Tag Archives: brainstorming

Weekend Writing Prompts– Story Starters About Revenge

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Jennifer Jensen

Do you ever dream of what you would do to get back at someone?  Or are you too nice?  Even if you’re an understanding person, your character doesn’t have to be.  What kind of revenge would he or she take to make someone pay for what they did? Wait!  Make it more interesting – choose a situation below, and then spend five minutes brainstorming possible scenarios.  Do NOT write about the first one or two you list – those are the easy ones.  For a more interesting story, go with a scene you had to stretch for, one toward the end of your list. What kind of revenge might your character take if:  A party guest stole money from them? Their best friend added to an untrue rumor about them? Their partner/lover cheated on them? Their co-worker stole their great idea? A friend “borrowed” something and then damaged it? After … Continue reading →

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Weekend Writing – Story Starters that Ask What If

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Jennifer Jensen

Here are five writing prompts that ask the classic writer’s question, “What if?”  Each of these could create hundreds of story lines depending on the writer’s choices.  Where would you take it? What if . . . your brother and his wife are killed in a car accident and you become guardian of the children from hell? What if . . . a couple of teens steal a car to go joyriding, and it breaks down in the middle of nowhere? What if . . . the mild-mannered guy three doors down begins stalking you? What if . . . the sun’s glare through the windshield is blinding you and you hit an elderly man because you can’t see him? What if . . . a guy is rough-housing at the pool, shoves his friend in unexpectedly, and the friend hits his head and is paralyzed? Choose one and see … Continue reading →

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Saturday Story Prompts

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Jennifer Jensen

Need an idea for a story?  An injection of energy in your novel?  Something to get you started in your free-writing time?  Saturday Story Prompts are here to help. Every Saturday I’ll post some story prompts: one-line story starters,  phrases to play with free-writing, questions that recall a feeling or situation you can use in your novel.  Use them as-is, adapt them if you want, let them jump-start a series of ideas and see where it takes you. We’ll start with some one-liners today: I knew I should have left Mother at home.  Every time I took her out . . . What could I say? It was rough and hairy and smelly, but it followed me home. She inhaled the scent of roses and closed her eyes, remembering. Three on one wasn’t fair, but I had no choice. She regaled us with sales figures and marketing plans, but all … Continue reading →

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How to Find Story Ideas in the News

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Jennifer Jensen

“Where do you get your ideas?” is one of the most common questions a writer hears.  The answer is:  everywhere!  Once you start writing regularly, you find yourself with more ideas than you can write about at any given time.  But one source of story ideas is to take something from the news and re-shape it for the beginnings of a story.  Here are some examples: Last month, a high wind from an arriving storm knocked down the rigging of an outdoor concert stage at our Indiana State Fair.  The band was being held backstage until the winds died, but that didn’t help the fans.  Tragically, seven people from the front-row area were killed by the stage collapse, with dozens more injured.  At the same time, individuals acted heroically to hold the collapsed rigging up and get injured people out to medical care, saving lives in the process. If I … Continue reading →

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Brainstorming Plot Points

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Jennifer Jensen

Brainstorming is a blast! My middle grade WIP is a time travel story.  The protagonist is a 12-year-old boy who’s into rockets and robotics and such, but gets zapped back to the 1830s.  There are thefts for which he gets blamed, a ghost who needs to be laid to rest, and the girl helping him gets pulled back to modern times with him. The manuscript is basically done except for one thing:  I would really like to tie his rocket hobby more integrally into the time travel happenings.  There’s an item that could easily still be in his pocket when he goes back again, but I couldn’t come up with a good idea of what to do with it. So I gathered a few writer friends, gave them a run-down on the plot (new for some, refresher for others), and put my dilemma to them.  We questioned what the device … Continue reading →

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