See the prompts below...
1/ Write the most relentless, action-packed chase sequence you can imagine.
(If this sounds too much like a Jack Reacher novel - and there's nothing with that - try making your character a child. Then have them recall this incident as an adult. What has triggered the memory…?
2/ Your character is a massive fantasy fan - they love books, movies, comics, games. As they face a critical moment in their life, they retreat deeper into their favourite escapist fantasy, until it starts to seem dangerously real…
3/ Write a piece of flash fiction showing that your character is trapped by the past.
4/ Your character has spent years in a job or relationship saying 'Yes' when they long to scream 'No!'. Describe the moment they escape that pattern of behaviour, and embrace the freedom of saying what they really mean.
5/ What does your character think of when they hear the word ‘freedom?’
6/ Your character is trying to escape an emotion or impulse they do not wish to acknowledge or act on.
(This theme forms part of the story in A Room with A View by EM Forster, in which Lucy Honeychurch, who is engaged to someone else, is on holiday in Italy with a chaperone, and trying to resist the attraction she feels.)
7/ At last! Your character is on the holiday they’ve been dreaming of for the last three years. As they head out of the airport and into the blinding sun of a new country, they relish the prospect of escaping reality for two weeks. Then they spot someone by the taxi rank…
8/ Describe the moment your character realises they are trapped.
(And what if it’s somewhere that most people would consider paradise…?)
9/ Message on screen: 'Press the Escape button if you wish to leave.'
What happens next?
10/ “You can escape anytime you like,” he said. “You think you’re in prison. But you built this prison yourself.”
Use this as an opening, or adopt it as a theme.
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