writercises | EXERCISE: four nouns and a surprise! (Reply)

Original posting 1 December 2007

Oh, that looks like it could be fun.

I was reading James Maxey's essay at http://jamesmaxey.blogspot.com/2007/11/stories-are-made-out-of-scenes-scenes.html (first of five about his five things he's learned about writing). A good thoughtful piece about scenes and nouns, which you might want to peruse in your spare time. But . . .

Down near the end, he's got an exercise. First, take four "generic" nouns and punch them up. The four he suggests are "man, woman, building, city." Replace with more specific, evocative knowns, and then see what kind of scene or story they suggest. E.g., "Cop, nurse, Superdome, New Orleans" hints at something. Or perhaps "Shuttle pilot, astronaut, launch pad, Cape Canaveral" light your rockets? (Isn't that Cape Kennedy now?)

I also thought his list of starting surprises was interesting. E.g. there was a shark in the kitchen, a skull on the coffee table, a lion in the laundromat, or a giant lizard reading to a kindergarten class - any one of those juxtapositions of the sinister or strange with the mundane gets the brain going and makes the reader want to find out what's going on.

I'm going to be at a conference this week - general chair for the first day's thisworkshop, then attending, so may be a bit quiet. But this gives me something to do during those long conference meetings this week, perhaps? Specify nouns or surprise contrasts, then sketch the results - and smile, that's the end of his talk?

So - write, write, write!