{"id":614,"date":"2012-11-02T08:15:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skelleyverse.com\/?p=614"},"modified":"2013-12-30T21:46:35","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T02:46:35","slug":"about-4-elements-prompts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/about-4-elements-prompts\/","title":{"rendered":"About 4 Elements Prompts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Before we entered into our passionate love affair with stichomancy prompts<\/a>, the 4 Elements prompt was our go-to. The idea is simple, but the initial set-up takes a good bit of time.<\/p>\n

The four elements concept turns up in many disciplines. For our purposes, the ones we are concerned with are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Character<\/li>\n
  2. Setting<\/li>\n
  3. Object<\/li>\n
  4. Situation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Character is pretty obvious. You could go with “James Bond,” or “an angry child” or “the inventor of Altoids.” Challenge yourself.<\/p>\n

    Setting is where your prompted story will take place.\u00a0Be as vague or specific as you like. Will it be “Canada” or will it be “the 3rd stall from the left in the women’s bathroom on the second mezzanine at Radio City Music Hall”? That’s up to you.<\/p>\n

    Object is simply an item that will appear in the scene. It doesn’t need to play a vital role, but it can. Will it be a guitar? A pair of slippers? A donut? That’s up to you, and fate.<\/p>\n

    Situation is a little more complicated. It can be the impetus of the entire plot, or it can simply be something that’s weighing on your character’s mind. “power outage” “servicing the addiction” “unplanned amputation” “new shoes today”<\/p>\n

    To prepare, you will need to spend a few hours brainstorming a list for each of these elements. You can write each on an index card or a slip of paper, or you could work with a spreadsheet. We have 4 envelopes, one for each element,\u00a0each filled with little scraps of paper.<\/p>\n

    When it’s time to write, blindly<\/strong> choose a single entry from each element and combine all four into a perfect work of microfiction. Simple, right?\u00a0Again, we tend toward humor, but there’s no rule saying you have to. There’s also no rule saying you have to keep them brief. If you’re truly inspired, you could turn these prompts into short stories or even novels.<\/p>\n

    In the coming weeks our Monday and Wednesday posts will feature the results of 4 Elements Prompts. Let us know how this method works for you.<\/p>\n

    handy dandy writing prompt generator<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Before we entered into our passionate love affair with stichomancy prompts, the 4 Elements prompt was our go-to. The idea is simple, but the initial set-up takes a good bit of time. The four elements concept turns up in many disciplines. For our purposes, the ones we are concerned with are: Character Setting Object Situation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318,4],"tags":[106],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-four-elements-prompts","category-writing-prompts","tag-character"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1765,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/1765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}