Writing Prompt: Dive into a Stage of Grief

Summary

The website provides a writing prompt encouraging authors to create a short piece focusing on a character experiencing one of the five stages of grief, with an emphasis on including a backstory about the character's loss.

Abstract

The web content presents a creative writing challenge that builds upon a previous article's advice on portraying grieving characters. Writers are invited to select one of the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, or acceptance—as the central theme for their narrative. The prompt suggests that the story should incorporate a backstory to give context to the character's grief, detailing the relationship with the friend or family member who has passed. There is no specified word count for the challenge, allowing writers the freedom to express themselves extensively. Additionally, the author of the prompt expresses a desire to engage with the writing community by inviting participants to share their stories via comments.

Opinions

The author believes that understanding the stages of grief can enhance the depth and realism of a character's portrayal in a narrative.
Including a backstory is considered important for providing emotional context and resonance to the reader.
There is an open invitation for collaboration and feedback within the writing community, suggesting a supportive environment for writers to share their work.
The lack of a word limit indicates a preference for quality of expression over quantity, giving writers the liberty to fully explore their character's emotional journey.

Writing Prompt: Dive into a Stage of Grief

This writing prompt is related to my previous article which included writing tips on how to write a grieving character. Choose one of the 5 stages of grief and write a short piece with a character experiencing that stage.

Just to review, according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross the 5 stages of grief are:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

In order for this piece to make more sense, I highly recommend you also include a bit of backstory about your character and the friend or family member your character is grieving. There is no word requirement with this challenge. I know when I get into the writing zone I can write several pages in one sitting.

If you write something for this prompt and would like to share, please comment below with a link to your story. I would love to read them!