Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise from fulfilling a pledge to another. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on promise.
Man vs. nature
A man makes a promise to his best friend (such as a soldier delivering a dying buddy’s letter to a wife), but to keep it he must survive a difficult journey. What natural obstacles does he encounter along the way? In overcoming these obstacles, what does he learn that allows him to overcome an internal flaw that might prevent him from fulfilling his promise?
Man vs. man
A man has made a promise to another person that he now finds the antagonist is preventing him from keeping. Why did he make this promise and why is it so important for him to keep? Why does the antagonist make fulfillment of this promise difficult? How does the man succeed despite this opposition?
Man vs. society
What if the very person the protagonist has promised to protect might just get him killed? Why did he make this promise? How can he convince the organization trying to capture/kill the person he’s protecting to stop what it’s doing?
Man vs. himself
The main character’s loved one – who he’s promised to marry – returns from service overseas. He finds his beloved’s emotional scars from that experience and the conflicts they create between them may be too much for him to keep his promise. What decision does he ultimately make about fulfilling his promise, and how does he arrive at it?
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.
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