Living in Kentucky, I am well acquainted with the feeling of being surrounded by trees/woods… I love the coloring of the leaves in fall, or the smell of honey suckle in spring… I love the fact that what most would considered forest animals feel right at home in walking through my back yard, even though I live a stones throw away from the mall, the railroad tracks, and AK steel… so for this writing prompt I am going with forest… and what would your MC do when surrounded by trees??? 

a forest has the ability to be magical even if you are writing a contemporary themed novel… with out without a hidden waterfall or stream, walking through a forest in fall or spring you are surrounded by beauty… and the sight of the stars through otherwise dead tree limbs is a sight that is hard to describe…

but a forest can also scare the crap out of your MC… some are full of closely packed trees and brush that you have no choice but to go where the forest wants you to go, and the light wouldn’t dare break through the leaves, to noon on a summer day appears like midnight without a star in the sky… add a little fog and you have a place that demands quiet… your quiet, because the forest will be making all kinds of creepy sounds… muhahahaha

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don’t forget the animals and bugs that are found in a forest… is you MC afraid of spiders??? well a forest would be a hell of a place for them to end up… and I didn’t add a picture, but a forest is an excellent place to come across a skunk… omg… my dog riled one up while we were camping, one time… we all woke up to the smell… both dog and skunk were under the camper… I ran out to get the dog to come out and leave the a skunk alone before we all suffocated… before mom could finish screaming for me to stay back, both the dog and I were covered in renewed skunk spray… it wasn’t pretty… needless to say, I washed and still mom made me sleep in the car…

as an added piece of character, what would happen if your MC lost their food and water while in the forest… would they know what to eat… if they were hurt, would they know what to use to ease pain… and what if they ate something poisonous??? or heck… your MC could live in the forest, growing their own medicines…

finally, why is your MC in the forest to begin with… are they searching for a cabin deep in the wood, the home of some recluse??? is there some cave or ruin hidden in the trees cover area??? and what types of bridges and trails will they come across on the way… or will they need to create their own… I know there is a cave at Carter Caves that had used the trunk of a tree as a kind of ladder for more than twenty years before it broke… not sure if another was ever brought in, but it was pretty cool… not so much when it broke but otherwise, pretty cool… (and okay, that one pic is actually dark forest cheese cake, but ymmmm)

and for your Pinterest writing prompt… here are some substitutes for ‘look’… if there is a word that you find yourself overusing, see if you can find some substitutes that you enjoy using just as much… happy wordage, tracey