Series: The Yellow Wallpaper-Prompt 5

And before morning...

A Story Quote to Inspire You

“...and before morning we had peeled off
yards of that paper.”

—Charlotte Perkins Gilman
 

Inspiration Prompt 5
 

The Yellow Wall-Paper story uses the paper itself as a kind of character that the main character interacts with. It seems to have a life of its own—the way it keeps another

woman (even many women) behind it, and acts as if it’s constraining and discouraging her (and them) in myriad ways.

Try using something we’d usually consider to be “story setting” as a character instead. You could use a door, the floor, a closet, or some other aspect of setting. Begin a story or write a poem in which the setting feels more like a character that your protagonist or poem speaker relates to as if it’s a person who is either acting as a barrier or a helper.

The 5 inspiration prompts in this mini-series are based on The Yellow Wall-Paper: A Graphic Novel, illustrated by Sara Barkat.

We hope these prompts inspire you with imaginative ideas for stories or poems!