So, the last two writing assignments appear to have been a bit of a challenge for some writers. Especially this last one. Some of you said you don’t watch the show, or don’t have cable. My apologies for making this assignment a bit, um, exclusive. Hopefully, this week’s will be easier.

We all make tons of decisions every day. What to wear. What to eat. Where to go. What to say to that person that stole our sandwich from the fridge at our office. Many of our decisions are easy, or at least not challenging. At times, we may even make them without consciously realizing that we’re making them.

But what about those really hard decisions? I’m not talking about pulp or no-pulp (though I could be). I’m talking about the big life decisions. What do I want to do with my life? Do I want to get married? Do I want kids? Where do I want to work? What kind of person do I want to be?

The choices we face in life often require a decent amount of thought and concentration, and few are made on a whim (though sometimes that works too). Additionally, sometimes we make a series of smaller decisions that take us in a particular direction, only to find ourselves arrived at a destination that we didn’t necessarily choose.

The Assignment

This week, dear writers, your assignment is to write the thoughts of a character who is on the cusp of making a very difficult decision. What led up to this moment in time? What are the choices this person faces? Why is this decision so particularly difficult?

Write this entirely from the first person. Your character doesn’t necessarily have to make up their mind, but take the reader through their thought process. Get inside the character’s head. Explore their thoughts and feelings. And maybe, at the end, we’ll be more informed about how we think about decisions–and we’ll be able to make better ones.

Entries should be 300 words MAXIMUM. Entries longer than this will not be eligible to win. Please spell check and make sure your punctuation is correct. If you’re unsure about something, ask someone or consult a resource.

Send your completed assignment to weeklywritingassignment@gmail.com. Please include the assignment number in the subject of your email. Please also include your name and email in the header of your entry. And if you are on Twitter, please let me know what your Twitter ID is so I can tweet it.

Due date: Midnight, August 24, 2009.

Late assignments will not be accepted.
Good luck!

Tags: creative writing, writing contest

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