The following is an extract from Prompt Me to Write. It includes tips, writing prompts and writing exercises on how to write a story to help make the world a better place.
“If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”
Martin Luther
Words inspire with tales of bravery or love, helping readers to face their own difficulties head on. Words entertain, lifting people up and bringing joy to the world. And words teach people new skills and different ways of thinking.
Your words will also undoubtedly change you. If you put traumatic memories down in writing, even in fiction form, while it’s no substitute for therapy, it helps put a gap between yourself and the event and gives you a new perspective. As you show others they are not alone, you help to heal your own wounds.
However, a story is not a self-help guide. A hero who transforms and changes their beliefs, and who meets characters with varied opinions, will be more inspirational than a heavy-handed hero who preaches to the audience.
Show the reader why negative actions fail. Show them it’s possible to overcome hurdles, both internal and external. And inspire your readers with a story that moves them, taking them on their own journey, as your protagonist goes on theirs.
If you want to change the world, begin by deciding what it is you’re trying to change:
What matters to you?
1. What’s a positive change you’ve made, however small, that you’re proud of?
2. What do you consider the biggest threat humanity is currently facing?
3. You’re invited to give a TED talk. Spend ten minutes writing your speech.
4. Have you ever saved anyone’s life?
5. Has anyone saved yours?
6. Spend five minutes writing a scene where you achieve your dream for the world.
Prompts on specific issues
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”
George Orwell
What if you want to tackle one of the big issues in your writing? Things like achieving liberation and peace, helping the environment, or overcoming inequality? Fiction writing can help in a range of ways:
● By raising awareness of the importance of an issue and potential solutions.
● By increasing reader’s passion for a topic they already believe in.
● By building empathy for a cause.
As you respond to any of the following prompts, consider how you can achieve these goals through both personal moments and by exploring global themes. What are the consequences of the issue and how can it be changed?
1. What’s a diverse group you know little about? This might be a different race, transgender people, disabled people, etc. What are five challenges you think this group faces?
2. Write a story featuring three different characters from this group. Ensure each character has their own unique personality and perspective.
3. An alien visits Earth and is shocked to find humans are racist to one another. Write a conversation between the alien and a racist person.
4. An animal rights group discovers the impact intensive animal farming has on global warming and decides to act.
5. Write a letter to your country’s leader to persuade them to stop funding a war, or to make another change that’s important to you.
6. You are the first black woman to become a partner in your company. The other eleven members are all white men. It’s the first board meeting.
Writing an allegory
Solo exercise
30 minutes
Using allegories to influence others.
“Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?”
Blaise Pascal
What pressing issue would you like to see changed in the world? It may be a positive one you’d love people to embrace, or a negative one you’d like to see ended.
Feel free to use the issue you picked in one of the writing prompts.
Write a sentence on each of the following:
● If you could change the world in one way, what would it be?
● How do politicians address or avoid addressing the issue?
● Invent two characters one trying to change the situation, and one sabotaging their efforts to keep it the same.
Now, put the issue to one side for a moment. Answer each of the following in one or two words:
● What are your favourite genres to read or write?
● Would you like to write about humans, animals, machines, aliens, or supernatural beings?
● What settings or time periods do you enjoy reading about?
● Do you like stories to have a happy ending?
Next, it’s time to merge your two sets of answers together. There are two ways to approach an allegory. Answer the following two questions, then choose which option you prefer:
● If this were happening to someone else, who might it happen to? For example, in Animal Farm the events affect farm animals; in 1984, it’s humans in the future.
● Imagine people were behaving the same about a different issue. What could that other issue be? Don’t Look Up changes climate change denial to denial of an approaching comet. Avatar changes colonists exploiting Indigenous people to humans mining an alien world.
Whichever you choose, your protagonist can be someone who has the answer. Another character represents someone who is actively opposing them. Feel free to add other characters if you wish.
Allegories are less likely to have a happy ending than other stories. They serve as a warning of what could go wrong. By including one or more characters who has hope and a solution, you also show the answer, even if it isn’t ultimately realised. This is important to affect change.
You now have all the ingredients for your allegory. Write a story with these ingredients.
The power of a thrutopia
Solo exercise
20 minutes
Inspire change by showing it happening.
“If you’re a writer, actual or aspiring – in fact any kind of creative person – then figuring out clear road maps that inspire people to a new future has to be, I think, the single most important thing we can be doing.”
Manda Scott
Dystopian literature warns people what might happen if we get it wrong. Utopian literature tantalises with the promise of a joyful future if we get it right. Thrutopias show how you get from where we are now to where we want to be.
Thrutopias are typically set over a period of years and give insights into the societal, political, economic, and scientific solutions we need in order to save our planet.
As a story form, thrutopias share several characteristics with many successful novels. This includes characters trying to achieve an important goal, diverse obstacles to overcome, and a happy ending.
Research solutions to the climate crisis that are being implemented or researched today. Choose one you feel has the potential to really make a difference. Write a story of a scientist, influencer, or other hero who achieves a significant step along their journey. What obstacles do they have to overcome and how do they succeed?
These are a handful of prompts and exercises from Prompt Me to Write, an author’s guide that includes 1,000 creative writing prompts and 100 full-page exercises.
“I have tried other “write with me” types of books but this one is different from the rest.
Woods gives many different kinds of prompts which I never saw before: from short 2 sentence questions, to a longer exercise that can be done solo or in a group. And even an image with questions attached to jump start your creativity. The chapters are also broken down by theme (fantasy writing, writing young characters, writing villains, writing comedy, dialogue etc.). I think this is a great way to break up the chapters so the reader can find exactly what they are looking for and hone those skills with the many examples and prompts Woods has given.
After doing a few prompts, I was finding myself writing things I would probably never think about if not for this book. It will be a great tool in my tool belt for strengthening my prose and overall creativity that I will come back to time and again.”
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