Annotation + Getting Close + Idea

New Annotation: Mistborn Chapter Thirty-Six Part Two

Well, I'm getting close to being done with my reader mail inbox! It will be very nice to have that thing cleaned out, totally and completely. Then I can start on my regular inbox. Hopefully, by next Wednesday, everything will be done.

Now that I'm done with my class, maybe I will have enough time to blog more story prompts. Here's one for today:

Idea of the Day: Write a story form the viewpoint of an inanimate object that people wouldn't normally write a story about.

With this, I'm thinking of a magic item. Something that normally wouldn't be magical. I've been tempted to start blogging from the viewpoint of an enchanted bookmark, granted intelligence by the Evil Librarians, which is where this idea came from.

The trick with doing a story in this style would be active participation by the narrator. If you have an object doing the talking, then the story will feel distant since the object is an observer. The challenge, then, is to not only make the reader care about something normally inanimate, but also make the other characters likable and not undermine the book's sense of tension. (Usually, having an inactive protagonist is one of the most unpleasant of storytelling methods.)

Still, this is a time tested way of looking at a story in a new way. I'm sure people will post stories done in this manner. If you can make it feel original and active, then it could be a very nice hook into a story.