EXERCISE: 100 Word Wonders

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 22:03:03 -0400

Hi, ho.

If you think your writing is getting flabby, try this one.

Write a story in 100 words.  We'll let you get by (this time) with the title not being counted.  But all the rest (characterization, plot, scene, voice, etc.) should fit into that 100 words.

So for a three-act play, you've got about 30 words for each act.

Keep it tight.

And write!

(65 words, not counting this postscript :-)

EXERCISE: first thoughts...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 00:57:33 -0400

Okay, it's too quiet around here.

One of my favorite exercises from college (yeah, they had words back then, although we hadn't invented verbs yet.  We just rubbed two nouns together for heat when we needed it. :-)

Take one of the following words:

1. nares
2. palimpset
3. antiphonal
4. qiviut
5. sandarac
6. obbligato

Look it up.  Go ahead, dig out the meanings, the contrariness, the obdurate depths of your word.

Now, write a (story/verse/terse/you name it) around this word.  Use it as a starting point, weld it in and make the tale reverberate with the meaning, and along the way, show the reader (do not simply tell the reader, show them, carefully and slowly, with meaning!) what this word means!

So, for example, one might walk around the back bumper of the scansolot, it'spush at the carefully crafted steering column, and see if the vents underneath were clear or not.  Then take it for a short skim down the beach and across the lake, enjoying the slight drag of the early morning waves against the skirt.

And after a while, the reader decides that a scansalot sounds something like a hover craft, and relaxes in the vintage plastic seating along with our heroine.

Okay?  So let's see those nares, palimpset, antiphonal, qiviut, sandarac, and obbligato tales.

Write!