The final Week, Slumdog Style
So, we’ve got one more week to go, and this round of prompts is going to take a slightly different turn. I thought it would be for the best if I explained what we shall be doing in advance, because you may wish to do a tiny bit of prep for this.
Slumdog Millionaire uses the format of the general knowledge game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire to create a narrative of the protag’s life, the setting, his culture and central plot conflict. The central character, Dev, grew up in the slums of Mumbai. He has no education, no parents, and he and his brother had to survive by their wits and pure determination. There’s no way someone with his background should be able to reach the millions in prize money. But the night before his final appearance on the show, with only one question left to answer, he is hauled off and interrogated by the police. To prove he didn’t cheat, he has to explain how he knew each answer. With each explanation a new facet of his life is brought to the fore and generates the central plot conflict, bringing the story up to a present day climax. It’s genius.
Each day for this final week we shall be doing something similar. There will be a new general knowledge question with its correct answer posted on this blog. Your challenge is to write a scene about one character’s life centred round these questions –i.e. how do they come to know the answers through their life experiences?
Don’t worry, you are not expected to create a full plot through these five stories as you go – unless you want to – just snapshots of a single character’s life. You can use this to develop an existing character from one of your stories or to create a new one. And you don’t need to include the game show either (unless you want to, of course). Once you have your five sketches, and when you have more time, you can try and string them all together to make a cohesive plot, in true Slumdog style.
You can write flash if you wish with complete plot arcs, or you may just wish to write vignettes (which focuses more on creating mood and using descriptive prose). If you write fantasy or science fiction, you may need to tweak the questions to fit with your story world’s cultural and societal histories. That’s fine.
If you haven’t seen the film, you may wish to watch it beforehand so you get an idea of how it works. It’s not obligatory to do this by any means, but some people may feel more confident of the challenge by doing so.
So, come Monday morning there will be a new prompt general knowledge question for you to base your story on, taken directly from Who Wants to be a Millionaire (yes, I’ve been watching reruns and making notes)
I’ve never tried this before so I am both excited and nervous! But it would be boring if it wasn’t a challenge.
See you Monday (I hope).
