by Bryn Donovan
He sees her near the lake. Takes another good look. Distracted, he walks off the edge of the pier into the water.
He sees her by the side of the road, trying to fix her bicycle, and stops to help.
She’s arguing with a friend or date about some obscure subject and he chimes in to support her point of view.
He accidentally walks in on her while she’s bathing or showering.
She’s an Ivy League student working on her advanced calculus homework at a café. He’s a barista, and he looks over her shoulder and corrects her work. She’s irritated. But he’s right.
They meet at the wedding rehearsal, where she’s the maid of honor and he’s the minister.
They’re the only two single people at the New Year’s Eve party, and they agree to kiss at midnight for good luck.
50 Cute Date Ideas
Your characters, like you, sometimes need to get out of the house or away from work and have a little fun. If you’re writing a romance and you want your couple to do something fun together, these prompts might give you some ideas. Of course, you can also make things go horribly wrong for a different kind of story! Some of these could also be used for friend or family time in your story.
I’ve included some ideas that are more urban, and some that would make more sense for small town or rural settings. Some are very expensive, for stories about wealthy characters, while others don’t cost a thing. It can be a lot of fun if one of the characters is used to the activity, while the other is completely out of his or her element. If you get some ideas here for things to do with your significant other in real life, so much the better.
Your characters could…
Visit an aquarium.
Go four-wheeling or ATVing.
Go to a Renaissance festival.
Go to a basketball, baseball, football, or hockey game. This could be professional, minor league, college, high school, or Little League.
Take a hot yoga class.
Go to the state fair.
Attend a wine tasting, whiskey tasting, or chocolate tasting.
Attend a rock concert.
Go rock climbing …in real life or at an indoor gym.
Visit a museum.
Take turns performing karaoke at a bar.
Drive out to the country to look up at the stars.
Watch fireworks.
Go berry picking in the early summer, or apple picking in the late summer or early fall.
Go on a hike to see the autumn leaves.
Go sledding.
Play miniature golf.
Tour a vineyard, brewery, or coffee roasting facility.
Have a photo shoot.
Go ice-skating.
Go to church together.
Make dinner together.
Bake cookies together.
Go to the beach.
Go to the zoo or a wildlife sanctuary.
Test-drive an expensive sports car.
Go fishing on a lake.
Take a day cruise on her yacht.
Ride bikes.
Meet for cocktails at a jazz club.
Meet at the dog park.
Take dance lessons.
Go to a farmer’s market.
Take a hot air balloon ride.
Go on a nighttime helicopter ride over the city.
Take a walk in an old graveyard.
Visit a commercial haunted house before Halloween.
Go horseback riding.
Go to an archery range.
Play ping-pong or pool.
Go thrift store shopping.
Attend a free lecture.
Attend a child’s play or concert.
Go bowling.
Go to a racetrack…could be cars, could be horses.
Tour a historic home.
Play a board game.
Make s’mores, outdoors or over a fireplace at home.
Go to the opera.
Attend a party together.
50 Fight Scene Ideas
Two people fight without waking or disturbing a third person.
Someone uses an object that isn’t usually considered to be dangerous as an effective weapon.
It’s impossible to tell the real opponents from the ones who are illusions or holograms.
People fight in zero gravity.
People fight underwater.
People fight in a building that’s on fire.
Two people fight, and an unlikely bystander saves our main character.
Two people fight, but when a third person attacks our main character, his other opponent saves him.
Fortunately, his blood is also a weapon.
One of the fighters is drugged or drunk.
Someone’s trying to unmask the person who’s attacking him.
Someone finds out that she’s fighting the person she meant to join forces with or save.
Someone fights while wearing something that makes them appear the opposite of tough or intimidating.
They fight naked.
They fight in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
A protester and counter-protester fight.
Someone shoves his opponent into a body of water, and then rescues him when it’s apparent he’ll drown.
Someone gets help from an animal.
A friend, co-worker, or ally suddenly attacks someone.
One person dumps a gallon of something over the other person’s head.
One person chokes the other with a computer cord.
One person chokes the other with a string of Christmas lights.
Someone defends herself from an attacker while driving at top speed.
They fight in a hospital, which makes it easy for the main character to patch himself up afterward.
Bullying the bartender or server was a mistake.
She knocks out two men with one move.
They fight in a locked closet.
He celebrates his victory too early.
Someone leaps from a considerable height to land on an opponent.
Someone breaks the rules of the duel.
Her opponent vaporizes before she can stab him.
He accidentally wounds a bystander.
Someone was only pretending to be knocked out.
Her weapon gets stuck.
Priceless objects get damaged in the brawl.
Someone uses a bed sheet in the struggle.
The fight is a ruse to distract people from what’s really going on.
Someone repeatedly tries to avoid the fight to no avail.
Someone takes refuge in a disgusting place.
He finds himself battling a creature he didn’t believe existed.
They fight on slick ice.
He fights three challengers in succession.
Her glasses get destroyed and she can barely see.
He steals his opponent’s car, not realizing his allies rigged it with an explosive.
Someone’s ridiculous move or antic catches an opponent off guard.
Someone loses an opponent in the crowd and then finds her again.
A garden tool becomes a deadly weapon.
Someone hurls a shopping cart through the air.
Someone gets bashed with a crown or tiara.
He accidentally kills his opponent.
50 Desperate Measures
For most writers, one of the main goals is to tell a story that isn’t boring. One way to keep things interesting is to have a character do something they thought they’d never do in order to reach a goal or to prevent something terrible from happening. For much less angsty scenes, it’s also inspirin
g—and touching—to see someone make do with what they’ve got.
Here are fifty examples of things your characters could do.
Sell a beloved or important possession in order to pay for something he (or someone he loves) desperately needs.
Make a Halloween costume with items sitting around the house.
Cook for a dinner party or reception with food that’s already in the fridge and cupboards.
Live off canned food for a month…with no stove in sight.
Murder an innocent person in order to keep him from giving information that would lead to the deaths of many others.
Escape by jumping on the boxcar of a freight train headed who knows where.
Eat or drink something poisonous so the enemy will do the same.
Improvise when no tampons or sanitary pads are available.
Escape via the sewer.
Pretend not to speak English in order to avoid a conversation.
Get married to someone he’s not interested in so he can stay in the country.
Get married to someone she’s not interested in so her children will be provided for.
Hide in the bathroom for an hour to avoid another guest at the party.
Cut and color her hair in order to match someone else’s driver’s license or passport.
Inject himself with a substance in order to test his hypothesis about it.
Beg a new mother to nurse a baby who isn’t her own.
Drive a car without your glasses or contact lenses to escape.
Do all your Christmas shopping at the last minute, at a convenience store or an airport gift shop.
Make a coffee filter out of a paper towel or some other material.
Stitch up a wound with non-medical materials and no prior experience or knowledge of how to do so.
Try out a dangerous magical spell.
Make an alliance with a former enemy.
Ask a dangerous monster for help.
Infect her blood with a vampire-killing virus and then offer herself to a vampire.
Go to the dance or the party with someone he doesn’t really like, because he needs to be there for another purpose.
Commit a robbery to get the money for a life-saving medical treatment or procedure.
Break the chairs and burn them in the fireplace to stay warm.
Cut off his leg to get out of a trap or to stop the infection from spreading.
Wash her hair with bar soap because there’s no shampoo and conditioner.
Risk drinking water from a questionable source rather than dying of thirst.
Take shelter somewhere disgusting in order to stay warm.
Stay with a sketchy stranger rather than staying on the street.
Participate in a crime to gain the trust of a gang or crime syndicate in order to take it down.
Shoot his friend dead in order to spare him a more prolonged and painful death.
Go two nights without sleep in order to make a deadline.
Bring the chickens into the house after the coop burns down.
Sell her hair for money.
Sell his plasma for money.
Make a grilled cheese sandwich or a fried egg on a clothes iron.
Build furniture out of cinder blocks, discarded doors, and oil drums.
Build a house out of shipping containers and recycled lumber.
Head out with his wagon and team of horses into a blizzard to retrieve food and supplies for the tiny town on the prairie.
Get out of the car and relieve herself behind a shrub when the freeway traffic is so bad that she won’t get to the next exit for another hour.
Abandon ship even though he doesn’t exactly know how to swim.
Use someone else’s credit card after filing off part of the name, telling the sales associate it got stuck in a faulty machine.
Burn the house to the ground because it’s haunted.
Raid dumpsters for food.
Use a dab of body lotion or some gel from an aloe vera plant in lieu of hair gel.
Live in the basement of the home he was evicted from until he can figure out his next move.
Pack up and move to another city in the middle of the night to get away from someone.
50 Happy Ever After Prompts
Happy endings are frequently maligned. Some people will argue that they aren’t like real life—but the fact that real life is painful, difficult, and unjust is exactly why so many people prefer happy endings in their books, TV shows, and movies. A happy resolution that feels realistic and “earned” can take more finesse and talent than leaving a story unresolved or ending in despair.
The dog and the owner find each other again.
The innocent man is acquitted.
The captive escapes.
The special event turns out perfectly.
She gets the job.
He gets the promotion.
She starts her own business.
The business is saved.
The underdog wins.
They discover a cure.
The patient recovers.
They have a baby.
She gets away with it.
He sees the light and changes his ways.
The rescue is a success.
It can fly.
He accepts the wedding proposal.
The house is restored to its former glory.
The magnificent animal is successfully returned to the wild.
The former enemies are now friends.
The student graduates.
The orphan is adopted.
The father and son reconcile.
The superpower is restored.
He makes it home safely at last.
She finally travels to the place of her dreams.
He learns how much everyone really cares about him.
They save the planet/town/park from destruction.
The curse is broken.
The best candidate wins the election.
She inherits the estate.
The war is over.
The unjust law is changed.
The beloved one returns.
The wrongdoer is exposed.
The two confess their love for one another at last.
They make it to safety.
Her work finally gets the respect it deserves.
The former lovers renew their commitment.
He does what everyone said he would never be able to do.
She reveals her secret, and her revelation is met not with condemnation, but understanding.
He learns that he made a big positive difference.
The public park, school for underprivileged children, free hospital, or other benevolent institution opens.
The monster is killed.
She dares to chase the dream she’s been ignoring all along.
It arrives just in time.
She finds evidence that the deceased person always loved her, despite everything.
He learns the truth about what really happened – and it’s much more positive than he’d imagined.
She is granted a second chance and makes the most of it.
The dead person has come back to life.
100 POETRY EXERCISES
My background is in poetry, so I couldn’t help but include a list of poetry-writing exercises.
Of course, most, if not all, of the writing prompts in this book can be used for poetry. I would especially recommend the autobiographical prompts, image prompts, and sound prompts for inspiration.
This section includes not only prompts, but also other exercises and suggestions for getting inspired. Some of them c
an be used for fiction and journaling, too!
I think the best way for poets to get inspired—and to learn—is to read a lot of poetry. But hopefully, you’ll find plenty of approaches here that get your creative juices flowing as well.
Pick a song on your iPod, phone, or a playlist at random and let it influence you as you quickly write a first draft of a poem.
Go to a café, library, or fast food restaurant. Sit where you can see the door. Write a poem about the next person who walks in.
You can also do this in a public place where there are a lot of people talking: write a poem based on an overheard conversation.
Write a poem in the form of a shopping list.
Write a poem in the form of a to-do list.
Write a poem that’s a set of directions or instructions.
Write a poem that incorporates copy from a real set of directions or instructions—in a manual, on a product label, etc.
Write a poem about a wild animal. Mary Oliver has written many poems like this that might inspire you, including “The Hermit Crab,” “The Shark,” and “Wild Geese.”
Write a poem from the point of view of a wild animal.
Write a poem from the point of view of an inanimate object.
Write a poem that’s purely a dialogue between two or more people.
Take a long walk and take a journal along. Sit down outside and write a poem.
Take a long drive and bring a way to record yourself. Try dictating lines of a poem out loud. Say whatever comes into your head. You can use only the good stuff later when you put it down on paper.
Write a poem from the point of view of a famous person you like.
Write a poem from the point of view of a famous person you loathe.
Write a poem in which some words have been crossed out and replaced with other words.
Write a poem inspired by a piece of art. (By the way, the word for a poem or literary work inspired by visual art is ekphrasis. Pretty cool, right?)
Write a poem with a refrain: a line or a few lines that repeat, like the chorus of a song.
Write a poem that’s a prophecy: about your life, someone else’s, or about the world. César Vallejo’s poem “Black Stone on a White Stone,” translated from the Spanish, might inspire you.
Write a poem that’s a series of made-up epitaphs on gravestones.