The Light is on

The proverbial “aha” moment came last night, during the fourth class of the fiction writing workshop I’m taking through a grant at our public library.

The leader handed us four writing prompts, but as my eyes scrolled through each bulleted suggestion, I muttered “nope” and moved on. In the end though, I had to choose one. I stared at my blank page for a few minutes—then forced myself to begin scribbling.

 

When we put down our pens (or an I-Pad in one case), our leader asked how we felt about the four exercise choices. I admitted that I’d struggled. Each prompt included a situation that made me squirm in my seat—and in real life I tend to steer away from conflict the way our cat avoids the bathtub.

Yesterday, I learned if I want to become a fiction writer, I have to stop that.

I don’t I need to pick fights in real life, but I sure as heck better develop some doozy situations for my characters. To date, I have failed in that regard. I’m the first one to acknowledge that the two projects I’m working on are boring. Now I understand why. Description, yup, I suppose I’ve got that down; but if I look over the limited bulk of my work; I’ve never given a character an issue to deal with that was resolved with anything more than a minimum of angst. It's time to ratchet up the volume if you will. This means since I need to “become” my characters while I write about them, then I have to live through what they experience. For a practiced conflict-avoider, the intimidation factor just climbed to the top of the chart.

To quote our leader: “An author must provide high stakes moments in fiction that keep readers reading…There must be complications—messy, potentially disastrous circumstances where there is a lot at stake.” So far, all I’ve done is created and resolved situations in a way that would make a reader say “Meh.”

I didn’t sleep well last night. I was busy lighting houses on fire, killing off folks, introducing myself to alcoholics, ruining marriages and creating children from previous relationships. It doesn’t do much for a night’s rest, but if I challenge myself to live through it, someday it might make for good fiction.

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If you happen to be looking for writing prompts, here are the four from last night (I chose #1): 

• A man considers shoplifting a gift for his girlfriend while she browses in handbags.
• A woman hides in a preschool so she can keep an eye on her three-year-old
• A girl comes home for Thanksgiving, doing everything she can not to tell her parents she’s quit college
• A boy tries to get his parents out of the house before the teacher calls to tell them he punched a boy at recess.