When I was in my first Creative Writing class, we spent one day doing a variety of writing challenges. One of the challenges was to write a fairy tale ending. I would like to challenge my readers to do the same thing. It was super fun to do, and I don’t want to do ALL the writing around here. This blog is about the overwhelming urge to write. Does this challenge give you the urge to write? As an example, I’ll share what I wrote. Being me, I couldn’t resist the urge to add in a twist of my own.
“As the sun slowly dropped behind the distant mountains, turning the sky a darker shade of blue with some purple and pink clouds, it seemed that life could not get any better for Prince Will and his soon to be bride, Marie. The problems were far behind them, and they could continue to move forward in their lives. Marie’s dreams were all coming true. She had her prince, her knight in shining armor. He had come to rescue her from the horrors of her evil step-mother and gave her the courage to stop serving her two step-sisters. He stopped the huntsman from cutting her heart out, and he protected her from the fire-breathing dragon. After his evil step-mother had banished her from the kingdom, he had vanquished her as well and found Marie living in the forest with the dwarves. He even climbed up the tower walls to break her free after she had been kidnapped once more. It was a glorious day when he had brought her triumphantly back to his kingdom and romantically proposed on the steps in front of the castle. He had saved her life so many times, how could she possibly deny him when she owed him so much? She said yes, he slipped the ring on her finger, and they embraced for the whole kingdom to see. The crowds cheered and Marie could not hold back a laugh as she smiled wide. She couldn’t wait for their wedding the next day. She had won the heart of the prince and the heart of the whole kingdom just because she had been in danger. Her father’s plan had worked perfectly.”
Please share your own versions in the comments! I love getting comments and I’d love to hear your writing voices. One of the most important things a writer needs to do is to share his or her writing with a group. That includes hearing what others have written as well. It’s always so fun to hear the different ways people can interpret a prompt like this.
Another challenge I have is called the “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” Contest.
This one is also very fun. The point of the contest is to write the worst opening line you can think of. Here is a link to last year’s contest winners- http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2013win.html, and here is the opening line I wrote:
“She felt her knees buckle and she fell to the floor in a desperate heap, sobbing and trying to figure out how on earth she could ever move on and continue with her life when she felt such hopelessness over the tragedy that occured when she spilt the milk.”
If the last challenge wasn’t fun enough, I hope this one will get you to write, or at least get your mind working. Again, please share your writing in the comments. I want to hear what you have to say, well, write. I am really looking forward to your responses!
~Alyson
