Let's write!

Write a scene in which one character is trying to help another character do something, but make sure the reader knows how the helped character feels about the assistance, and in this instance, they're not entirely happy with it.

For example, they're learning how to do it and annoyed that the other person isn't letting them try. It could be a one-person job and the other person is getting in the way and making it harder. The helped character could be interpreting the assistance as an insult, that the assistant thinks they can't do it themselves.

Word challenge today:

compliment / complement

Note that these are homophones and don't mean the same thing.

Choose two characters, preferably two that know each other in canon. They are together in a private place, such as walking down a forest path, watching TV in a room and no one else is within hearing range, or driving somewhere in a car. One of them takes the opportunity to talk to the other about something private. It could be good (e.g., they want to tell them a good secret like they just bought an engagement ring; they want to compliment the other; they want to share good gossip about someone else) or it could be bad (e.g., they want to chastise them about something bad they did; they want to share bad gossip about someone else) or even neutral (e.g. they want to talk to them about something that's troubling them).

Write that. Bonus points for not choosing the easiest-to-write conversation.

Here's a real challenge: self-critique.

An important part of writing is reading what you've written and identifying what you've done well and what could be improved. Is your writing clear? Did you get your point across? Is your grammar good? Is your style good? Did you head-hop? Does what happens in the passage make sense, or did you forget to mention that Bob opened the door before Mary walked through it? These are just a few of the things you need to consider for your writing.

Today, go back and read some of your writing that you did at least two years ago. It doesn't have to be something you posted, and you don't need to read more than a few paragraphs, but I encourage you to read a few samples, not just one.

Now, choose one of those samples and critique it. Identify at least one thing that you did well and write a paragraph explaining what it was and why it was good. Then, identify at least one thing that could be improved, write a paragraph explaining what it was and why it wasn't so good, and how you would fix it. For bonus points, actually fix it. (Though the real challenge here is the writing of the critique, not the fix.)

Word challenge today:

deity

Claustrophobia... what's the opposite of that, liking tight spaces? Claustrophilia? Anyway, today's challenge is to write about a single character having to traverse a tight space, like worming through the only exit hole after a cave-in, or doing maintenance on the Enterprise's Jeffries tubes, or trying to access their house's plumbing through the crawlspace.

The reader should know how the character feels about doing what they're doing. But, for an extra challenge, don't have the narrator or the character themself directly say what the character is thinking or feeling. Instead, craft the descriptions of the situation and the actions to communicate that. (You know, like, a person who considers the situation a challenge might "exert" to pull himself out, but someone who is really unhappy might "struggle".)

Today's challenge is not directly a writing challenge, but a conceptual challenge, or perhaps a design challenge. You're going to think long and hard (for ten minutes, anyway) about a character.

Take a character from your fandom or original work that you know very well and write down at least one of each of the following things.

1. A personality trait that comes out through how they speak (e.g. things they say, what words they choose, tone of voice)
2. An event from their past that either was traumatic or they regret a lot (or both!)
3. Some skill that they have trained in and are very good at

Then, place that character in an AU that's very different from their original world, such as an alien race, a different time period, or, if you want to stay in the same time period, a different nation/cultural background or even a wildly different socio-economic stratum. Now, do the same thing: design the character in this new world and write the same three things as listed above.

What you're doing is designing the character for the new AU but adapting what's important about them to the new world so that they're still the same character. This is a good exercise for learning to create your own characters.

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Example: Donna in Doctor Who is contemptuous of people she thinks are less intelligent and that comes out in her sarcastic jabs at people. One traumatic event in her past was the events of "The Runaway Bride" and the betrayal and then death of her fiance. She is very good with numbers and knows how companies and offices (and company politics) work very well.

In a Regency AU, let's make Donna a genteel lady, but she's nouveau riche, having grown up in a successful merchanting family that bought their way into gentility. So, she still has the London accent and the non-genteel manner of speaking, and she's not afraid to insult her less-intelligent, less-capable peers in a crude manner. She's unmarried, but only because she had been engaged to a gentleman who'd broken off the engagement (a big no-no back in the Regency) and married someone else -- that's Donna's traumatic event. Having grown up in a merchanting family, she knows how to run a shop and a house.

Word challenge today, a word with several unrelated meanings:

sharp

Is that the edge of a knife? Or a tone of voice? Maybe it's how a person dresses, or a musical term, or a pungent odor, or even a description of flavor (cheese, anyone?). Or something else entirely?

It's a hot summer where I am, sweaty and uncomfortable. However, a good imagination can do wonders, cooling you off even in heat like this.

For your ten minutes today, write something to cool off your reader, to make them feel that sprinkler as they run through it, or the spray of snow as they ski down the mountain, or the salty wind at the prow of a fast ship -- or whatever else comes to mind.

Think about the past couple of days and choose something that you did or happened to you. It should be something that lasted no more than a minute -- it can either be some short event, like a phone call or wrong number, or a small part of a longer event, such as locking the front door, getting in the car, and starting it up to get to your destination.

Now, write that thing as if it happened to your chosen character. Translate the event to whatever the character's situation is (for example, if it was Luke Skywalker, "getting in the car and starting it up" might be "climbing into the X-Wing and starting the launch sequence).