Story Starters
Ever get stuck for something to write? Got a project you're working on now and you've reached a dead end, i.e., the dreaded writer's block? This page will be crammed full of story starters, prompts, challenges, and images all designed to get those creative juices flowing.
What goes on here? Who lives here? Who visits here? Why?
The Kitchen List
I made a list of ten things I could see in my kitchen. You can use my list (below) or make your own list of ten things found in a room of your house.
My Kitchen List
1. toaster oven
2. bagels
3. cookie jar
4. scrub brush
5. paper towels
6. blender
7. Bart Simpson potholder
8. Smiley drinking glass
9. Disinfectant spray
10. soft-white light bulbs
Use the ten items in a story, screenplay scene, paragraph, or any other writing form that pleases you to do one or more of the following:
Play a practical joke
Create a spy thriller
Commit a murder
Help a woman have a baby
Prolong a life (until help arrives)
Make a science project
Steal something
get revenge
prove someone's innocence
weave into an episode of your favorite TV show
The challenge, of course, is that you must use all ten objects. You can add as many other objects or people or situations or conditions that you like, it is your writing, after all. But those ten specific items MUST be used. They can be crucial elements or simple things woven into your story. But they must be used. All of them.
I made a list of ten things I could see in my kitchen. You can use my list (below) or make your own list of ten things found in a room of your house.
My Kitchen List
1. toaster oven
2. bagels
3. cookie jar
4. scrub brush
5. paper towels
6. blender
7. Bart Simpson potholder
8. Smiley drinking glass
9. Disinfectant spray
10. soft-white light bulbs
Use the ten items in a story, screenplay scene, paragraph, or any other writing form that pleases you to do one or more of the following:
Play a practical joke
Create a spy thriller
Commit a murder
Help a woman have a baby
Prolong a life (until help arrives)
Make a science project
Steal something
get revenge
prove someone's innocence
weave into an episode of your favorite TV show
The challenge, of course, is that you must use all ten objects. You can add as many other objects or people or situations or conditions that you like, it is your writing, after all. But those ten specific items MUST be used. They can be crucial elements or simple things woven into your story. But they must be used. All of them.
What just happened here?
Murder? A wedding? Lovemaking? Someone's world just came crashing down? Someone's world just lit up with joy?
Pick any or all of these locations and tell us what just happened there:
Murder? A wedding? Lovemaking? Someone's world just came crashing down? Someone's world just lit up with joy?
Pick any or all of these locations and tell us what just happened there:
As an exercise in genre, try doing more than one kind of story or scenario for one picture.
Do a murder mystery at the lighthouse, for example. Then do a romance.
Or do a science fiction or horror story by the bridge. Then create a comedy from that same setting.
And so on...
Do a murder mystery at the lighthouse, for example. Then do a romance.
Or do a science fiction or horror story by the bridge. Then create a comedy from that same setting.
And so on...
Color Test
Pick three colors - any three colors. Now, create a character and put them in a circumstance where each of those three colors plays a role in defining that character and/or the "circumstance" that starts your story and/or how your character overcomes adversity and is changed by the end of your story.
Example:
Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue
Character: Squiggles the Clown
Squiggles tries to hide it from his fellow circus performers but he has a deep psychological terror over the color Yellow. Something happened to him as a child that now forces him to associate the color Yellow with that horrible memory.
Squiggles loves Blue. In fact, he loves the color Blue so much, he painted the entire inside of his trailer Blue. It fights the Yellow in this world. Blue makes him feel safe.
Red is the color of pretty flowers and brand new bicycles but Red is also the color of what happens to little boys when they go into the Yellow.
So...
Fill in the blanks of my little brain fart you see here or invent one of your own!
Pick three colors - any three colors. Now, create a character and put them in a circumstance where each of those three colors plays a role in defining that character and/or the "circumstance" that starts your story and/or how your character overcomes adversity and is changed by the end of your story.
Example:
Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue
Character: Squiggles the Clown
Squiggles tries to hide it from his fellow circus performers but he has a deep psychological terror over the color Yellow. Something happened to him as a child that now forces him to associate the color Yellow with that horrible memory.
Squiggles loves Blue. In fact, he loves the color Blue so much, he painted the entire inside of his trailer Blue. It fights the Yellow in this world. Blue makes him feel safe.
Red is the color of pretty flowers and brand new bicycles but Red is also the color of what happens to little boys when they go into the Yellow.
So...
Fill in the blanks of my little brain fart you see here or invent one of your own!
Story Mosaic
A mosaic is a picture composed of a lot of smaller pieces. The smaller pieces might be whole pictures of their own.
Using these "story pieces," create your own scene or paragraph or short story.
1. a young mother struggles with a full shopping cart and the baby in the baby seat
2. a teenage boy uses fake I.D. to purchase a gun
3. the terrifying memory of being lost and separated from family at a large amusement park
4. the teacher who smells like mothballs
5. a wallet stuffed with cash
6. the fragrance of jasmine
7. belly laugh
8. spilled tabasco sauce
9. three friends, together
10. the power goes out
A mosaic is a picture composed of a lot of smaller pieces. The smaller pieces might be whole pictures of their own.
Using these "story pieces," create your own scene or paragraph or short story.
1. a young mother struggles with a full shopping cart and the baby in the baby seat
2. a teenage boy uses fake I.D. to purchase a gun
3. the terrifying memory of being lost and separated from family at a large amusement park
4. the teacher who smells like mothballs
5. a wallet stuffed with cash
6. the fragrance of jasmine
7. belly laugh
8. spilled tabasco sauce
9. three friends, together
10. the power goes out
What's waiting at the end of this road?
Where's your list of words to describe this scene? What kinds of words would you use? Would your words describe the "mood" of this setting? Would those same words also describe your main character or could you create a character those words describe?
Where does this road lead? What is waiting in the foggy mist? Are there good surprises waiting or would a traveller on this road face danger and/or evil?
What waits at the end of the journey?
Collect your thoughts and your words. Create a character and a story inspired by those thoughts and words. Make it a whole story, a scene from a screenplay, a synopsis, any format that pleases you and allows you to unleash that monster (The Writer) in you waiting to get out.
Where's your list of words to describe this scene? What kinds of words would you use? Would your words describe the "mood" of this setting? Would those same words also describe your main character or could you create a character those words describe?
Where does this road lead? What is waiting in the foggy mist? Are there good surprises waiting or would a traveller on this road face danger and/or evil?
What waits at the end of the journey?
Collect your thoughts and your words. Create a character and a story inspired by those thoughts and words. Make it a whole story, a scene from a screenplay, a synopsis, any format that pleases you and allows you to unleash that monster (The Writer) in you waiting to get out.
This is your dream house. Why?
20 Master Plot Exercises
Use these basic outlines and questions to inspire you in your writing. You can even use this stuff to refine/revise something you've already written. CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE WEBSITE.
Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B.Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8
Use these basic outlines and questions to inspire you in your writing. You can even use this stuff to refine/revise something you've already written. CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE WEBSITE.
Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B.Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8
Story Starter from the Headlines
A successful lawyer in a posh law office located in the Empire State Building is in the midst of a conference with a client. He excuses himself for a moment and goes into another room of the 69th-floor office complex. As the client waits for his lawyer's return, the lawyer is busy opening a window in that other office. He climbs onto the ledge. He jumps.
Only a piece of his severed leg makes it all the way down to street level as horrified pedestrians look on, trying to make sense of the nightmarish scenario. Where's the rest of the body that should have been attached to that leg?
The rest of the lawyer's body remains hidden from view thirty floors over the heads of the shocked onlookers where it will remain on a landing until discovered by police.
It was an anonymous 911 call reporting a "body part in the street" that brought police to the scene. That a suicide had occured would not be immediately apparent.Meanwhile, several out-of-town tourists have taken snapshots and cell phone pictures of the bloody leg, its foot still covered by a sock. The shoe is nowhere to be found.
As news of the suicide filters up to the 69th floor and the identity of the deceased becomes known, his coworkers express grief and shock. There was no indication this was a man who intended to end his life.
The tragedy provokes many, many questions.
OKAY, SO THAT'S THE BASIC SET-UP FROM THE ACTUAL NEWS STORY.
As a writer, what can you do with those basic facts? What questions are stirred up? Which questions would be obvious? Which not so obvious? What mystery and suspense can you create from this real-life tragedy (keeping in mind that you cannot tell a true-life story without consent of the real people involved)?
When using real-life headlines as a starting point for a story/novel/screenplay, you can use the basic facts of a bonafide news event. You simply cannot use real names of real people, especially if they are private individuals and not public figures. So create your own characters and explain what just happened and how a lawyer's strange suicide becomes the inciting incident for a whole sequence of events that you, Writer, will create
A successful lawyer in a posh law office located in the Empire State Building is in the midst of a conference with a client. He excuses himself for a moment and goes into another room of the 69th-floor office complex. As the client waits for his lawyer's return, the lawyer is busy opening a window in that other office. He climbs onto the ledge. He jumps.
Only a piece of his severed leg makes it all the way down to street level as horrified pedestrians look on, trying to make sense of the nightmarish scenario. Where's the rest of the body that should have been attached to that leg?
The rest of the lawyer's body remains hidden from view thirty floors over the heads of the shocked onlookers where it will remain on a landing until discovered by police.
It was an anonymous 911 call reporting a "body part in the street" that brought police to the scene. That a suicide had occured would not be immediately apparent.Meanwhile, several out-of-town tourists have taken snapshots and cell phone pictures of the bloody leg, its foot still covered by a sock. The shoe is nowhere to be found.
As news of the suicide filters up to the 69th floor and the identity of the deceased becomes known, his coworkers express grief and shock. There was no indication this was a man who intended to end his life.
The tragedy provokes many, many questions.
OKAY, SO THAT'S THE BASIC SET-UP FROM THE ACTUAL NEWS STORY.
As a writer, what can you do with those basic facts? What questions are stirred up? Which questions would be obvious? Which not so obvious? What mystery and suspense can you create from this real-life tragedy (keeping in mind that you cannot tell a true-life story without consent of the real people involved)?
When using real-life headlines as a starting point for a story/novel/screenplay, you can use the basic facts of a bonafide news event. You simply cannot use real names of real people, especially if they are private individuals and not public figures. So create your own characters and explain what just happened and how a lawyer's strange suicide becomes the inciting incident for a whole sequence of events that you, Writer, will create
A Cyber "Wrong Number"
You get an online greeting card from a stranger. You realize it was sent to you by mistake and from the included message, you understand you could reply as the intended recipient and get away with it. You like this person sending the greeting. You like the way they write. You would like to get to know them.
But, you are a decent person so at what point would your conscience bother you and/or compel you to do something? What becomes of the friendship and/or romance with this online sender? What complications ensue?
Perhaps this is not a romantic comedy. What if the sender is a psycho-killer? A terrorist? Involved in a conspiracy? And now they think you are one of the members of the criminal gang.
How have you grown or changed by the end of the story? How is your life different?
NOTE: "You" could be you, writing in first person, or it could refer to a character you create.
You get an online greeting card from a stranger. You realize it was sent to you by mistake and from the included message, you understand you could reply as the intended recipient and get away with it. You like this person sending the greeting. You like the way they write. You would like to get to know them.
But, you are a decent person so at what point would your conscience bother you and/or compel you to do something? What becomes of the friendship and/or romance with this online sender? What complications ensue?
Perhaps this is not a romantic comedy. What if the sender is a psycho-killer? A terrorist? Involved in a conspiracy? And now they think you are one of the members of the criminal gang.
How have you grown or changed by the end of the story? How is your life different?
NOTE: "You" could be you, writing in first person, or it could refer to a character you create.