Getting Started Writing Your Novel Prompt 8

I came up with the idea for my book during a fiction writing workshop sponsored by WriteGirl.  The writer who was running the workshop asked everyone to think about a character and what the character wanted.  I imagined a young girl sitting at her kitchen table in her Harlem tenement.

Next, I asked myself what did she want?  There was a girl named Samantha Runnion that I was thinking about a lot. She was five years old and living in Riverside California; Samantha was kidnapped and murdered.  During that time other girls were kidnapped and assaulted, even a high school classmate's sister was kidnapped.  I remembered seeing her photo on a billboard and her family on TV crying when her body was found.  Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart was also still missing then.  I thought about missing girls but I also remembered the story of two girls; one black one Mexican; they escaped together.  I kept seeing their faces.  It was then I knew what the story would be about.

Pick a character and think about what's going on in the world around you.  Everyone wants love.  Everyone wants to survive.  Survive what could be a good question?  Real life is filled with stories ranging from the impossible to the unbelievable. Try writing a character and answer these questions.