Writers’ Asylum: Reinvention: Prologue
Welcome to the Asylum! Come on in, take your seat, and make yourself comfortable. We’re going to be here a while, delving into the lives – and possibly deaths – of some imaginary people. Don’t mind the doors closing behind you, they’re absolutely nothing to worry about.
In the Writers’ Asylum, we aim to inspire, to challenge, and to push you to write something you might not write otherwise. Stretch your writing muscles, try something new, and maybe push you into a different zone. You can try out a different voice, write in a new perspective, or experiment with a different style. It’s all good, it’s all allowed. The most important thing is to have fun!
Today, you’re going to be given five challenges. The challenges are a detailed prompt for you to follow, and each challenge builds upon the last to create a single story. The goal for each challenge is to complete the prompt in one thousand words or an hour, whichever happens first.
Each challenge also has a bonus goal attached to it. If you’re feeling ambitious or inspired, it’s an extra level of challenge for you to use as you please.
We have breaks built into our schedule today, so you’ll have the chance to stretch and refresh yourself in between challenges. There’ll also be a longer pause for lunch and sustenance, so don’t worry about squeezing that in. We’ve got you sorted.
Lastly, before we get started, what you write today is entirely your own. You’re welcome to share it (and we’d love to see what you come up with!) in comments on the website or in the Discord server, but that is completely up to you.
All good? Does that all make sense? I hope you’re all comfortable, because we’re about to get started.
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To get us going, I’m going to set the scene for today’s challenges. I’ll give you a series of questions to get you thinking about the story you’re going to build today, and then you’ll have a few minutes to make some notes. After you’ve got that foundation down, you’ll get the first challenge and then the writing really begins.
As with most stories, it all starts with a single character, so let’s think about who this person is.
Your character is going to be a witness to a crime, and as a result of that, they’re going to end up in witness protection. This character or someone they take into witness protection with them must survive until the last challenge. Don’t worry about the details of any of that just yet – we’ll get to that later – but keep these things in your mind.
The world this person lives in must have both crime and some kind of witness protection program. Otherwise, the world can be of any kind you choose. It can be contemporary, set in the past, wild with magic, or a colony on a far-flung planet. Take a moment to decide what kind of world you want to start with.
Now think about who your character is going to be within this world. They may or may not be connected to crime, and they may or may not be directly involved in this specific crime themselves. That is entirely up to you. All that’s required is that they witness a crime, which will come later.
Start with some basics: give your character a name, gender, and basic appearance. Note a couple of key elements to their description. This person is an adult; let’s not have any kids in the lead here.
Next, let’s give this character a profession. Something they are good at; let’s make them competent, even if they’re just starting out. They’re doing fairly well in whatever that profession entails or at least have the promise to be successful. They may even be respected.
Give some thought next to what kind of person your character is. Are they kind, or gruff? Naive or worldly? The sort of person their neighbours like, or the sort of person who has no idea who their neighbours are? If a fight broke out in a bar, would they jump in, get out of the way, or find a firehose to turn on the people involved?
What kind of home life does this person have? Do they have a family of their own: a partner, kids, parents, siblings? A best friend or friend group? How do they get along with these people? Do they have any enemies or rivals? Who do they consider to be the most important people in their life?
Now, let’s take a few minutes to make notes on all of that. Then we’ll start the first challenge and get into just how and why this character’s life turns upside down.