The Return of Summer Writing Club: Suitcases

            After a year without Summer Writing Club, it was good to have my basement classroom filled again.  Twelve students in Session One and thirteen students in Session Two joined me for four days in a row, two hours each day.  We wrote fiction.  A lot of fiction.  Summer Writing Club had truly returned.

            And with this return came a new prompt.  

It seems that whenever I spend time in my husband’s workshop in our basement, I come out with a new writing prompt.  This happened again, just in time for Session One of Summer Writing Club.  I was holding something for my husband while he fastened parts together, when I noticed two very old, very weathered suitcases.  I had forgotten that we had them, but now they were the focus of my attention. The gears in my head began to turn, and within an hour or so, I had a new list of questions for a writing prompt about suitcases. 

I foraged around our closets and attic, adding more suitcases to the collection: one was completely round, another was really a leather duffel bag, and another was a typical roller bag found on most flights today.  My husband gave me another old suitcase of his with combination locks on each latch. I cleaned the suitcases and arranged them on the floor in my basement classroom.  We used this new prompt the following day!

In time for Session Two of Summer Writing Club, my husband pulled two more very old suitcases from the basement shelves, and he offered hard cases for two different power tools to the collection.  Session Two had a much better selection, and the writing was fabulous.  Characters included a museum curator, an immigrant from Europe to the United States in the 1800’s, a college student leaving home for the first time, a young woman running away from a bad situation, a lawyer working on a dangerous case, a princess in a fantasy story involving an evil agency, a member of Hungarian royalty, and a Secret Service sniper.  There were also a number of characters going on vacations or moving to new locations.  Everyone was able to imagine something.

As usual, before we did any writing, I asked my students to look at the display, select one suitcase, and draw it.  Since Summer Writing Club includes no electronics, drawing is the only possible method to save the vision.  Once everyone had a working sketch, I asked the following questions.

Who carries this suitcase?

How are they dressed?

Where are they?  Be specific. 

What do they see?

What do they hear?

What do they smell?

What do they feel?  Physically or emotionally.

When is this?  At what point in history/time? 

Why have they packed?

Are they traveling to somewhere?  Home from somewhere?

Where are they going?

Why are they going to this place?

Is your character alone?

If yes, why?

If no, who is with them?

What does your character want?

What does your character need in order to get what they want?

Should your character be going where they are going?  Why or why not?

Who cares that they are travelling?

Put your character into action. 

Have them walk toward something, away from something, into something.

Have them open something, close something, check something.

Have them notice someone.  Is this noticing a good thing? 

Why or why not?

Then what happens?

Then what happens?

Then what happens?

            Before I had even finished asking the questions, stories had emerged.  The room was quiet, filled only with the sound of Jim Brickman’s piano music and the scratching of pencils and pens on paper.  After ten minutes, when the timer beeped, there was a plea for more time.  Five minutes later, there was time for sharing ideas with another club member. 

            What I overheard was incredible.  There were situations I would have never thought of.  There were stories of mystery, adventure, and historical fiction.  One girl’s idea had nothing to do with travelling.  Her suitcase was in a museum, filled with artifacts important to a specific time and place.  Another suitcase was not packed for anything; it held “a secret.”  That’s the beautiful part of this type of writing; I never know where it is going to go.  And the ambiguity is so much fun!

            So, you are probably thinking, what if I don’t have a bunch of old suitcases in my basement?  It doesn’t matter.  Look around your home.  I would be willing to bet that you have a number of “somethings.”  Gather them together.  Make a display.  Then, ask some questions about who would have one of these things, why they would have it, and what happens when the imagined character is put into action.  Without a doubt, stories will emerge.  And you will be able to read things that are truly and totally unique—no two stories will be alike.  That makes reading them even better.

            I know that it would be easy to just find images of things—suitcases or other things—online.  Online images cannot replace the real things.  There is something magical about actual props when it comes to writing fiction.  So, gather some objects.  Make a display.  Write some questions or use mine from Shoes and Boxes and Peanuts and Keys. 

Then, get ready.  Writing worth reading will happen.