Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Writing Prompt for a Two Person Scene

Take this wherever you want. Don't be stereotypical or obvious. Be creative about setting, who these people are, what their relationship is to one another, the reasons they find themselves where they are, where they need to get to or what they need to accomplish.  Write this as a short story or maybe even as a short scripted scene.  Maybe it would make a great one-minute screenplay or stage dialogue. Whatever you do with this, I think it's a great prompt.  Are you ready?  OK, here you go.  Just take this statement and build a complete setting and situation around it.  I'm not going to give you too much to go on, but there is real opportunity for conflict from this very short description.  Get your pens out, and write a scene with this as your only starting block:

He is drunk, but she is not.

Immediate questions to ask yourself:
Who are these two, what is their relationship to each other (if you say husband/wife, you're being lazy)
Where are they? Where are they coming from? Where are they going?
What day of the week is it? What time of day? Are they inside or outside? What's the weather?
Why is he drunk -- where did he get drunk?  Why isn't she?
Is she helping him, or is she trying to get away from him?
Is he being irresponsible by being drunk, or is she being a stick in the mud?
What does she think of the fact that he is drunk? What does he think of the fact that she isn't?
Does anyone else enter this scene during the action, or is it just the two of them from beginning to end?
So, are you going to be comical or serious with this?

GO!