One line exercises

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

A collection of one line exercises. In most cases, this is a phrase or single line intended to provoke a story - so go ahead, find one that makes your muse jump, and write!

And then there was...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

originally posted: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 22:19:51 EDT

On the news recently, I saw a mother who had immigrated to America and worked three jobs at once to "get ahead" scramble into her house (in California?) on the edge of a mudslide and grab frantically for bits of her life in the 20 minutes that the emergency crews had given her to rescue what she could.

So, here's the exercise. Pick a number from one to six, please?

1. mud slide
2. flood
3. forest fire
4. volcano
5. earthquake
6. tornado

(pick another natural disaster if you like...heck, you may use an unnatural disaster if you prefer...the IRS, for example?)

All right. Now, imagine your character (what? you don't have a character on tap? all right, do yourself--or maybe the old woman down the block, or the youngster sitting at the bus stop...just pick one) has been given the chance to scrabble through their belongings for a very short time before the rescue team drags them away...

What do they take?

What do they look at, think about, discard, ignore?

Show us that scene, make us feel the clock ticking down, the desperation, the smell of the disaster looming and the very human desire to save...well, what?

Oh, you want something else? Okay, pick a number...

1. one sock
2. one glove
3. an empty envelope
4. a pressed flower
5. a key
6. a book of matches

There's an object. What does it mean to the character? What event in their past has invested this object with such meaning? And, in the face of natural disaster, do they know where it is, do they hunt for it, do they simply toss it aside, or what?

write?

Tell Me The Story!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 09:36:25 EST

From Change by Paul Watzlawick, John H. Weakland, Richard Fisch ISBN 0-393-01104-6

(p. 81) "...During one of the many nineteenth-century riots in Paris the commander of an army detachment received orders to clear a city square by firing at the _canaille_ (rabble). He commanded his soldiers to take up firing positions, their rifles levelled at the crowd, and as a ghastly silence descended he drew his sword and shouted at the top of his lungs: 'Mesdames, m'sieurs, I have orders to fire at the _canaille_. But as I see a great number of honest, respectable citizens before me, I request that they leave so that I can safely shoot the _canaille_.' The square was empty in a few minutes."

Take this scene, sketched so quickly in this paragraph. Think about some of the characters you might have, in the citizenry, in the soldiers, and in the commands. Think about the setting.

(you may even want to do some research into that era...)

Then show us this scene through your eyes, in detail. Make it live! Make us gasp as the soldiers point their guns right at us, and make the tension sing as we wait for the commander to order them to fire. And make us sigh with relief when disaster is averted...

Don't like Paris in the nineteenth century? Translate that plot...could this have happened in Vietnam (or another war/police action)? What about on a university campus during riots? Or during some other rioting, somewhere? Set the scene, bring us to the brink of death, and then..."would the honest, respectable folks please leave so that I can safely shoot the criminals?"

Or perhaps you want to twist it a bit harder, and reapply the principle to something even farther afield? It's up to you.

just rewrite a few words...