EXERCISE: If you knew a secret ...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 17 April 2009

There's a web advertisement that caught my eye the other day. It's for the Philippines, but it starts out with this question:

"If you discovered a land with seven thousand one hundred secrets, would you still keep it a secret?"

Timbuktu, Shangri-La, all those lost lands... if you discover a place with secrets, what do you do with the secret?

Someplace that others don't know about? What do you do with it?

Go ahead and let that rattle around in your brain. Then consider what your character does with it.
And write.

EXERCISE: Special Delivery Pirate

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 18 April 2009

Avast, ye hearties!

Writer's Digest, October 2008, page 61 has the contest prompt:

"A man receives a package with no return address. It contains a pirate-style eyepatch and a note." From the Writer's Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts: a literary journal.

What was his reaction? Who was it from? What did the note say? And then...

An inciting incident, with hints of a buried treasure? At least a hidden secret or some kind of past. Feel free to put something else in the package -- there are lots of objects that might turn up, right? And you could do something with the delivery method, too.

The main thing is, let that situation stimulate your imagination. Dream a little about what could cause this delivery and how this character -- and friends and family and acquaintances -- react to it. What happens?

The second main thing, of course, and I should apologize for extending the count, is to write. So get started.