My creative writing professor just assigned the weirdest prompt: write a narrative writing piece from the perspective of an inanimate object. We have to choose something—a house, a pair of shoes, a tree—and tell a story from that object's point of view. I chose an old oak tree in a park, and now I'm stuck. How does a tree have a plot? Trees just... stand there.
Things happen around them, but they don't really DO anything. I've read examples where authors use inanimate objects as characters successfully, giving them depth and even a kind of personality . But I don't know how to make that work. Does the tree have feelings? Does it want things? Can it observe human drama and care about it? Has anyone done an assignment like this? How do you create a story when your main character can't move or talk?
Things happen around them, but they don't really DO anything. I've read examples where authors use inanimate objects as characters successfully, giving them depth and even a kind of personality . But I don't know how to make that work. Does the tree have feelings? Does it want things? Can it observe human drama and care about it? Has anyone done an assignment like this? How do you create a story when your main character can't move or talk?