Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise from trying to escape a state of confusion. Here are four writing prompts for stories that involve the condition of confusion.
Man vs. nature
Your main character wakes up in an unknown location and is confused about how he got there. How does he go about determining where he is? How does he get home or to safety? And how did he end up at that location?
Man vs. man
The main character discovers a mysterious structure. What secrets does it resist yielding? How was it discovered? What threat does it pose to the main character and others? While not a human per se, the structure can be a character itself.
Man vs. society
A missing person from a cold case suddenly shows up. Where was this person all these years? What if those responsible for his disappearance want to keep this information secret?
Man vs. himself
What happens when the main character discovers his father isn’t the god or paragon of virtue that the perspective of childhood led him to believe? How does this lead to confusion in the main character about his sense of identity? How does he fund peace with the revelations about his father – and with himself?
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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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