This Writing Prompt will Lead to your Most Meaningful Work

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s one of my all-time favorite quotes:

“Nothing is forever except change.”

-Buddha

In other words, the only thing that doesn’t change is that everything always changes. We might sometimes forget this in life, but it’s essential to remember in your writing. Whether you’re working on fiction or nonfiction, a book is basically a chain of changes that climaxes into a major transformation.

When you’re forming the “big vision” for your book, keep in mind that it will evolve throughout the process. As you imagine the book as a whole, don’t feel you have to figure everything out right away. Fill in the blanks wherever you can and allow that vision to grow organically.

Usually, major changes in love, health, spirituality, or finances come through a series of smaller turns, even if we only recognize them in hindsight. In your story, this will be the outline that leads to the climax and eventually the resolution. It’s actually a very natural shape that occurs again and again in our lives, in ways big and small: a problem or desire intensifies like a wave until it breaks.

Have I repeated the word “change” enough in the first several paragraphs? I suppose it isn’t very writerly, but this is where things really get rolling, so I’m driving home my point. It will help you form scenes, examples and anecdotes that keep the book interesting. As much as possible, we want to check both the whole and all of the parts on the question, “Why does this matter?” or “What’s revealed?”

In order to warm up and practice at this, there’s a prompt I love to work with. Furthermore, I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of extraneous writing prompts that ask you, “Write about a haunted house with three objects from your house,” or “Use these 6 words in the opening paragraph of your story,” simply because they don’t advance you on the work that you’re meant to do.

This isn’t like that. This will dig right into the major themes in your life, and help them bubble up in your fiction or nonfiction. Here goes:

Think of the major turning points in your own life. What did they involve? Having a baby? Losing a job? Falling in love? Breaking up?

We all experience moments that change us forever. Something shifts about the way we see the world. In fiction, memoir, or self-help, writing turning points is one of the most powerful narrative skills you can master. You should have a turning point in every chapter. Think of 5 turning points in your life. Sketch out the experience, as well as the insight you gained from it. Don't worry about how it fits into the book yet. This is the gestation period. We're using the mind in new ways.

Then draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper. On one side write the experiences or turning points you’ve been through, and on the other side, write the insights you’ve gained from them.

This is what I love about the creative process. As you develop the capacity to understand your strongest passions and challenges, you can see yourself in terms of a story. Making art is all about objectifying subjective experiences. The waves that may have once dominated our lives are free to crash back into the ocean.