Scotland’s Stories Writing Prompt: Friends we found in difficult moments

You can also access this prompt in Gaelic.

Scottish Book Trust is asking people all over Scotland to submit their true, personal stories of Friendship. Use this story prompt to find inspiration for your story and ideas of things to write about. 

Submit your story

Friends we found in difficult moments (fiction/non-fiction)

Sometimes we find friends in difficult circumstances and often these friendships are extremely strong and long-lasting due to the fact that we’ve overcome something together. From the person you haven’t heard from in years reaching out to offer their support, meeting someone whose experiences reflect our own or a kind word from a complete stranger. When we share our stories with those around us, we unburden ourselves, finding the strength to keep going or start again.

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller

In this writing prompt you’ll consider the friends that found you in difficult moments. 

Warm up

Try this mindful writing exercise to get the ideas flowing and shake off the day thus far. Set a timer and write for two minutes at a time without stopping on the following topics. Keep it positive:

• Sun
• Love
• Friend

The only rule is that you have to keep your pen moving. Don’t stop writing. Even if you’re unsure of what to write next or are wondering what to have for your tea, write exactly that! The idea is that you get some of the clutter in your head out on the page and this will free up space for your ideas and creativity to flow.

Brainstorm

Think about all the times in your life that you’ve faced challenges and write them on a sheet of paper. 

These could be:

• Studying for exams
• Attempting to pass your driving test
• Going through a period of ill health

Be specific about the challenge. For example instead of writing ‘feeling stressed’ write ‘feeling stressed when I had to home school my children while working from home during the pandemic’.

Next to each challenge draw an arrow and write the name of the friend (real or imaginary) who helped you through that difficult time. Then draw another arrow and write how they helped you.

For example:

Studying for my Nat 5 maths retake – a fellow student at evening class – we studied together on Saturday mornings in the library and we met up before the exam and went in together.

Start writing

In most stories – fiction and non-fiction, but for these purposes we’ll presume it’s non-fiction – your protagonist finds themselves up against a challenge and the story deals with how you overcome that challenge. In this case, your challenge is one of the ‘difficult moments’ you’ve written down above (or a different one) and your means of overcoming the challenge is your friend and what they did to help you. You’ll see that you now have a very simple story structure which starts in one place and ends in a different, hopefully happier, one.

Pick one of your scenarios listed in the previous exercise and use that as your story structure. But first fill in the gaps. Describe:

• The challenging circumstance. What is around you – what can you see, hear, smell, taste, touch?
• Is anyone else there? Are they helping or making the situation worse?
• How are you feeling? How do you feel at the end compared with the start?
• Describe your friend in detail – and describe the impact your friend has on the situation and on your mood. How do you connect with them? Are you very similar or completely different? What is their take on life? 
• How and why does your friendship form?

Have a go at writing up your story, using the simple structure you have come up with and all the details you’ve noted above. If you’re feeling ambitious, you could add a few bumps in the road – life is never straightforward! – but make sure you finish with the resolution to your difficult situation that you wrote down in the brainstorming section – and of course, remember to tell us all about the friend who helped you through.