{"id":532,"date":"2010-01-04T00:40:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T05:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=532"},"modified":"2010-01-04T00:40:22","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T05:40:22","slug":"person-place-thing-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2010\/01\/04\/person-place-thing-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Person, Place, Thing Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/images\/twidemanmoon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"259\" \/>2010 has arrived, and many have begun working on their resolutions for the new year.<\/p>\n<p>If one of your resolutions this year is to write more, but you have a hard time kick starting the creative flow, I hope this week&#8217;s writing prompts help you. Each day this week, I&#8217;ll post a new writing challenge.<\/p>\n<p>I hope by the end of next week that you have your first story of the new year done.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<p>When two friends and I formed our <a href=\"http:\/\/jackalopeps.wordpress.com\/\">writing group<\/a> in 2004, one of our regular writing challenges went like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One of us came up with a person.<\/li>\n<li>One of us came up with a place.<\/li>\n<li>One of us came up with a thing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our first challenge looked like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Person = A man who talks to birds.<\/li>\n<li>Place = The moon.<\/li>\n<li>Thing = A broken radio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We put no other rules on the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>If one of us wanted to put a character on the moon, we could. If one of us wanted to put a character at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/crmo\/index.htm\">Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve<\/a>, that was fine. I chose to write about <a href=\"http:\/\/christophergronlund.com\/fly-me-to-the-moon\/\">a person obsessed with the moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always found the Person, Place, Thing challenge to be as basic as it gets. From such a basic challenge, I&#8217;ve written more than a few stories I&#8217;m very proud of.<\/p>\n<p>The best thing about the Person, Place, Thing challenge: there&#8217;s never an excuse <em>not <\/em>to write &#8212; all you need are three simple things!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today&#8217;s Writing Prompt<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re in a writing group, give this challenge a try. If you aren&#8217;t in a writing group, consider <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2009\/09\/21\/10-rules-for-starting-a-writing-group\/\">forming one<\/a>. In the meantime, ask three co-workers, three family members, or three friends to come up with the three parts of the challenge.<\/p>\n<p>The fun part of the challenge is having others give you something to work with.<\/p>\n<p>We often do our best writing when our reputation is on the line and our backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n<p>The Person, Place, Thing writing challenge puts you right where you need to be as a writer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tomorrow&#8217;s Prompt:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow I&#8217;ll share a writing prompt that is harder than it sounds &#8212; something that will show you that you know more about writing than you may have thought you did, all while having a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n<p>Photo (used with permission) by pilot and stargazer extraordinaire, the mighty <a href=\"http:\/\/tomwideman.posterous.com\/\">Tom Wideman<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2010 has arrived, and many have begun working on their resolutions for the new year. If one of your resolutions this year is to write more, but you have a hard time kick starting the creative flow, I hope this week&#8217;s writing prompts help you. Each day this week, I&#8217;ll post a new writing challenge. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3,27,59],"tags":[65,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}