writing prompts 3.5

Re-imagine a real event
Think of something that happened to you, or someone you know, or someone in a news story, and ask yourself, "What if?"
What if you had picked up that hitch-hiker, and she turned out to be a psychopath? What if you decided to get revenge on your evil coworker? What if your neighbor is really living a double life?
Come up with an interesting situation and try to imagine as realistically as possible how it would play out.
Break it down
Here's an exercise that will help you generate your own story starters.

1. Think of a strong emotion (for example: rage).
2. Quickly write a list of ten situations which would inspire that emotion (for example: when someone harms a family member).
3. Choose some of those situations and make them more specific. Come up with several scenarios for each one. (Using the example of someone harming a family member, one version might be that someone mugs the character's grandmother. Another version might be that the character's mother is unfairly fired from her job).
4. Now, take some of these scenarios, and make them even more specific. (Using the example of the character's mother getting fired: Maybe it is a case of sexual harassment. Or maybe an envious coworker is telling lies about her...)
5. Keep going, getting more and more specific, until you find a story you want to write.

Tell it out loud Having trouble writing? Fine. Don't. (For a while).
Instead, try this. Go get a voice recording device (your cell phone might have this function) and just talk to it. Describe the scene you wanted to write. Pretend you're talking to a friend, and record what you say.
Next, transcribe the recording. Just play the recording and write or type your words.
Now you no longer have to face a blank page. You have a written text that you can use as a starting point. Read what you have and decide what to add, to cut, to rearrange. Start building it into a draft of a story.
Build on a name
Go to a phone book, and pick a name at random. If you don't have a phone book handy, you can make up a name, or feel free use one of these: Hank Jenkins, Trevor Smythe-Hewitt, Tatiana Zeleny, Margaret Wintergreen, Mimi Howard, Jasper Krupp.
Try to picture how someone with this name might look. I imagine Tatiana Zeleny as in her early twenties with long dyed black hair, a round pasty face, ice blue eyes, crooked teeth, and elaborate silver jewelry. There is no right or wrong to this -- just try to form a mental image of a person.
Ask yourself more questions about this person. Does he/she have a job? A family or relationship? What are his/her dreams and fears? You can use our character questionnaire to develop a fictional character.
Present this character with a terrible problem. How will the character react? Start turning this into a story.
People-watch
Go to a public place like a coffeehouse or a mall, and watch the people around you. Imagine what their lives might be like. Everyone has secrets -- guess at the secrets of the stranger you see. You can turn some of these people into characters for a story.
An added bonus: this exercise gets you away from your desk for a while. A change of scene may be just what you need to inject new energy into your writing.
Keep a journal
Keep a journal, where you describe the people, places, and events from your day. Describe the details of how things look, sound, smell, and feel. Try to capture the details that you couldn't have imagined if you hadn't observed them for yourself. If you use them in your fiction later, they will give it a texture of reality.
Whenever you're stuck for creative writing ideas, you'll be able to mine your journal for material.