Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, in Leadership Brand, have written:
We believe that individual leaders need to role model the brand they advocate to others. We observe what others do more than what they say. If a leader espouses one set of actions and does another, the ensuing hypocrisy undermines the leader's credibility. Leaders who build a brand but act in ways opposed to the brand will not be believable. Aligning personal brand to leadership brand authenticates and embeds the leadership brand.
Write a story about a character running an unusual business who sets out to align their personal life and their business life with a combined 'leadership brand'.
Writing a story synopsis
The first paragraph of a three paragraph synopsis for The Simpsons episode, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is:
Bart forges a note from Marge that excuses him early from school for a dental appointment. Principal Skinner reads the note and is suspicious. He tracks Bart through town. Bart escapes by jumping inside the passing car of Freddy Quimby, the Mayor's 18 year old nephew. Arriving at Freddy Quimby's birthday party, he hides beneath a table and witnesses an altercation between Freddy and a waiter.
Write a story synopsis in three paragraphs.
Use the first paragraph to set up a problem, the second to develop that problem and complications associated with it, and the third to resolve the problem in a satifying way.
Bart forges a note from Marge that excuses him early from school for a dental appointment. Principal Skinner reads the note and is suspicious. He tracks Bart through town. Bart escapes by jumping inside the passing car of Freddy Quimby, the Mayor's 18 year old nephew. Arriving at Freddy Quimby's birthday party, he hides beneath a table and witnesses an altercation between Freddy and a waiter.
Write a story synopsis in three paragraphs.
Use the first paragraph to set up a problem, the second to develop that problem and complications associated with it, and the third to resolve the problem in a satifying way.
Writing about a committed character with a mentor
F.X. Toole started his short story Million Dollar Baby with:
"Boxing is an unnatural act" whispered the voice. "Understand me on this, kid. In boxing everything is backwards to life. You want to move to the left, you don't step left, you push on the right toe, like this. To move right, you use the left toe, see?"
The old white man didn't look into your eyes, he looked clear through your eyes, to the inside of the back of your head.
Write a story about a mentor with specialised knowledge to impart and a character who wants this knowledge to help them achieve a goal they are firmly committed to.
"Boxing is an unnatural act" whispered the voice. "Understand me on this, kid. In boxing everything is backwards to life. You want to move to the left, you don't step left, you push on the right toe, like this. To move right, you use the left toe, see?"
The old white man didn't look into your eyes, he looked clear through your eyes, to the inside of the back of your head.
Write a story about a mentor with specialised knowledge to impart and a character who wants this knowledge to help them achieve a goal they are firmly committed to.
Writing about creativity and curiosity
Ryan Niemiec and Danny Wedding, in Positive Psychology at the Movies, have written:
Creativity and curiosity are important cognitive strengths of character under the virtue of wisdom and knowledge. There is a clear mutually beneficial link between these two strengths: Curiosity is one ingredient of creativity, while a good strategy to build creativity is to be curious about one's environment. A number of high-quality American, independent, and international films depict characters who embody these strengths, face adversity by tapping into these resources, and build upon and improve these strengths as the film progresses.
Write a story in which a character shows curiosity about their environment, faces adversity through acting on this curosity, and builds upon and improves their creativity and curiosity as the story progresses.
Try focusing the character's curiosity and creativity on an area that is NOT creative arts.
Creativity and curiosity are important cognitive strengths of character under the virtue of wisdom and knowledge. There is a clear mutually beneficial link between these two strengths: Curiosity is one ingredient of creativity, while a good strategy to build creativity is to be curious about one's environment. A number of high-quality American, independent, and international films depict characters who embody these strengths, face adversity by tapping into these resources, and build upon and improve these strengths as the film progresses.
Write a story in which a character shows curiosity about their environment, faces adversity through acting on this curosity, and builds upon and improves their creativity and curiosity as the story progresses.
Try focusing the character's curiosity and creativity on an area that is NOT creative arts.
Writing subtext
Pauline Kiernan, on her site Unique Screenwriting, has written:
The effect on an audience of all that is going on under the surface action is that it gets us intrigued. We have to do some work. We have to enter into an imaginative engagement with the story. It brings us close to the feelings of the characters and into the heart of their journey.
Write a story that begins with a scene in which the characters' goals and feelings are not stated but are conveyed through subtext.
The effect on an audience of all that is going on under the surface action is that it gets us intrigued. We have to do some work. We have to enter into an imaginative engagement with the story. It brings us close to the feelings of the characters and into the heart of their journey.
Write a story that begins with a scene in which the characters' goals and feelings are not stated but are conveyed through subtext.
Combining Cinema and Fiction writing prompts for inspiration
Select any two titles of writing prompts listed on the right side of this page and combine them in any way you like to provide inspiration for a story.
Writing about a character with a secret
Click on the link to the trailer for the film Dark Woods and use the trailer as inspiration to write a story about a character with a secret to hide and why they are hiding it.
Writing about a character with a pivotal role in events that effect many
In an article in Rorotoko, Kenneth Pinnow has written:
Suicide unsettled the Soviets because it raised practical and theoretical questions about the individual and challenged the regime’s transformational aspirations. To them it represented unbridled individualism and a remnant of bourgeois life whose continued presence threatened the revolutionary project. To contain and eventually eliminate this social disease the Soviet state sanctioned a variety of scientific and political efforts that sought to clarify, categorize, and control self-destruction. These included forensic-medical investigations into the body, nationwide statistical mappings of society, and a distinctive set of political practices that treated suicide as a sickness that was above all ideological.
Write a story about a character whose government has escalated attempts to control specific behaviours of citizens and the key role that your character plays in whether the policy is successfully implemented or not.
Suicide unsettled the Soviets because it raised practical and theoretical questions about the individual and challenged the regime’s transformational aspirations. To them it represented unbridled individualism and a remnant of bourgeois life whose continued presence threatened the revolutionary project. To contain and eventually eliminate this social disease the Soviet state sanctioned a variety of scientific and political efforts that sought to clarify, categorize, and control self-destruction. These included forensic-medical investigations into the body, nationwide statistical mappings of society, and a distinctive set of political practices that treated suicide as a sickness that was above all ideological.
Write a story about a character whose government has escalated attempts to control specific behaviours of citizens and the key role that your character plays in whether the policy is successfully implemented or not.
Writing comedic scenes
Click on the link to a post on Lee Goldberg's blog and use it as an example of a scene with a comedic back-and-forth dynamic to inspire your own story composed of such scenes.
Writing about abandonment
Cynthia Voigt started her novel Homecoming with:
The woman put her sad moon-face in at the window of the car. "You be good," she said. "You hear me? You little ones, mind what Dicey tells you. You hear?"
"Yes, momma" they said.
"That's all right then." She slung her purse over her shoulder and walked away, her stride made uneven by broken sandal thongs, thin elbows showing through holes in the oversized sweater, her jeans faded and baggy.
The woman has just left her children in a car park and does not come back.
Write a story that starts with a character in a position of responsibility leaving and, by doing so, causes your main characters an ongoing problem that they had not been prepared for.
The woman put her sad moon-face in at the window of the car. "You be good," she said. "You hear me? You little ones, mind what Dicey tells you. You hear?"
"Yes, momma" they said.
"That's all right then." She slung her purse over her shoulder and walked away, her stride made uneven by broken sandal thongs, thin elbows showing through holes in the oversized sweater, her jeans faded and baggy.
The woman has just left her children in a car park and does not come back.
Write a story that starts with a character in a position of responsibility leaving and, by doing so, causes your main characters an ongoing problem that they had not been prepared for.
Writing about a life-changing meeting
The blurb of Myne Whitman's novel, A Heart to Mend begins:
Gladys moves to live with an estranged aunt in Lagos and to continue her search for a job. Before long she lands the job of her dreams with the foremost oil company in the city and makes several new friends. She also gradually resolves the mystery of why her aunt previously cut all ties with their family. But the best part about her new life is meeting Edward Bestman.
Write a story that begins with a character who moves to a new place (long-term or short-term), solves a small initial mystery and meets a character who will change their life.
Gladys moves to live with an estranged aunt in Lagos and to continue her search for a job. Before long she lands the job of her dreams with the foremost oil company in the city and makes several new friends. She also gradually resolves the mystery of why her aunt previously cut all ties with their family. But the best part about her new life is meeting Edward Bestman.
Write a story that begins with a character who moves to a new place (long-term or short-term), solves a small initial mystery and meets a character who will change their life.
Writing with and about excitement
Ray Bradbury has written that "if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer. It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself. You don't even know yourself. For the first thing a writer should be is - excited."
Write a story about a character, who is anything except a writer, and who lacks the kind of excitement mentioned above then discovers it. Add a strong extended conflict before or after the character develops this excitement.
Write a story about a character, who is anything except a writer, and who lacks the kind of excitement mentioned above then discovers it. Add a strong extended conflict before or after the character develops this excitement.
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