“More and more of our time is spent putting Band-Aids on the things that just aren’t working instead of re-examining, reimagining, and reshaping our lives based on what brings us meaning and joy.” (Ben Michaelis, Your Next Big Thing)
Writing Exercise: Reimagining Character Lives
Key Writing Techniques to Practice
Stasis Disruption Through Internal Crisis Use an emotional or psychological fracture—rather than an external event—to drive the character’s transformation. Meaning-Based Motivation Create a character whose actions are shaped not by a plot mechanism but by a yearning for something meaningful that challenges their current patterns. Symbolic Action as Narrative Resolution Employ a specific gesture, decision, or symbolic act that redefines the character’s path and embodies their internal shift.
Writing Prompt (500 words)
Write a scene in which a character realizes they’ve spent years propping up a life that no longer serves them. The moment must occur in a mundane setting: an early morning bus stop, a hardware store, a daycare pick-up line, or a lunch break in a mall food court. In this moment, they must encounter a trigger—an overheard conversation, a forgotten object, an unexpected kindness—that forces them to reimagine what their life could be. The character must make a small but definitive choice that symbolically breaks with the status quo.
Avoid melodrama, exposition, or overt declarations. Let the realization emerge through contradiction, gesture, sensory detail, and subtext.
Evaluation Criteria
Strong responses will:
Ground the emotional shift in concrete sensory or behavioral cues Avoid summarizing the character’s thoughts; instead, dramatize the shift through physical action or environmental interaction Choose a setting that heightens the dissonance between routine and awakening Conclude with a gesture or decision that is emotionally inevitable but narratively unexpected
Weak responses will:
Rely on exposition or internal monologue without action Use clichés like quitting a job, breaking up on the spot, or crying without purpose Fail to tie the setting or triggering moment meaningfully to the character’s arc Deliver a conclusion that feels forced, abstract, or disconnected from the preceding moment
Follow-Up Questions for Workshopping/Revision
Does the setting enhance or dilute the emotional impact of the realization? Is the character’s shift dramatized through action, or is it simply declared? What symbolic choices are being made in the final action—and are they clear enough without being overstated? How does the scene convey what the character values now that they didn’t before?
Recommended Reading
“Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” by ZZ Packer (title story in Drinking Coffee Elsewhere) — a masterclass in psychological rupture expressed through constraint, alienation, and small but defining choices. Packer’s protagonist undergoes an internal shift not through revelation but through withdrawal, deflection, and subtext, ultimately refusing the life prescribed to her in favor of something unknown but self-determined.
Strong Response Example (Excerpt)
In the hardware store, the woman opens a packet of lightbulbs. One shatters in her hand. The manager rushes over. She apologizes, but he waves her off kindly. She stares at the mess for a long beat, then slowly puts back the other bulbs, turns, and leaves without buying anything. Later that night, she throws away the list her ex made for fixing up the house they still co-own. She lights a candle instead.
Weak Response Example (Excerpt)
He stood in line at the food court, thinking about how miserable his life was. He decided, then and there, to quit his job and travel the world. He felt free for the first time. He smiled as he walked out into the sunshine.
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