It’s back! For those who aren’t familiar with my Story Stones series, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!

Previously on Story Stones!

Brain Dump (10 minutes): Time to take a dump! I mean a brain dump, of course! (I’m sure I’ll get over the joke one day.) Before we even get started with writing anyway, the world has a way with bogging our minds with thoughts and feelings and chaos. I feel this exercise helps get all of that out. It’s also a great mental health exercise! I want you to set the timer when you’re reading. Once you start, don’t stop writing. I want you to forget spelling, grammar, formatting, expectations and anything that’s going to get in your way for your time. None of that is important here. What’s important is that you are taking 10 minutes to writing whatever crosses your mind. We’re always thinking. No expectations. Just write words. You might start off “I don’t know what to write” but you’ll find your mind will naturally wander and the 10 minutes will go fast.

After the time is done (and this is important), don’t read it. I challenge you to set it aside and never read it back to yourself. Just throw it away later. Whatever you do, don’t read it now.

Getting To Know You (20 minutes): What’s your name? Your pronouns? What’s something about you that’s unique and makes you you? This exercise is meant to help not only learn something about yourself but also a way to introduce yourself to your readers (even if the only reader is a parent, sibling, partner, significant others or a beautiful non-binary person currently hosting a fantastic Writer’s Group full of amazing people. Just know that you have control over what you write, but this exercise is meant to be read by other people.

Take 10 minutes to think of an object in your home. What is it? What does it look like? Where is it? Take only a few sentences to answer these questions because the focus is not on the object but answering these questions next:

The object is watching you, author. (Creepy if you think about it, but it doesn’t have to be creepy. Unless you want it to.) How would it describe you? What is it watching you do? Based on what it sees from you or perhaps even interacts with you, how does it feel about you? What does it think is important for you/to you/about you? Does it have any (concerns, funny stories, embarrassing stories, exciting stories, etc) about you? Remember: you are writing as if you are the object viewing you.

Set that timer and write! Once finished, give it to someone else to read. Their task is read the piece quietly to themselves (give them about 5 minutes to read) and then do a bit of role playing afterwards. (A simple role play, don’t worry, not asking for COS Play, whips or leather straps.) The person is to introduce the person the object has been talking about as if no one in the room knows who they are. This introduction will be based purely on what they’ve just read. (No cheating if they know you really well and add detail.) This a great task to see what the reader has gotten out of your work. What did they learn about you? Did they pick up on any tones? motifs? or did they miss anything that you were hoping they’d pick up? Was there too little information? Too much? This can be used for character development for future writing!

Story Stone (40 minutes): Time to get our creative juices flowing.

This is one of my favourite writing tasks to do because it helps give perspective to a scene being plotted out and can really help flesh out a character.

This exercise is help create perspective by focusing on one aspect from different points of view. The scene is the same.

It is a library.

The goal of this prompt is to write a story taking place in a Library but each character experiences differently.

Due to each character’s unique perspective, note how differently the library could be! Due to time limit treat a paragraph as having no more than 5 sentences. Keeping it the same for each one gives consistency to help flesh out each character.

Paragraph 1: An anxious person walks into the library. What does an anxious person look like? Act like? Dress like? Is there a reason they are anxious and how does the library impact this anxiety?

Paragraph 2: A person is sitting at a table tapping their pencil incessantly against a book. What does this person look like? Act like? Dress like? Is there a reason they are tapping their pencil and does it impact the way the person from paragraph one interacts with them (or not at all)?

Paragraph 3: A happy person walks along a book aisle. What does happiness look like on a person? How are they acting? How does their outfit convey happiness? Is there a reason they are so happy and how does their happiness impact the library (if at all)?

Paragraph 4: A lonely person sits alone at a table reading a book. What does loneliness look like on this person? How are they acting? What does loneliness look like for you as clothing? Is there a reason they are lonely and does it impact the way they interact with other people at the library?

Paragraph 5: Choose a different emotion yourself for the next person that walks into the library. What does this emotion look like? How are they acting based on this emotion? Have the clothes symbolise this emotion and give a reason (if any) as to why this person is experiencing this emotion and how it might impact their experience in the library.

Paragraph 6: Finally, if you haven’t already, have all of these characters interact with each other. Are their any clashes? Do things get worse or better? What has brought all of these characters together to have to interact? When they leave the library do all of them have the same emotion as they entered or has things changed?

Wrapping It Up (10 minutes): Read through what you’ve come up with. Does anything stand out to you? Anything you like you might want to expand on or use elsewhere? A highlighter would come in handy here. Take note how you portrayed each emotion. Did you fall into any tropes or stereotypes? Is there another way you could portray each emotion?

You can easily change the setting to what you are currently working on and choose a handful of characters from your work in progress. Doing this exercise can help you see how others might perceive one of your characters. You might learn something about your characters you didn’t know before!

#StoryStones

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