I’ve decided to do a dozen prompts using this book and then, I’m going to look elsewhere for another source. The book, What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter is a good book, and I’m not doing it full justice by simply offering prompts from its lessons. I encourage everyone to read the book to get the valuable lessons its teaching fully. That said, let’s get to today’s prompt.
This prompt is taken from Lesson #38 and deals with storytelling. Specifically, one story told to five different people. People tend to tell stories, recount events etc in different ways depending on whom they are talking to. In this exercise, you will choose something that happened to you recently; a trip to the store, a meeting you had with someone, a show you watched – whatever you like. Then, you are to tell this story to the following five people:
- Your mother/father – you may choose one
- Your spouse or significant other
- Your best friend
- Your therapist – even if you don’t have one, pretend
- Your spiritual advisor
I’d suggest writing a max of 300 words per person just to keep things easy. I won’t be sharing my own work on this prompt this time because it would make this post far too long. However, I may update with a link to Wordpadd when I get it posted there. I hope you all enjoy this and please, link to wherever you post your own work on this prompt so we can all see how well you did. There is no write or wrong way to do any of the prompts so please, don’t feel shy about sharing!
See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!
Griffin's Nest 