The Detailed Writing Prompt Comp

The following detailed prompt is from a writing course I completed and loved at http://www.all writers.org. Their courses are not only cheap (less then $100) but are detailed workshops and great fun. I've already signed up again for their flash fiction course.

My own WDC story was created from this prompt. I only had a week. - I'm giving you a month!

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First, consider the following expository passage carefully.

 
One block of King Street runs between 34th and 35th Streets. There is a church on one end. Across the street from the church is Learnwell Elementary School, a public school. On the other end of the block are a convenience store/gas station combination, Grab and Fill, and a branch of the State National Bank. It is an established neighborhood, with most of the houses built in the late sixties or early seventies. There are sidewalks and trees on either side of the street. Twelve families live on the block. Some are longtime residents, others are relative newcomers.
 
Pretty typical and boring sounding block, isn’t it? Your job, in 300-1000 words, is to make this block come alive though the eyes of one of the characters listed below. Maybe he or she is a resident of the block, maybe not.  You don’t have to use every fact given and, yes, you can make up some of your own. You may write in first or third person (or second, if you’re really, really brave), past or present tense. You can show us the character alone or interacting with others. You may only use ONE point-of-view character for this assignment. No switching POV’s and definitely no omniscient.
 
THE CHARACTERS:
 
SISTER MARY AGNES. Sister Mary is fifty years old, teaches second grade Sunday school and supervises Wednesday night bingo games. She has brown hair, blue eyes, and is on the plump side. Her favorite color is cherry red. She likes to drink coffee and eat Yo-Yo snack cakes. Her left leg is a half-inch longer than her right. As a girl, she loved the monkey bars. Her mother’s name is Trudy. She is the youngest of four girls. Though she generally watches educational television, she has been known to watch Elimidate when she doesn’t think anyone is around. She has a canary. Her father died of cancer when she was seven. Maintaining the church’s flower garden is a passion for her. Her voice is somewhat screechy. She has an old mantle clock on her dresser. At the bottom of her top dresser drawer is something known only to her.
 
TREVOR MONTCLAIRE. He is thirty-two years old, has blond hair, green eyes, and a moustache, and enjoys his job immensely. His mother’s maiden name was Flossrite. He likes the color brown. His favorite drink is Dr Pepper and his favorite food is vegetarian chicken patties. He is skinny. He has an extra toe on his right foot. As a boy, his nickname was ‘Hawk.’ His father’s name is Covington Montclaire. He is an only child. Though he enjoys sailing, he also is handy with a pool cue. He is allergic to animals of all kinds. His only sibling is a transsexual wrestler named Honey. His voice is very soft. The first three DVDs on his shelf are “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Valley of the Dolls,” and “The User’s Guide to the Slice-O-Matic.” In his closet is a box containing something he wouldn’t want discovered.
 
MONICA TATE. Monica is about forty, has reddish hair and bluish eyes. She is the mother of five. Her favorite color is green. She drinks Fresca and knows every variety of lettuce on the produce shelves. She has a blotch of discolored skin somewhere on her body. As a girl, Monica’s favorite thing to do was to dress up as a fairy princess. Her father had a massive gun collection. Her older and younger brothers are both named after uncles. Though she likes to sing, she doesn’t do so in front of others after a childhood incident discouraged her. Her dog’s name is Dog. Her mother lives in a different town than she does. Her house is decorated in a variety of colors and textures, since she is practically a home improvement addict. In her attic is a trunk she’s never let her kids open.
 
ROSEAMBER SMATHERS. RoseAmber is twenty-five, with hair an unnatural color and oddly colored eyes. She is engaged to Lee. Her father is unknown to her. Her favorite color, in her own words, is “plaid.” She drinks massive quantities of Lime Kool-Aid and eats chicken noodle soup practically every day. As a girl, RoseAmber was called Rosey-Posey, and she didn’t have many friends. Her siblings are scattered around the country, and she isn’t sure she knows them all. Though she likes line-dancing, her secret passion is stamp collecting. She has a ferret named Terwilliger. Her mother was once prominent in government. Causes of all kinds are important to her, but she doesn’t always understand them. In her backpack is the one thing that she has to carry with her at all times.

All characters and settings in this piece are copyright Allwriters.org. Used with permission.