What would happen if your xenophobic character ended up stuck in a crowded elevator? Another character ends up with a severe case of poison ivy. Thanksgiving week, you get to write about a mother (or father) reuniting with their children.
November 1-8
Let’s say you very are uncomfortable around people you don’t know. In other words, you have xenophobia. Now let’s say you are visiting someone in a rest home, and there is a need for you to get on the elevator with this someone. You take your, we’ll say, grandfather on the elevator in his wheelchair, and then other people start getting on the elevator until there is barely any room left. You’re becoming very uncomfortable, especially when this guy you don’t know squishes right up next to you and tries to initiate a conversation.
Then, in your opinion, the most horrible thing that could happen happens: the elevator gets stuck between floors. All the other passengers begin talking about the terrible stuff that happens in movies when elevators get stuck. They say things never turn out good, and then several of them just begin pushing buttons to see if any of them would help. Of course, nothing helps. You are shaking on the inside and barely managing to hide your panic at what is going on.
Then someone says, “Oh, look. Maybe we should press this button that says help.” And they do.
The person who answers asks what the problem is. When she finds out, she says, “Just a moment please.” And then the elevator starts moving again. Crisis averted.
In your mind, that experience took hours. In reality, it was only about five minutes. Write about that experience with the other passengers on the elevator and all that went through your mind.
November 9-15
You decide to do some maintenance in your back yard by cutting some weeds off your fence. That’s good, right? It does need done, and you’re perfectly capable of doing it. What you don’t realize, though, is that you’ll be coming into contact with poison ivy. And once you’re done, you don’t even realize that you came into contact with it. But a few days later, you wake up with one of your eyes almost swollen shut. And apparently, some bug crawled in bed with you and bit you all over your face. Still, you don’t realize what is happening. But the next morning you wake up with both eyes almost swollen shut. Only then do you realize what you’ve gotten into.
What do you do? Do you suffer in silence? I mean, who wants to go out looking like someone beat you up? Or do you give in and go to the doctor to get some relief? Oh, did I forget to mention that you haven’t been to the doctor in twenty years or so? The last time you went, it was to the emergency room, and the doctor prescribed you some medicine that you had told him you were severely allergic to.
November 16-23
Believe it or not, cemeteries were once places where people would gather to have picnics. Sounds a bit macabre, doesn’t it? Well, during the 19th century, they didn’t think so. Recreational areas were few and far between at this time, and cemeteries provided a place for families to gather together and enjoy themselves.
Cemeteries at that time were not austere or depressing. They were built outside of city centers and decorated with flowers. And the public was invited to enjoy the grounds.
Since my husband is buried in the lower part of our yard right next to the woods (and there is plenty of space for the rest of family members), I’ve thought a lot about the time when people would gather in the cemeteries around deceased family members and have picnics. I’m not sure that I will ever do such a thing, but at least his body is close by if I decide I want to.
Create a character who does decide to have a picnic right by her husband’s grave and talk with him. What does she say? Does she enjoy this time?
November 24-30
Thanksgiving Day this year is on November 27. This will be my first Thanksgiving as a widow, but I still have so much to be thankful for. I have some wonderful children and grandchildren who love me so very much, and they see to it that I’m not too lonely. And I’m thankful that God is helping me through this horrible time.
But what if I lived in a place where I knew no one? And what if my grown children wanted absolutely nothing to do with me? Create a character who is in such a dreadful position, but since this is going to be a Thanksgiving story, please give it a happy ending with the mother reuniting with her children.
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