Weekly Prompt: Get In and Get Out
Build your story around its world
Welcome to the first weekly challenge for November, where the theme is
This month we’re focusing on four major MICE story types and how they help us structure conflict and struggle so that your story doesn’t feel contrived.
If you want to learn more about how this works and why the MICE Quotient is a very useful framework for writers to learn, then look at our major craft article for the month.
The Cliff Notes Version
The story begins when the characters leave a familiar place and enter a new one, and ends when they again return home.
All the struggles are about entering or leaving the place.
The central question is “Do they get in?” or “Do they get out?”
- Yes, but there’s a tiger inside….
- No, and the alarms sets off now…
Think of a heist movie
The team and their skills are only relevant in showing how hard it is going to be to get into the vault or the castle or Mt Doom (Lord of the Rings is a reverse heist).
And every struggle or complication or obstacle they face is about getting in. Finding the schematics, climbing the high walls, outsmarting guards, or the high-tech security. Or getting out, alarms going off, gun fights, or the plan going to shit.
Think Ocean’s Eleven or the Italian Job.
Challenge Requirements
Your story must:
- Make Milieu (or Place) central to your story and your characters struggle.
- Be min 100 and max 1000 words long, excluding the title, subtitle, and any post-story bio / links. (We use Medium’s own word count feature.)
- Be fictional, even if it includes factual information or concerns.
- Use “Milieu” as one of your five tags.
Example Stories:
First published story for this prompt goes here.
Find all stories tagged for this prompt.
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