Monday, January 3, 2011

Monday Moment #101: a writing prompt for your work-in-progress

(If you’ve already read this then skip past all the italicized blah-di-blah and start writing.) Monday Moments are writing prompts for your work-in-progress. They are questions that come from my experiences and are my favorite way to find out more about my characters. I find I learn a lot. Some of it I use. Some of it I don’t. But I always, always get to know my characters better just by answering the question. I hope you do too.)

Happy 2011!

I hope it's off to a spectacular start for you.

I'm not sure how I'm doing in 2011 yet. I started it by believing my children were returning back to school today. I was sure. Then yesterday my oldest (who had just returned from a sleepover) said, "Are you sure we have school tomorrow?" Yeah, I was sure. The she said, "Because Donna said we don't have school tomorrow."

Checks school calendar. January 3 blocked out as Winter Break. Great.

Me: Okay, girlies. You don't have school tomorrow.

Perhaps I was just anxious to get back to a schedule and regular work. Or, I don't pay careful enough attention. Hopefully I can only do better from here.

Topic switch...

Just prior to Christmas, Monday Moments hit number 100. Woot-woot! A cool milestone for me. I knew it was a bad time to celebrate, but that's when it hit and I'm so glad some of you left a comment. I placed your names in a box, pulled one out, and... *drum roll*

Wanda Vaughn I want send you a cuppa. :)
(And now you should go check out Wanda's blog because she's a polar bear. CrAzY. That is something I will never do. But I'm impressed. Hats off! )

Thank you so much for a being a reader. To all of you for being readers.

It's fun to a be a winner, of things big and small.

What something your character has won?

7 comments:

Wanda Vaughn said...

Thank you, Ms. Jolie. That must be a beautiful hat!

I've decided that this year will be my year of 'living dangerously'. I'm going to try all kinds of new stuff! Even blog. :o)

Cathy said...

Interesting question. Since I'm always thinking "conflict," I'm always thinking about things my characters lose. I can't say they've ever won anything ... (is that sad?)

Wanda Vaughn said...

oops. I missed that detail. Sigh. It must have been a beautiful *box*!

Sigh. I'll blame it on the cold water.

Martha Brockenbrough said...

My poor current main character. He's won absolutely nothing. A complete sadsack. :-)

Cuppa Jolie said...

Wanda - That's funny because when I typed box it even felt funny, but I did draw out of box. The only thing beautiful about it was that your name was pulled. :)

Catherine - Ah, it is sad. So, they've never won anything at all? Not even a cakewalk at the school fair?

Martha - Well, yes. I do think you have a bit of sadsack. And knowing what I know of your story, the nothing doesn't surprise me.

Joan Holub said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joan Holub said...

This is a great question, Jolie. Seriously, I'm with Catherine and Martha. I'm usually focusing on the losses. But maybe that's just because the wins come naturally as we write the story, but we have to think harder to determine the losses the characters have to overcome. So to put a good spin on it, we're positive people who have to work to think negative.

Joan