Writing Prompts: The Artificial Nigger

You may find three Writing Prompts from the last story by Flannery O'Connor we discussed in classes, "The Artificial Nigger," below. You do not need to know anything about the story to use these prompts. Pick the one that appeals to you the most, and make time for your writing! You may write a sketch, a scene, or a story, for 5, 15, or 25 minutes. All practice counts. Happy writing!‍‍

Write a character sketch for Mr. Head or Nelson, and make sure to use their fortunes, or their responses to the fortunes, included in the tickets the scale gave in the following scene from “The Artificial Nigger” by Flannery O’Connor, “Mr. Head’s ticket said, “You weigh 120 pounds. You are upright and brave and all your friends admire you.” He put the ticket in his pocket, surprised that the machine should have got his character correct but his weight wrong, for he had weighed on a grain scale not long before and knew he weighed 110. Nelson’s ticket said, “You weigh 98 pounds. You have a great destiny ahead of you but beware of dark women. Nelson did not know any women and he weighed only 68 pounds but Mr. Head pointed out that the machine had probably printed the number upside down, meaning the 9 for a 6.”

Write a story that begins or ends with these sentences from “The Artificial Nigger” by Flannery O’Connor, “The child was standing about ten feet away, his face bloodless under the gray hat. His eyes were triumphantly cold. There was no light in them, no feeling, no interest. He was merely there, a small figure, waiting. Home was nothing to him.”

Write a story, sketch, or a scene where a grandfather and a grandson go on a train trip. Include as many of the following as you can: a dining car, a can of sardines, a fat black man, a shoe-shiner, a broken ankle, a pink dress, two bulldogs, and the word “burn.”

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