Show and tell... or don't tell

Today's exercise from Seize the Story is to help develop vivid character pictures. It's a three part exercise:
1. Write a one-line description of a professional boxer without calling him or her a boxer.
2. Write a two-sentence description of a dancer without calling him or her a dancer.
3. Write a three-sentence description of a burglar without calling him or her a burglar.

My addition: these characters are not engaging in their jobs at the time you describe them. They are at the community Christmas buffet.

Shoes

One truth we all need to recognize is that small things make up the big picture. And each of these have a place in which they belong. In order for this experiment to work, you must not read ahead.

1. Free write for about 15 minutes. (you can choose the topic)

2. Go through your writing and edit anything that doesn't flow like it should, until your left with a piece of writing you wouldn't mind showing to your worst enemy.

3. Remind yourself that you're a good boy/girl, and would never, ever skip ahead.

4. Replace six plural nouns with the word "shoes".

5. You may now rewrite those sentences with a substituted word in attempt to make it make sense, but only those sentences which have had a word replaced.

Notice how the story no longer makes any sense, no matter how hard you tried. This is a rather obvious example of the role that good vocabulary plays in both your plot and diction.

Seize the Story

For the next little while, I'll be posting writing prompts taken from Victoria Hanley's Seize the Story. We bought two copies of this book, because one isn't enough for the aspiring writers in our home. I noticed great growth in Sarah's and Meg's writing thanks to this book, which is why I am now going through the exercises myself. (Because, frankly, it's a little humbling to do Nano with your daughters and discover to your delight and distress that they are now writing experts and you, gasp, need to work on it).

When I'm done these exercises, I plan to listen to Brandon Sanderson and others' podcast Writing Excuses, because, again, it's been so good for Sarah and Meg. But first, today's exercise.

So, from Seize the Story, today's prompt is:

Think of something you wish you had the nerve to say. Now imagine a character who could easily say this thing you can't. Think about the character for a few minutes. Try to see him/her with your mind's eye. Now interview him or her. Like you would if you were a talk-show host. You don't have to ask him/her about that thing you wish you could say, because, of course, then we would all know what you're wishing you could say and that might be personal. Probably is. Or you would have no trouble saying it. Just ask them whatever you want. Get to know them. For 1/2 an hour. Post the interview here.

Appearances

Deceiving or no. Enjoy.

Articles

Okay, here's a technique I've been thinking on for a while. You rewrite a fairy/folk tale using no articles. 'Articles' as in "a", "an", "the" or "some". find a way to do without them. (another form of this "exclusive writing" is to write a page containing no words consisting of a specified number of letters. These are awesome exercises for finding synonyms, and ways to rephrase)

More tomorrow!!!

CLIFFHANGERS

SATURDAY THRU MONDAYS PROMPT.

Yup, you heard me. Cliffhangers. We've all come across them, probably far oftener than we'd like to. But now... now it's our turn to torture our readers pitilessly, till they're ready to become that cliffhanger. Or maybe it's jumper. Don't worry though, suicide--however much it is considered--is never an option. "Must know what happens next!!!" Remember? Just be careful not to enjoy yourself too much, or you might very well arouse murderous thoughts within your readers. Happy writing!!!

We Are Liars

So, you know how we claimed that we'd be back here on December first?

Either we misled you with filthy, evil lies intended to break your heart and crush your soul, or we plain forgot.

But don't worry, because Sarah is nicer than all the rest of us and decided to provide you with a writing prompt, even if it is a Saturday and two days late. Behold ... The Lonely.

Now, some you may have seen this video already on my own blog, where I told you all about the heartbreaking, eerie, but mostly boring story I wrote this week and invited you to partake of the genius of Christina Perri, which is much more worthwhile. But today, I dare YOU to write a piece on The Lonely.

Come on. I dare you. If five other people post something, I shall put up my own story, even though it took longer than thirty minutes and what I really want is to bury it deep in the earth and never let mortal eyes view it. You can't pass up such a shametastic bribe, can you?

That's what I thought.

EDIT: Just realized I forgot to put an expiration date on my bribe. So let's try this again. If five people respond BEFORE Tuesday, I shall post The Lonely. Because I really, really don't want to put that story up. Like, I really don't.