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EXERCISE: What do you say?
Jul. 4th, 2009 11:50 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
mbarker.livejournal.comOriginal Posting 1 July 2009
Right over here, CNN and Real Simple have an article about what to say in awkward social situations. http://us.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/06/30/rs.react.awkward.situations/index.html
The fun part for us as writers is to take that situation, that seed of a scene, and expand on it. You can change it a little bit, but use that hint of an awkward social situation as a place to start. It may just be a single scene, or you may want to continue the interaction. You might want to back up and fill in the background that led up to the situation. OK? Pick a number from one to nine! Yes, yes, we'll wait.
Got your number? Here's what you picked:
1. Waiting in line at the deli, you're greeted by someone whose name escapes you.
2. It's Thursday afternoon, your foils are setting, and your boss walks into the salon. You look like an extra from Star Wars -- and it's clear you slipped out early. (For anyone else who isn't quite sure, apparently this is a beauty salon, and you're getting your hair done. Foils?)
3. You enter the pediatrician's waiting room with your sick child, and spot a parent with whom you've had issues (to say the least) at PTA meetings.
4. At a baby shower, you encounter a friend who is seething with anger at you.
5. You make a dash for the elevator and slide in as the door is closing. Cozy: it's just you and the CEO.
6. You're pumping gas when up walks an acquaintance who has been bugging you to serve on a committee she chairs.
7. Your former in-laws show up unannounced at your child's basketball game. Suddenly you're sweating as much as the players are.
8. You're at a restaurant with coworkers when you run into your therapist.
9. As you're walking into an ATM vestibule, a person who recently fired you is walking out.
If you want to, you can go look at their recommended approaches. But you might want to start by envisioning the scene yourself, and thinking about how you want your characters to act. Anyway you look at it,...
Write!
Right over here, CNN and Real Simple have an article about what to say in awkward social situations. http://us.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/06/30/rs.react.awkward.situations/index.html
The fun part for us as writers is to take that situation, that seed of a scene, and expand on it. You can change it a little bit, but use that hint of an awkward social situation as a place to start. It may just be a single scene, or you may want to continue the interaction. You might want to back up and fill in the background that led up to the situation. OK? Pick a number from one to nine! Yes, yes, we'll wait.
Got your number? Here's what you picked:
1. Waiting in line at the deli, you're greeted by someone whose name escapes you.
2. It's Thursday afternoon, your foils are setting, and your boss walks into the salon. You look like an extra from Star Wars -- and it's clear you slipped out early. (For anyone else who isn't quite sure, apparently this is a beauty salon, and you're getting your hair done. Foils?)
3. You enter the pediatrician's waiting room with your sick child, and spot a parent with whom you've had issues (to say the least) at PTA meetings.
4. At a baby shower, you encounter a friend who is seething with anger at you.
5. You make a dash for the elevator and slide in as the door is closing. Cozy: it's just you and the CEO.
6. You're pumping gas when up walks an acquaintance who has been bugging you to serve on a committee she chairs.
7. Your former in-laws show up unannounced at your child's basketball game. Suddenly you're sweating as much as the players are.
8. You're at a restaurant with coworkers when you run into your therapist.
9. As you're walking into an ATM vestibule, a person who recently fired you is walking out.
If you want to, you can go look at their recommended approaches. But you might want to start by envisioning the scene yourself, and thinking about how you want your characters to act. Anyway you look at it,...
Write!
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