Diversity Challenge: Revamped
Sep. 11th, 2016 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wonderfulchaosI remember seeing a Diversity Challenge project a while back and thinking, "Oh, I'd like to give something that a try!" But some of the prompts/guidelines didn't appeal to me, so I decided to make a few changes to the original and post up my current template for anyone else who might be interested.
The original, because it deserves all the credit, can be found here.
As for this version that I'm posting, I wanted it to be more easy-going because of my schedule. So it's a "one fic for each prompt" kind of deal.
I. Point of View
1. First Person
2. Second Person
3. Third Person
4. Point of view of an Animal
5. Stream of consciousness
6. Write from the POV of someone not directly involved in the story.
7. Write from an unexpected POV.
8. Write from the POV of a villain.
9. Write from the POV of a lackey or sidekick.
10. Write multiple narrators for one story.
II. Character
1. Main character
2. Minor character
3. OC-centric
4. Write the backstory of a character whose backstory is not well explored.
5. Villain
6. Non-human character
7. Trans character
8. Older character
9. Younger character
10. Character you like the most
III. Exercises
1. Write a fic centered on one characters view on another character.
2. Write a fic centered on one character's view on something or some place.
3. Write a story focused on an animal.
4. Write about an unnamed character.
5. Write about an inanimate object.
6. Write about a single event from canon.
7. Write a scene that does not occur in canon.
8. Write something fluffy.
9. Write something angsty.
10. Write about a dream.
11. Write a scene that takes place at home.
12. Write a family scene.
13. Write human/animal interaction.
14. Write a park scene.
15. Write a fic wherein characters are recognizable without mentioning their names (this includes nicknames and titles).
16. Write a story that starts and ends with the same letter.
17. Write at least five (slightly different) reincarnations of the same scene. (E.g. the same person doing the same thing with subtle differences.)
18. Write a story that starts and ends with the same word.
19. Write a story that starts and ends with the same sentence.
20. Write two versions of the same story from differing point of views.
21. Create a shuffled playlist of 15 songs. Write to the mood of the song for only as long as it plays. As soon as a new song pops up, the mood of the story should change to match the song.
22. Use this sentence:
23. Use this plot:
24. Use this plot twist:
25. Use a previous story to inspire a new one. The catch: the stories can't be for the same fandom.
26. Write a story that progresses differently from canon but ultimately winds up at the same end.
27. Fill in a plot hole.
28. Write a character with changes to their physical traits. (e.g. A character that had normal sight is now blind, or a sickly character is now perfectly healthy.)
29. Put a minor character in the role of the main character. How would they handle what the MC does?
30. Focus on a side-plot of canon and expand on it.
31. Explore a fanon theory that is never disproven or proven in canon
32. Start a story from a couple of episodes/chapters before the end.
33. Write what you think the ending would be (ignoring the actual ending, if necessary).
34. Pick your favorite cliche and write it.
35. Write about flowers in some way, shape or form.
36. Write something that could pass for a hallmark movie.
37. Write about a haunted house. (Whether as an attraction or an actual, ghouls and goblins-infested house.)
38. "This sounds like a terrible idea. Let's do it anyway." Write a story with this premise.
39. Write about a single parent.
40. Sweet, lovable Person A is actually a serial killer. Person B is the paranoid neighbor who no one believes.
IV. Relationships
1. OTP
2. BrOTP
3. Not your OTP
4. Not your BrOTP
5. Enmity
6. OT3
7. Group of at least four people
8. Break your OTP
9. Break your OT3
10. Write about your BrOTP getting into an argument/fight.
11. Going separate ways
12. Farewell/death
13. First meeting
14. We've met before, haven't we?
15. Slow burn
16. A pairing you read but don't write
17. A pairing you don't particularly like
18. A rare pairing
19. A crack pairing
20. Canon pairing
21. Fanon pairing
22. Write an unusual friendship.
23. Write an unhealthy relationship.
24. Write a 'from friends to lovers' story.
25. Write a story where your OTP breaks up, but they decide to remain friends.
26. Write an open relationship.
27. Write an asexual character in a relationship.
28. Write an aromantic character in a relationship.
29. Write a love triangle (or some other shape, if you want to get even more convoluted).
30. A platonic, familial love.
V. Rating
1. K, all auidences
2. T, for 13 and older
3. M, mature readers only
4. K
5. T
6. M
7. K
8. T
9. M
10. NC-17, graphic violence and/or sex
VI. General Prompts
1. Losing something
2. Finding something
3. Gaining an understanding for something
4. Achieving a goal
5. Failure to achieve a goal
6. Substance use (drugs, alcohol, etc)
7. Life on the streets
8. Doppelganger
9. Coffee and/or books
10. Den of thieves
VII. Style
1. Dialogue only
2. No dialogue
3. Epistolary
4. Drabble collection (unrelated)
5. Side-story to a multi-chapter fic you've written.
6. Side-story to someone else's multi-chapter fic.
7. Pastiche, an imitation of someone else's writing style.
8. 5 things + 1 (e.g. "Five Nightmares, and One Sweet Dream")
9. Pathos (quality that invokes pity or sadness)
10. Drabble collection (interconnected)
VIII. Setting
1. Alternate Ending
2. Post-Canon
3. Pre-Canon
4. Crossover
5. AU
6. Next Generation
7. What If
8. Divergence
9. Fusion
10. Specialized school AU (art, cooking, magic, etc.)
IX. Themes
1. Death
2. Guilt
3. Violence
4. Friendship
5. Family
6. Hurt/Comfort
7. Irony
8. Hope
9. Despair
10. Nature
11. Psyche of a murderer
12. Suicide
13. Non-suicidal self harm
14. Abuse
15. Eating Disorder
16. Trauma
17. Memory
18. Illness
19. Bullying
20. Prophecy
21. Seven Sins
22. Seven Virtues
23. Going on a trip
24. Summer
25. Winter
X. Genre
1. Romance
2. Tragedy
3. Humor
4. Adventure
5. Crime
6. Drama
7. Fantasy
8. Horror
9. Mystery
10. Parody
11. Supernatural
12. Thriller
13. Memoir
14. Dying Earth
15. Fantasy Parody
16. Dark Fantasy
17. Shenmo Fantasy
18. Psychological Horror
19. Paranormal Horror
20. Bildungsroman (a coming of age story)
21. Noir
22. Slice of Life
23. Fairytale
24. Ancient Myth
25. Dystopia
XI. Length
1. One-shot
2. Two-shot
3. Three-shot
4. Six chapters
5. Ten chapters
6. Twenty chapters
7. 1500 words
8. 5000 words
9. 10000 words
10. 20000 words
XII. Devices
1. Epiphany
2. Defamiliarization
3. Polysyndeton, which uses conjunctions like "and", "or", "but" and "nor". (e.g. “Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness.” - Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
4. Hamartia, a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
5. Pathetic fallacy, to "impart emotions to something else" (like nature or inanimate objects) (e.g.“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,” - William Wordsmith, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.) A state that is human-like, to feel as we do.
6. Personification; to give an idea, object, or animal human attributes (e.g. "The wind whispered through the trees.") An action that is human-like.
7. Ticking clock
8. Flashback
9. Flashforward
10. Eucatastrophe, aka "a happy ending" (a sudden and favorable turn of events that leads to the best ending)
11. Chekhov's gun ("Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." - Anton Chekhov)
12. Predestination Paradox - a casuality loop (it means this: the time traveler is in the past, which means they were in the past before. Therefore, their presence is vital to the future, and they do something that causes the future to occur in the same way that their knowledge of the future has already happened.)
13. MacGuffin; a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so important.
14. in medias res; beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events
15. Groundhog Day
16. Time travel (changing the past to change the future)
17. Cliffhanger
18. Open Ending
19. Frame Story
20. Unreliable Narrator
The original, because it deserves all the credit, can be found here.
As for this version that I'm posting, I wanted it to be more easy-going because of my schedule. So it's a "one fic for each prompt" kind of deal.
I. Point of View
1. First Person
2. Second Person
3. Third Person
4. Point of view of an Animal
5. Stream of consciousness
6. Write from the POV of someone not directly involved in the story.
7. Write from an unexpected POV.
8. Write from the POV of a villain.
9. Write from the POV of a lackey or sidekick.
10. Write multiple narrators for one story.
II. Character
1. Main character
2. Minor character
3. OC-centric
4. Write the backstory of a character whose backstory is not well explored.
5. Villain
6. Non-human character
7. Trans character
8. Older character
9. Younger character
10. Character you like the most
III. Exercises
1. Write a fic centered on one characters view on another character.
2. Write a fic centered on one character's view on something or some place.
3. Write a story focused on an animal.
4. Write about an unnamed character.
5. Write about an inanimate object.
6. Write about a single event from canon.
7. Write a scene that does not occur in canon.
8. Write something fluffy.
9. Write something angsty.
10. Write about a dream.
11. Write a scene that takes place at home.
12. Write a family scene.
13. Write human/animal interaction.
14. Write a park scene.
15. Write a fic wherein characters are recognizable without mentioning their names (this includes nicknames and titles).
16. Write a story that starts and ends with the same letter.
17. Write at least five (slightly different) reincarnations of the same scene. (E.g. the same person doing the same thing with subtle differences.)
18. Write a story that starts and ends with the same word.
19. Write a story that starts and ends with the same sentence.
20. Write two versions of the same story from differing point of views.
21. Create a shuffled playlist of 15 songs. Write to the mood of the song for only as long as it plays. As soon as a new song pops up, the mood of the story should change to match the song.
22. Use this sentence:
23. Use this plot:
24. Use this plot twist:
25. Use a previous story to inspire a new one. The catch: the stories can't be for the same fandom.
26. Write a story that progresses differently from canon but ultimately winds up at the same end.
27. Fill in a plot hole.
28. Write a character with changes to their physical traits. (e.g. A character that had normal sight is now blind, or a sickly character is now perfectly healthy.)
29. Put a minor character in the role of the main character. How would they handle what the MC does?
30. Focus on a side-plot of canon and expand on it.
31. Explore a fanon theory that is never disproven or proven in canon
32. Start a story from a couple of episodes/chapters before the end.
33. Write what you think the ending would be (ignoring the actual ending, if necessary).
34. Pick your favorite cliche and write it.
35. Write about flowers in some way, shape or form.
36. Write something that could pass for a hallmark movie.
37. Write about a haunted house. (Whether as an attraction or an actual, ghouls and goblins-infested house.)
38. "This sounds like a terrible idea. Let's do it anyway." Write a story with this premise.
39. Write about a single parent.
40. Sweet, lovable Person A is actually a serial killer. Person B is the paranoid neighbor who no one believes.
IV. Relationships
1. OTP
2. BrOTP
3. Not your OTP
4. Not your BrOTP
5. Enmity
6. OT3
7. Group of at least four people
8. Break your OTP
9. Break your OT3
10. Write about your BrOTP getting into an argument/fight.
11. Going separate ways
12. Farewell/death
13. First meeting
14. We've met before, haven't we?
15. Slow burn
16. A pairing you read but don't write
17. A pairing you don't particularly like
18. A rare pairing
19. A crack pairing
20. Canon pairing
21. Fanon pairing
22. Write an unusual friendship.
23. Write an unhealthy relationship.
24. Write a 'from friends to lovers' story.
25. Write a story where your OTP breaks up, but they decide to remain friends.
26. Write an open relationship.
27. Write an asexual character in a relationship.
28. Write an aromantic character in a relationship.
29. Write a love triangle (or some other shape, if you want to get even more convoluted).
30. A platonic, familial love.
V. Rating
1. K, all auidences
2. T, for 13 and older
3. M, mature readers only
4. K
5. T
6. M
7. K
8. T
9. M
10. NC-17, graphic violence and/or sex
VI. General Prompts
1. Losing something
2. Finding something
3. Gaining an understanding for something
4. Achieving a goal
5. Failure to achieve a goal
6. Substance use (drugs, alcohol, etc)
7. Life on the streets
8. Doppelganger
9. Coffee and/or books
10. Den of thieves
VII. Style
1. Dialogue only
2. No dialogue
3. Epistolary
4. Drabble collection (unrelated)
5. Side-story to a multi-chapter fic you've written.
6. Side-story to someone else's multi-chapter fic.
7. Pastiche, an imitation of someone else's writing style.
8. 5 things + 1 (e.g. "Five Nightmares, and One Sweet Dream")
9. Pathos (quality that invokes pity or sadness)
10. Drabble collection (interconnected)
VIII. Setting
1. Alternate Ending
2. Post-Canon
3. Pre-Canon
4. Crossover
5. AU
6. Next Generation
7. What If
8. Divergence
9. Fusion
10. Specialized school AU (art, cooking, magic, etc.)
IX. Themes
1. Death
2. Guilt
3. Violence
4. Friendship
5. Family
6. Hurt/Comfort
7. Irony
8. Hope
9. Despair
10. Nature
11. Psyche of a murderer
12. Suicide
13. Non-suicidal self harm
14. Abuse
15. Eating Disorder
16. Trauma
17. Memory
18. Illness
19. Bullying
20. Prophecy
21. Seven Sins
22. Seven Virtues
23. Going on a trip
24. Summer
25. Winter
X. Genre
1. Romance
2. Tragedy
3. Humor
4. Adventure
5. Crime
6. Drama
7. Fantasy
8. Horror
9. Mystery
10. Parody
11. Supernatural
12. Thriller
13. Memoir
14. Dying Earth
15. Fantasy Parody
16. Dark Fantasy
17. Shenmo Fantasy
18. Psychological Horror
19. Paranormal Horror
20. Bildungsroman (a coming of age story)
21. Noir
22. Slice of Life
23. Fairytale
24. Ancient Myth
25. Dystopia
XI. Length
1. One-shot
2. Two-shot
3. Three-shot
4. Six chapters
5. Ten chapters
6. Twenty chapters
7. 1500 words
8. 5000 words
9. 10000 words
10. 20000 words
XII. Devices
1. Epiphany
2. Defamiliarization
3. Polysyndeton, which uses conjunctions like "and", "or", "but" and "nor". (e.g. “Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly–mostly–let them have their whiteness.” - Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
4. Hamartia, a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.
5. Pathetic fallacy, to "impart emotions to something else" (like nature or inanimate objects) (e.g.“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,” - William Wordsmith, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.) A state that is human-like, to feel as we do.
6. Personification; to give an idea, object, or animal human attributes (e.g. "The wind whispered through the trees.") An action that is human-like.
7. Ticking clock
8. Flashback
9. Flashforward
10. Eucatastrophe, aka "a happy ending" (a sudden and favorable turn of events that leads to the best ending)
11. Chekhov's gun ("Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." - Anton Chekhov)
12. Predestination Paradox - a casuality loop (it means this: the time traveler is in the past, which means they were in the past before. Therefore, their presence is vital to the future, and they do something that causes the future to occur in the same way that their knowledge of the future has already happened.)
13. MacGuffin; a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so important.
14. in medias res; beginning the story in the middle of a sequence of events
15. Groundhog Day
16. Time travel (changing the past to change the future)
17. Cliffhanger
18. Open Ending
19. Frame Story
20. Unreliable Narrator
