At the Crossroads

Write about a turning point in life, a place things could have gone two very separate ways, a cross road. For a challenge, take both paths, write one than the other. Where do they lead?

How Many Words is it Worth?

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Play around with dialogue. Try out culture gaps and age gaps. Play with slang or dialects. Be mindful of how you are distorting the language and how hard or easy it will be for a reader to understand both the words and the culture or accent being conveyed in them.

Write a scene as a screenplay or script to force the dialogue to carry it. Act it out with a friend and see how well your audience gets the ideas, themes, and subtexts from the words alone.

Only skin deep in the eye of the beholder

What is beautiful? What makes something or someone beautiful? What kinds of beauty are there? What kinds matter most?

Go ahead, open it...

Where is this door? How did you or your character get there? What's behind it? Will it be opened? Why?

Who are you under the mask?

Everyone wears many different masks for different places, people, and occasions. We're more polite, more aggressive, more happy, more upset. We pretend to like people we can't stand. Sometimes we even put on acts for ourselves. Who are you under the masks?

A character is the same way. They change depending on who they are interacting with. How does he act when his boss is in the room? How does she act around a potential romantic interest? How does he act near his parents or children? How does she act with old friends? How does he act alone?