Tuesday prompts

You are leaning over a bridge, looking deeply into clouds swirling below you.  Evergreen treetops poke through the white translucence, and hints of what lies farther down, float through.

So why in heck are you there?  Are you queasy at all? Is this viewpoint a choice or being forced upon you?  Carry the description the rest of the way.

Open a thesaurus or dictionary and look for really great words. Then just start writing until you find a place for each word.  Here are a few to consider:

sibilance
raucity
scrounge
hushcloth
tenebrosity

Remember a childhood friend or enemy. What stood out as a trait unique to that child?  Consider what has become of him or her based on that trait remaining true.  I had a friend named Marsha for a short time in second grade.  I say short because she did not let any of her friends have other friends.  So I might imagine that she is busy now running the adult lives of her children since she probably lost her husband when he could not stand being smothered any longer.  Or perhaps she translated her controlling ways into a successful Wall Street business but is now charged with insider trading.  Pick someone you did not maintain contact with and haven’t heard about — that way you have plenty of room for imagining.  You might want to change names for your character if you plan on publishing when you are done.

Think about a book or story you have read that made a strong impression on you. Select one of the secondary characters and imagine their point-of-view of what happened.  Now write their story.

This is nothing new. John Gardner did it in Grendel (based on Beowulf) and Rhys’s also voiced other characters in Wide Sargasso Sea (a before Jane Eyre interpretation).  So give it a go.  What would another character say about how things went and why?  Give it a week’s effort. See you next Tuesday.

So I thought I would combine a little of my teacher stuff with my writer stuff.  Every Tuesday I am going to post a prompt for creative writers to respond to. The idea is to write on the prompt idea for a full week. Then start on the next one.

Prompt:  If you have read the book To Kill a Mockingbird, you will recall the situation I am about to describe.  If not, I think I have enough here to make the event clear.

Remember when Atticus was just trying to make Mayella Ewell comfortable in court, and the girl became quite angry because she felt he was insulting her by calling her Miss Mayella?  She was certain he was making fun of her because no one ever called her Miss Mayella, and she told the judge she was not going to answer any more questions because he was treating her badly. The judge tried to tell Mayella that this was just Atticus Finch’s way, that he was not making fun of her but was being respectful. She wasn’t buying it.

Your prompt is to write about a kindness misread.