EXERCISE: A quick quirky one

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 21 June 2007

Okay, here's the deal.

pick a number from one to seven. Have you got it?

Now go over to http://us.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/parenting/06/21/par.quirky.discipline/index.html

where you should find an article about rules for interacting with your children. They're kind of fun and the article has some explanation about where they came from and why they work.

Do you remember your number? Look at the article and take that rule. Pick two or three characters, and imagine them in interaction of some kind. Now have one of them pull out that handy rule and try to get it accepted and acted on by the others. Add appropriate scenes, a bit of personal conflict and agendas, and there you have it, a nice little short story.

I have to run. This weekend we are taking a group of American students to see Kyoto, which means little or no time for the computer. On the other hand, I get to see real people doing real things in the real world, which is always kind of fun.

Later
tink

[just in case that page has disappeared -- the names of the rules are:

1. You can't be in the room when I'm working unless you work, too.
2. I don't work past 8 PM
3. You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit
4. Take that show on the road
5. We don't argue about money
6. I can't understand you when you speak like that
7. There's no such thing as boredom.]