EXERCISE: The Morning After...
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writercisesoriginal posting: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 21:17:01 -0400
A quick (and possibly quirky) one...
Often TV shows, movies, and even the occasional short story or book will start the scene (after a romantic interlude, beating in the alley, or whatever) with a character waking up, stretching, showering, going to breakfast, etc. without any immediate indication of how we got from there to now (although there may be clues -- that sudden grin at the mirror, for example, or the pained look at some kind of bruise).
So -- something happened last night. You decide what it was, from the mundane to the extreme (a dragon set up residence in the chimney? all right, but you have to explain it!). Don't tell us, but make sure you know the backstory that leads up to...
The scene starts with the character waking up. Take us through the morning, with the occasional odd clue that something is different today (that draft of flame out of the fireplace? well, it certainly got the pot boiling, didn't it?)
And then the point where you explain what happened, where you let the reader in on the mystery. By then, of course, you have some other hooks into them to keep them reading and reading and reading...
Write!
A quick (and possibly quirky) one...
Often TV shows, movies, and even the occasional short story or book will start the scene (after a romantic interlude, beating in the alley, or whatever) with a character waking up, stretching, showering, going to breakfast, etc. without any immediate indication of how we got from there to now (although there may be clues -- that sudden grin at the mirror, for example, or the pained look at some kind of bruise).
So -- something happened last night. You decide what it was, from the mundane to the extreme (a dragon set up residence in the chimney? all right, but you have to explain it!). Don't tell us, but make sure you know the backstory that leads up to...
The scene starts with the character waking up. Take us through the morning, with the occasional odd clue that something is different today (that draft of flame out of the fireplace? well, it certainly got the pot boiling, didn't it?)
And then the point where you explain what happened, where you let the reader in on the mystery. By then, of course, you have some other hooks into them to keep them reading and reading and reading...
Write!
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