reminder to only tackle the scary place if you’re ready for it—smart words! You’ll find quite a few interesting prompts and links at her place, so go visit while you’re at it.

I got tagged for a you make my day meme in which you’re meant to note ten bloggers who make your day for one reason or another. I occasionally like to indulge in this sort of meme for a couple of reasons: it helps us to share our favorite blogging finds with others (perhaps bringing attention to nifty bloggers who really deserve it), and it can be interesting to stop and think about who in our daily travels influences us and how.

From your own point of view or that of a fictional character, discuss the ten people who influence you most, how, why, and what you think about this. Free-write the list as quickly as possible without stopping to think about it too much. Unlike the memeing bloggers, you don’t have to stick to other bloggers or web sites—you could venture into people close to you, role models near and far, and so on.

I got the idea for today’s exercise when I was reading Bibliolatry’s review of Immortal. The character at the center of this novel is, as the title implies, immortal, but he doesn’t know why. The reviewer spends some entertaining moments pondering what she’d really do with her days if she were immortal, and that led me to this.

Today, imagine you (or a fictional character of your creation) are immortal—you do not age and cannot die of natural causes. You or your character has been alive for at least several hundred years.

Put aside grand plans, twisted plots, and questions of how and why you came to be immortal, and focus on one single day. Wake up at the start of the character’s day, free-write through the course of it, and end at the end of it. What is a typical day like for this immortal?

I’M DEAD
I just wear it well

I’ve read several self-help books by authors with psychology backgrounds that contend that people who focus daily on the things that make them thankful or grateful tend to be happier. (Authentic Happiness; The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die) For today’s exercise, do one of the following:

• Free-write on this topic—whether it makes sense to you, why or why not, etc.
• Journal your own list of what you have to feel grateful or thankful for.
• Journal such a list (or write as an internal monologue) from the point of view of a fictional character, preferably a character from your own writing that you’d like to explore a bit more.
• Examine how the presence or lack (or perceived presence or lack) of things to be grateful for can motivate a fictional character.

If you think of another variation on the theme to play with, feel free to post it as a comment!

Word Nerd

Since I was recently reading (and just reviewed) Dara Girard’s The Writer Behind the Words, I have ‘the writer’s life’ on the brain. So today we have a meta-exercise. Free-write a list of emotions that get in the way of your achieving your writing goals. Pick the one that you think blocks you the most, and free-write about how it impacts you and what you might do to work with or around it.

Today, take a look at the following depiction of mother, or madame, nature. Write a brief scene with her as a character, preferably told from the first person (her point of view) or second (someone with her). Or, free-write or journal about this depiction of Mother Nature and what it means to you.

You might also counter this depiction of Mother Nature with one of your own, describing how you see her or, if you have artistic skills, depicting her in your own manner. How does your depiction contrast or compare with the one below? Why is it different or similar? What do you like or dislike about the original below, and why do you have your own, separate take on things?

Madam Nature by *CrisVector on deviantART