Larry M. Coleman

I’d remind you of Tom Spanbauer’s directive: Write about the moment after which everything was different.

—Chuck Palahniuk, Consider This

This is a better prompt than “What’s your favorite food or drink?” or “What’s the best place you’ve ever visited?” because it always works. The crucial moment of any story of any length is transformation. The after is different from the before. If it’s not, you just have an anecdote.

Short example from a story you’ve almost certainly heard of even though it was written in 1915:

“One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.”

This is the opening line of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Before he woke up, Gergor was normal. After, he wasn’t. Kafka drops right into the moment after. He doesn’t even need a “why” because the “what” is powerful enough.

Another example from a work you’ve definitely heard of: in The Great Gatsby, the narrator, Nick Carraway, is writing about a man, the eponymous Jay Gatsby, whose life and death changed his outlook on life. This is the larger frame in which the picture of Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Nick, and Jordan is placed.

If you like those kinds of prompts (and if you do, I’m not judging—whatever gets you writing makes you better), you can combine this advice with them.

Example:

“What’s your favorite food or drink?”

I like sangria. [Where do I go from here?]

“What’s your favorite food or drink?” plus “moment after”

I’ve liked sangria ever since the first time I had it at a little stand in the Parque Retiro. It was a perfect March day, beautiful as only a spring-cusp day in Madrid can be. I was with a group of about ten others, almost all of whom I’ve lost touch with. That trip to Spain was the first time I’d ever used my passport and although I no longer have it nor my memories of the names of who I was with, sangria transports me back to that day almost thirty years ago when I became a traveler.

Think of most of the memories you have that are strongest. Most of them are about things that changed your life. Your tenth birthday, when you had a double-digit age. Getting your driver’s license. Graduating. Et cetera. Memories are the scenes your brain uses to write the story of your life, so you’ve used this advice whether you realize it or not.