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Writing Prompt #9

11/12/2015

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         PROMPT NINE – WHAT IF?
 
            This is similar to the stream of consciousness method of story generating. The difference is that you start with a topic and ask as many “What if” questions as you can. I love this prompt because I can do it when I am stuck in a traffic jam, waiting at the DMV, or otherwise bored. It’s especially helpful if you want to generate ideas in a specific area.
            Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and a couple of years ago I protested that the Hallmark channel introduces several new, formulaic Christmas stories each year, but does nothing for my favorite celebration. So I decided to generate ideas which could be turned into screenplays about Thanksgiving.
 
            Here is an example of the ideas this prompt generated.
 
            What if Thanksgiving had a hero like Santa, but was a talking turkey?
            What if turkeys celebrated Thanksgiving with us?
            How would our pets celebrate Thanksgiving if they could?
            What if your family tried to re-enact the first Thanksgiving?
 
            Based on "What if Thanksgiving had a hero like Santa" I came up with the following elevator pitch for a children's story.
 
Tommy Gobble - The first turkey super hero, Tommy Gobble, flaps into action as all of the city's food banks have been robbed by the League of Grumpy Villains. With Thanksgiving  less than a week away, he must find the culprits and return the stolen dinners so that everyone a chance to gather over a hot meal and share their thanks on this most special of days. 
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    Prompts?

    My wife calls me the StoryMan because everything around me is material for a new story. All of us are surrounded by story ideas and it just takes a little practice to find them. In this section of the website I present writing exercises known as writing prompts that can help you generate new and interesting story ideas. Try a few and see if you don't end up with more stories floating around inside your head than you have time to write.

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