Strangers as fiction
For this week, we have a couple more writing prompts suggested by the class.
The first prompt is for your individual crafting, and it is very simple: write about a memorable character. This can be fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose or drama. It can be a story or just a vignette. However you craft it, by the end of the week we'll have a virtual party of memorable people posted here.
The second prompt is for the class to work on a story or stories as a group: write about a stranger. Look out the window. The first person we see (someone we don't know) will be the subject of the story. Where have they just come from? Where are they going? What are they thinking at the moment we see them?
Today you can work on either or both of these, and/or you can go back and work on any of the previous prompts.
Let's write!
She loved days like this, the kind most other people complained about: cold, wet, dreary. But it wasn't the weather she loved; it was the fact that no one would stare at her on a day like this. Many people today were wearing heavy, long coats with hoods, not just her. Come the next sunny, warm day, they'd bare heads, arms, legs, and quite a bit more. She would still be in her coat. She had to wear it, had to hide her real form under its blobby bulk. No one must find out what she really was just yet.
ReplyDeleteI grabbed by bagel and adjusted my backpack. I hope I don’t stain my white shirt while I eat this. I look up and I see four people looking at me through the window. There’s no way they’re actually looking at me, right? I must be paranoid. It’s probably fine. Maybe not. I think I’m going to take my mother’s advice and ask the doctor about schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute. They ARE looking at me. I wish I could read lips because I swear one of them just said "there she is." No one else is around me; they must mean me.
Delete"Get back! She sees us!" I KNOW that's what was said, and now they've all jumped back. What the F.
I looked at the building they were in but that gave me no clue -- it was just some creepy old historical building like dozens of others on this campus. OK, maybe extra creepy. Are those gargoyles on the roof? What IS this place?
Movement again... something was wrong with this building, but I couldn't quite tell what. I picked up my pace and began to jog as discretely as I could down the sidewalk. The paranoia had fully set in by now.I pulled my hood up just a little higher, and turned my head away from the windows, hoping that would offer some protection from whatever lurked inside that building. Was it even a building? It looked almost like an old church or chapel, but I couldn't be too sure. I hazarded a brief glance back towards it, hoping to gain some new understanding of its secrets. Something was off. Did that gargoyle have it's mouth open before? And why where the eyes turned downwards, instead of straight ahead like before? Catching myself staring (which I decided probably wasn't a good idea), I turned my head back around and darted towards the nearest building.
Delete*click* *creeaaaak*
As soon as I heard the noise, I new it had come from the... whatever it was. I was now sprinting headlong. Just as turned the corner to enter the building, I saw a flash of movement. I opened the door, and slammed it behind me.
(this was drafted before William's comment so it's like an alternate)
DeleteWhere even am I, and why are these kids paying so much attention to me? What do they want? Are they going to feed me to the gargoyles? Or maybe their boss??? Please, I think, don't do anything to me. I'll sacrifice... well, not my bagel. But whatever else I have in my purse that I haven't looked at since 2014. That should surely be of interest to those good-for-nothing rotten creeps who are in fact still staring at me. I consider giving them the finger, but you know what teenagers are like. They'd LOVE the attention, wouldn't they. Ugh. I feel sick just thinking about it. I move on.
(ALTERNATE response to first comment) I trudge my way to my first class in Siebel. I sit down in the back of the room and open my bag, taking a bite of my bagel. Oh. A drop of cream cheese falls on my front. Everything seems to be going wrong today. Great, I also forgot a pencil. I turn around to the person behind me to ask for one, but I gasp. It’s the kids from the window. All four of them. They sit in a row behind me.
Delete(Response to Florence's paragraph) The bagel churns in my stomach and threatens to make an unpleasant reappearance. I whip my head back around, clamp my eyes shut, take a breath so deep I feel like my ribcage may crack. They're not there. They can't be. Or, if they are, it's a coincidence. Or a mistake. Or I accidentally bought a special bagel and this is an alternate reality.
DeleteA hand falls on my shoulder. "You're not crazy," a cool, quiet voice says. "We're really here. And we need to talk to you."
I tried to describe the person with the red backpack and white shoes. She's probably named Sarah, carries an umbrella, and has big round glasses. She is coming from the bus stop and going to a friend's workplace to sneak them out of work. Then they plan to take the bus to the train station, take the train to Chicago, take a taxi or bus to the airport, and fly somewhere, but they don't yet know where. In the backpack, she is carrying breakfast; train tickets; various maps; her wallet; makeup; and clothes such as a dress, a fedora, masks (medical and otherwise), and a pair of scooby doo socks.
ReplyDeleteShe walked upright with purpose. Angela had a place to be today. She held in her a hand a plastic container that had today’s lunch. She had spent all morning preparing it but she had no intention of eating it today. In fact, the FDA would never approve this food to be ingested by a person.
ReplyDeleteShe had been pushed to the brink, desperate times called for desperate measures. In order to catch her lunch thief, she had laced up her spaghetti and meatballs with rat poison. The culprit would make themselves known to her after lunch in the bathroom (or maybe the hospital if they decided to eat it all like they did the last time she made lasagna).
Angela was no stranger to revenge. She was a smart gal. Her wit laid low in conversation. She was polite and always smiled. But, if you talked with her long enough, you could sense her wit right beneath her skin. You would feel as if she was conscious of everything, that she had thought of it all, the way she looked at you and spoke as if she knew exactly what you wanted.
DeleteBut few people ever figured out what Angela herself wanted. Few people could, she smiled to her warped reflection in the office kitchen's microwave. Everyone had such stupid ideas about power. They thought power was a cackling villain making speeches and smirking. Real power, Angela knew, was invisible. It was a power no one could fight because they didn't even realize you had it.
Delete(so Ryland and I were joking about a theoretical situation in which everyone we saw was “coked up,” so I decided to take a non-serious joke intro and see if I can build something interesting off of it.)
ReplyDeleteAs she walked down the street holding a plastic container filled with 23 portions of instant bread pudding, she could feel the eyes of strangers probing her every move. This was offsetting to the woman, as within the radius of a few blocks, she could see no one at all. Sweating and frantic she thought, no, this was not the day to get coked up. As the woman walked, she felt her feet move at a rate of three steps per sidewalk square, brisky zipping across the walkway. Was it weird that she was holding the container so far outside of her person? She certainly looked like an airheaded waitress practicing for work, anyone around would surely find it odd. The woman tucked the container underneath her arm, trying to maneuver her body so that the folds of her jacket covered as much surface area of the container as possible. Pressing it too hard into her ribcage, the container bent ever so slightly, cracking its left plastic latch open, the bread pudding packages inside jostling towards the newly formed dip. The woman felt a sting of panic in her brain, as in her mind, the loss of a single packet to the pavement would be a disastrous loss. Stopping in her tracks, she readjusted the container, now with a spidery white crease running along the top lid. Was it the top lid? What differentiates the top from the bottom on a container like this? The orientation of the latch? The woman flipped the box over twice and flipped it over again. Two steps later she reconsidered her choice and flipped the container once more mid stride. Much better.
I thought of Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls for one of my favorite memorable characters. He's this sort of shady guy who loves money, and he runs his business by scamming tourists out of their money. He's very goofy and he's always one step ahead of the law. At least, that's what we see on the surface. One summer, he's tasked to look after his great niece and nephew (hence "Grunkle", which is Great-Uncle). Dipper and Mabel really grow on him and we get to see a softer side to him, as well as learn more secrets about how he is the way he is throughout the course of the first season or so. I highly recommend Gravity Falls all around, but he's probably the most memorable character in the show for me.
ReplyDeleteThe Princess Bride has so many memorable characters. I think it's their catchphrases and lively personalities that make them shine. Especially the side characters like Vizzinni and Inigo.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I love this movie and the characters!
DeleteInconceivable!!
DeleteYou keep using that word. I do not think you know what it means.
DeleteIt’s kind of silly but the first character that came to mind was Crookedstar from the Warrior cats books. I used to read them a little bit back in the day, and I forgot pretty much all of what I’ve read by now, as I read them in elementary school, but I think the fact I still remember the character despite this makes him a valid choice. Basically, and I’m going to feel ridiculous writing about warrior cats but here we go, one day as a kitten (oh my god) he goes out into the woods and is playing by a river with his siblings I believe. He ends up falling into the river and smashing his face against a rock, giving him a permanent disfiguration. His mother ends up disowning him because of it, during a scene that was the first piece of writing to ever make me cry, and he lives as an outcast for a long time. Eventually he becomes strong or something, finds love, and as a full grown adult cat, comes to lead his village. He has children, and for a while life is good. Later on in the story, the village is attacked, his wife cat dies, and all of his children die of sickness as kittens. After this, the story ends, and at least for me as a kid, this ending was absolutely heart crushing. His life sucks, nearly from beginning to end with a tiny bud of joy in the middle, and that’s something that really stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteAllie Brosh telling stories about her childhood self is so entertaining to me:
ReplyDelete"My mom baked the most fantastic cake for my grandfather's 73rd birthday party. The cake was slathered in impossibly thick frosting and topped with an assortment of delightful creatures which my mom crafted out of mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. To a four-year-old child, it was a thing of wonder - half toy, half cake and all glorious possibility.
But my mom knew that it was extremely important to keep the cake away from me because she knew that if I was allowed even a tiny amount of sugar, not only would I become intensely hyperactive, but the entire scope of my existence would funnel down to the singular goal of obtaining and ingesting more sugar. My need for sugar would become so massive, that it would collapse in upon itself and create a vacuum into which even more sugar would be drawn until all the world had been stripped of sweetness.
So when I managed to climb onto the counter and grab a handful of cake while my mom's back was turned, an irreversible chain reaction was set into motion."
The descriptive and evocative language she uses to describe the mundane and make it humorous has always stuck with me.
The man in black from westworld and saul from breaking bad are also good ones from shows
Delete(Lady walking really fast with bagel - write about a stranger prompt)
ReplyDeleteI woke up at 5:30 as usual and to my surprise it was cold and rainy out. Wasn’t it going to be almost 70 tomorrow? Well I guess there's no telling with Illinois weather. Before heading out the door, I slipped on my rain boots and my red raincoat over my fuzzy sweater. I was quite hungry and decided to grab a bagel before work. I got my usual order at Einstein's. It was unusually busy today but most of the orders had cleared out by the time I placed mine. The whole time however, I eyed the bag that never moved. At least 10 or so people must’ve gone by and still nobody picked up the plain bagel with cream cheese. Suddenly a thought went through my mind. I could take it, it’s been long enough. Whoever it is, they must not want it anymore. Or maybe they forgot about it. Finally, my order was ready and placed on the counter, as I went to grab mine, I looked around quickly. I took both bags.
I left in a hurry feeling quite guilty. I hopped into my car and headed to work. I decided to eat the plain bagel on the way to work so that it would be gone and I could forget the guilt I felt about it. However, even as I finished it and stepped out of the car, I felt as though someone was watching me. I grabbed my original order, took the last sip of my coffee and shut the car door. I walked to the office as quickly as possible, still feeling as though I was being watched. A light sprinkle began causing me to look up and as I did, I realized. I was being watched. A group of students in the window appear to be looking at me? Oh no. As they notice me looking back at them, they retreat. I can’t quite make out their faces laughter? astonishment? Who knows. I put my hood on and quicken my pace.
I love almost all the characters from the Invincible comics, the one that was made into an animated series a little bit ago. My favorite might be robot. He looks like a generic side character robot, and heavily resembles the brainpop robot, but he's really really smart and it shows everywhere. Then, it turns out that the actual robot is a deformed human who has to live in a tank to survive that remotely controls the robot to do good. Then, he falls in love with monster girl, who can transform into monsters at will at the cost of making her younger every time she uses it, so he makes a belt that cures her of the curse that keeps her young and transfers his mind into a human body that he cloned so he can be with her. He's super sweet and clever and has such a cool arc despite looking so unmemorable at first.ALSO a bunch of sopranos characters i like lol
ReplyDelete