Bring a Character to Life

Describe a person important in your life or in your novel by describing his or her belongings.

Give

Write for ten minutes using some form of the verb to give (give in, give out, give to, give off, give up, or...) as a starting point.

Transitions

Write about a transition—a time when everything changed. Maybe it involved entering a chapel or a hospital room or stepping on or off a train. Transitions can be terrifying, awkward, exhilarating, and memorable. Write about one. 

In Memoriam

Sometimes it seems things do come in quick succession. The need to write sympathy notes, for example. Looking back at your own life, what do you want said about you in an obituary or memorial? Don't look at this as morbid, but rather see it as an invitation to take stock of yourself, your accomplishments, your legacy. Try it!

Stormy Weather

Write about your, or your fictional characters', experience in a blizzard, hurricane, ice storm, or earthquake. Trying times stretch nerves and reveal personality traits. Use dialogue, sensory detail, and take readers into the eye of the storm.

You Wore It Well!

Write about your memories of a specific piece of clothing (yours or some else’s): shopping for it or creating it or lending or borrowing it or laundering it or wearing it, or.... Maybe it was a uniform, a prom dress, a wedding gown, a tuxedo, a beloved pair of jeans or trench coat. Maybe you hated it. Maybe you loved it. Maybe it was forced upon you by someone else; maybe you chose it.

Where I'm From

This wonderful resource is from George Ella Lyon. Read all about it on her web site: 
www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

Directions: Read this poem by George Ella Lyon and write your own “Where I’m From” piece! Combine details of both places and characters. Use format shown here or write it as prose. Enjoy! Discover!

Where I’m From

By George Ella Lyon*

I am from clothespins,

from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.

I am from the dirt under the back porch.

(Black, glistening

it tasted like beets.)

I am from the forsythia bush,

the Dutch elm

whose long gone limbs I remember

as if they were my own.

I am from fudge and eyeglasses,

from Imogene and Alafair.

I'm from the know- it-alls

and the pass- it-ons,

from perk up and pipe down.

I'm from He restoreth my soul

with cottonball lamb

and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,

fried corn and strong coffee.

From the finger my grandfather lost

to the auger

the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box

spilling old pictures.

a sift of lost faces

to drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments --

snapped before I budded --

leaf- fall from the family tree.

* © George Ella Lyon, where i'm from, where poems come from, published by Absey & Company, Spring, Texas, 1999. http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html