Writing Recipe: Location, Characters, and Theme

Set your timers for this WRITERLY INSPIRATION exercise!

Reminiscent of a cookbook, use this style of writing prompt to come up with a new story idea….

PLACE: You have 3 minutes to decide upon a location. Just for fun, pick a place you haven’t written about before. Utilize all three minutes to learn just a little bit about the locale—food, accent, architecture, etc. You’d be surprised what you can discover in just 180 seconds….

CHARACTERS: You have 5 minutes to create your main characters. For an extra workout, try to flesh out at least two of them. This will really stretch your creativity in that short time constraint—but give it a try anyway. Who are they? Where are they from? Favorite food/color/band? Don’t forget to give them details!

SITUATION: You have 7 minutes to figure out why these certain characters are meeting together in this particular area. What is the story about? Hurry up, seven minutes isn’t that much time to detail the What and Why.

STORY: You have 30 minutes to write out the story. Don’t take a break. Don’t stop. Just write. See how much you can achieve in half an hour.

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

WRITE TIME: 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes

Ready? Set…Go!