Here’s a writing prompt for you today: write about a time when you encountered a weather event that evoked intense emotion and tell a story around it. Maybe, like me, you grew up in “Tornado Alley” and was constantly hearing the warning sirens and so you grabbed your dog and ran to the basement. Maybe it was a tsunami, or hurricane that devasted your town or you had to evacuate. Maybe it was a drought that reduced your farm to a wasteland, or a wildfire that took your home. Whatever the storm or devastation, write about it today.
Here’s a good step-by-step for those who like that sort of thing, but write however feels best to YOU!
- Freeform write. Don’t think, just write what happened.
- Read what you wrote and add what you missed.
- Read this new version, and now edit it for clarity or emphasis.
- Edit again, tailoring it to make sense into a story. This may mean deleting large portions and I always recommend when you do that to save the original version in another document because you may want to revisit it.
- Read it through and ask yourself what would make this interesting to my reader?
- Add details if not already present. Think of the five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. (One of my favorite things about a rain storm is that I can smell the rain in the air before it arrives.)
Happy writing!