OTP Writing Prompt Help
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I've got a summer assignment to do some short 2-character writings and I'm stuck. I've tried some of the OTP writing prompt tools but I've only gotten like 2-3 ideas off of them and I need to do a TON of short prompts (like 20+) for this course. So, looking for suggestions.
Looking for things like: X is a prince who falls in love with commoner Y Y is a popstar and X is her biggest fan X & Y are soulmates destined to meet when their timers run out.
I do much better writing when character roles are defined (like prince, popstar, soulmates, vampires) than with others ideas.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
How about some of these?
X & Y are a power battle couple X is a barista and Y loves coffee X is a sappy romantic and Y is deadpan (but loves X, doesn't know how to express it) X & Y were childhood friends but had to move far from each other after college. They meet again later in life.
Check out pinterest and search OTP Writing Prompts. Comes up with a ton of results that can be tweeked.
Since you mentioned Soulmates, here's one of the ones that came up
Since you describe short writing assignments, I wonder if the way to go isn't OTP prompts but more mundane, slice-of-life moments. The problem with OTP is that you have to build up a lot to make readers believe the couple is the One True Pairing. High stakes and low word count means you run a much higher risk of making the relationship seem rushed, unrealistic, or cliché.
Writers often get advice, "write what you know." For short assignments, the easier option might be looking in your own life (or fiction) for memorable interactions between two people. What made the interaction stand out to you? What did you learn about each character from their speech or behavior? Is there anything that you want to see clarified, or changed? Those memories can help you build more realistic scenes than many online prompts. And it takes less effort!
Unfortunately, I don't think any SOL is going to work for my stuff. I didn't include it in the original post but there are a butt ton of constraints on the writing which makes this more difficult. I also don't have to write a whole story - just a part of it. I guess I should also mention the prompts don't have to connect.... So I can do like a "first date" snippet w/o having to worry about what comes after. The format comes down to something like:
Few sentences describing the characters & plot up to this point My actual writing of the above in the required length.
So I can do something like X is a shy girl who lost her parents recently in a tragic accident. To try and get over her grief, she attends a group therapy session. While at the session, X suddenly begins to cry and cannot stop herself. Realizing this isn't the best for her, the therapist invites X to a private session where X meets Y, a young man who lost his fiance to cancer. Writing prompt fill here of X & Y having their session.
Yeah, it's a weird format but it's whats required.....which makes it a PITA. Also adding to the difficulty factor is that we had to "cement" one of the characters into a role and I can't alter that character. I also had to pick a setting I can't change. I can alter the other character though.
It's hard to explain but it's almost like in fanfiction when authors write AU (alternate universes). Like, for something like Harry Potter - there's a a whole bunch of different ways to write it like. -HP is actually dark & hiding it -HP is Snape's son -HP was kidnapped as an infant rather that attacked by V. These are all stories that can happen in the HP universe; they all feature the character HP but the role HP plays in each of them is vastly different.
This is what I can do with my "free" character (in my case it's the girl). And since they don't have to connect or all be in the same AU, I can change her role around. In one she's a cafe worker. In another she's that orphan. In a third maybe she's a witch.
But whatever I pick for her has to go with the "cemented" world & male character I have. And the guy for me is basically the equivalent of royalty. Think amazingly smart/rich/powerful prince-like character that every girl throws themselves at. That's what I have to use. So OTPs are easy to write for me. "This is how the prince met and fell in love with this cafe worked" "This is the prince going out in disguise for his favorite type of tea that no one ever buys right for him and getting discovered by girl X."
I wouldn't know how to write SOL for a prince character and my whole shtick with him is basically how he's looking for a wife, so OTPs made sense for me. Which is why I was asking for prompts. I can warp some of them around to fit my needs but I'm having issues thinking of so many different scenarios. ((That 20+ is more like 30ish.....yeah.....))
I hope this is explained okay. I had a friend look this over since English is not my first language and she understood what I was going for so hopefully it is clear?
It is clear. Since one character is cemented, you don’t have to worry much about them since you have more scenes to establish their character. My point is to go for less dramatic characterizations for the second character, since these are shorter pieces. With a smaller word count, it’s hard to establish characters in extraordinary roles that are believable and not cliché. Having one character that’s just a regular person (and there are many types of regular people, from a high school student, to an office worker, to a grandmother) helps you focus on making the extraordinary cemented character believable.
