- The year is 1997. No one has cell phones, and there is no online banking. The Pimson Town Bank is crowded. A person enters the bank, intending to rob it. The teller whose station the robber chooses has been on the job for only four days. Among the bank’s customers are a deaf person, a teenager who shoplifts, and a journalist. Pick one of these people to be your main character and write a page of the story. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Make the story change when you change the main character.
- A family arrived on the western frontier in 1840, and this is their first winter. They’re city people hoping for a better life. Lazy snowflakes are falling. Pa goes out to the barn because their cow is about to give birth. The teenager in the family goes out to chop wood. Grandfather is in the rocking chair, saying nothing about the sudden pain in his side. Ma is spinning wool and fails to see their ten-year old leave the cabin to look at the snow, which quickly turns into a blizzard. Pick one of these people to be your main character and write a page of the story. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Make the story change when you change the main character.
- A dragon has a secret desire. It flies over Plimson Castle and sets the pennants on fire as a warning and lands on the tournament field. The royal family, their most powerful knight, and their most loyal advisor go out to meet the dragon, who tells them they have three days to satisfy its secret desire and they can ask it three questions to help them figure out what the desire is. If they fail, the royal family and all their subjects will fry. Pick one of these people to be your main character and write a page of the story. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Make the story change when you change the main character.
- This comes from Greek mythology or history, because there really was a Troy. An enormous wooden horse, filled with Greek warriors, stands outside the walls of Troy. The Greeks will win the war against Troy if the Trojans bring the horse inside the city walls. Otherwise, they’ll lose. Sinon, a Greek soldier pretending to have defected from the Greek cause, says that the Greeks want the Trojans to leave the horse outside, which will anger the goddess Athena. Cassandra, the prophetess whom no one believes, warns King Priam and Queen Hecuba not to bring the horse inside. Present also is Helen of Troy, who doesn’t know the horse is full of soldiers but who isn’t sure which side she’s on, the Greek or Trojan. Pick one of these people to be your main character and write a page of the story. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Stop and pick a different person to be your main character and write a page. Make the story change when you change the main character.