Exercise – She does WHAT?
This could be a tough exercise, but it should be fun.
Give a character a full name (first & last) where the last name is a verb. Then write a short story about that character where (s)he fulfills that last name, but not in the way one would think.
For example:
Character: Paul Mangles
Storyline: He sees his ex-wife with her new lover in the grocery store. He does not, however, pull an (alleged & acquitted) O.J. Simpson on them. Instead, he looks back over how he mangled their relationship…or for a more horror-filled example, he mangles himself in an elaborate suicide disguised to look like the wife & lover killed him.
Character Motivation
The only difference between a character in a story and the author or reader is the planes upon which they exist. Just like you and I, characters must have motivation. There is a reason for everything your characters do–at least there should be. Nothing is worse than a novel or story with unbelievable characters. Imagine a five-year-old girl who is afraid of spiders. If she picked one up and let it crawl on her face for no reason, we would call BS in a heartbeat. Everything your creations do must be a logical extension of themselves and their circumstances.
So, this exercise is just one to get you thinking about character motivation. It can also be used to overcome writer’s block. Your task is to use the following premise:
Jada is an eight-year-old girl afraid of spiders. She picks up a daddy long leg and lets it crawl on her hand.
- Come up with several plausible reasons she might do this (for example Jada has a crush on a boy who likes spiders and she wants his attention)
- Using the premise, write a short piece showing her actions, reactions, and motivation for allowing the spider to crawl on her
Choose one of the exercises and feel free to post your answers here. Incidentally, if you choose #2, you’ll likely have to go through #1 to get there.
A picture is worth what?
Horror comes in all shapes and sizes. As the movie Ghostbusters demonstrated, even a giant marshmallow man can be terrifying to some people.
The exercise here is just to get you writing about something. Since a picture is worth 1,000 words, try to write that many words, whether characterization, storyline, or stream-of-conscious about the picture below. I found this picture years ago while working on my Masters degree. It remains one of the most poignant and haunting images I have ever seen.
World War I gas attack. The soldier on the left couldn't get his mask on in time.
No Word Choice
I’ve done it myself. I’ve sat in front of a blank sheet of paper or a screen trying to come up with something to write. So, if you are in that place and you need a little boost, try out this exercise to get your creative juices flowing.
We’ll start with the world’s worst beginning:
It was a dark and stormy night…
Using that as your first sentence, work the following words onto the first page of a story. If you can, work them into the first paragraph. (you can use plural forms or different tenses of the words)
- crepuscular
- shadow
- zip
- patchwork
- moist
- light
- sconce
- fly (verb)
- chatter (verb or noun)
- black
- wobble (verb or noun)
- hang
If you want to post your masterpiece in the comments, feel free to do so.
Redo Something New
Assignment:
Go to your bookshelf and pick up one of your favorite novels. Open it to the first page. Using the first line of the book, write a story between 500 and 2,000 words. If the line contains a copyrighted character like Harry Potter, you can change the name (if you so desire).
IMPORTANT:
The purpose is not to rewrite the novel. Take that line and run in a different direction with your story. For example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins:
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.
You can use Huck or create a new character, Amos Dial. Just let your fingers follow where your mind wanders.
If you don’t have any novels handy, find a short story. If you happen to be somewhere without novels and fiction magazines, like a hotel, snag a copy of the newspaper and take an opening line from an interesting story. Use that for your assignment.
A Fresh Start…
Your assignment: write a scene or story at least 500 words starting with the following line. Do not change the sentence at all.
After thirteen years of scamming tourists and gullible people with Three Card Monty, Earl was ready for something else.