Write down two or three sentences describing the day as best you can remember it; think about the people who were there, the color and sounds, even the smells. Add as many of the sensory details as you can think of.
Just like that old word game where you change a letter at a time to make new words, change any two to three things you remember, change the location, the smells and the amount of people that were there. Change the weather, the temperature, the lighting, and the noises. Play “What if…” What if one of the people you remember being there wasn’t in your revised story? What if someone said something rude to you, or didn’t, depending on what you described in the original version.
Shake up the story – make it scary or sad, make it a comedy with unexpected and silly costumes and funny jokes. Now that you’ve changed so many of the elements of your story, rewrite it so that it flows again, and that is your first paragraph. Read it through a few times and think how this version might have changed everything you did, maybe you wouldn’t even be where you are right now doing this writing exercise, that’s your second paragraph.
Suddenly the main character, which started out as you, is someone else. What brought that person there today? What were the original plans this new main character had and why? Think about how this new character might feel about the things that transpired in their day, where would they go from there? Are there things they might need to “fix” and how would they go about doing that? Try shaking up the events that happen to you in your “normal” routine and you will find a whole lot of great stories in front of you.
Rewrite this story and at every possible turn ask “What if?” this/that happened. Make sure to throw in problems, conflicts and unexpected obstacles to the ultimate end. If your story has you heading to a wedding for friends, for instance, think of obstacles to prevent that wedding from happening. Yet for every obstacle you put into the path of the couple’s sought after happiness, think of all the things they will attempt to keep it on track. Be mean to the couple when you write, make it difficult for them. Readers will want to know how creative, resourceful and courageous the couple will be to find their Happy-Ever-After and they will keep reading. If you are not creating conflict, the story will get boring.
As you write, try to keep your voice from one perspective like a narrator looking in or an individual character. Remember if you are writing the story from the perspective of one of the characters, then it is only that character whose head you can get into. Unless your character is really a mind reader, don’t let him or her KNOW what someone else is thinking. You can intimate and guess what another character is thinking by their actions (slamming doors, trembling), voice (yelling, broken with sobs) and facial expressions (smiling, unable to meet someone’s eyes) – but you cannot read their minds.
Every time you expand on real life, every time you allow “What if?” to change the original events, you begin to write fiction based on life.
Writing exercise: Explore the road not taken – Do you think your life would be different if you had grown up in some other place or maybe in a different economic background. What do you think the “changed you” would do for entertainment or go to on vacation? Write down a description of the ideal vacation for your changed self.
Writing prompt: Think of someone from your past, someone that you haven’t seen in a long time. Pretend that they are writing a reference letter for you – write two to three sentences describing you AS THEY KNEW YOU in the form of a reference for a job. (Be honest!)
