Just By Chance! Drill Time!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: March 4, 1995

You will need a die for this...go ahead and find one.

(that's one dice--like a mie is one mice? so rye is...no...:-)

Roll the die to pick one of each of these. (Just a suggestion - either print this and circle your choices, or write them down as you make them. Seven things is just too much to try to keep in my poor little noggin, at least.)

First Character

1. soldier 2. subway guard 3. swimmer
4. telephone operator 5. ticket taker 6. waiter

Second Character

1. prostitute 2. PR agent 3. reporter
4. riveter 5. seamstress 6. sheriff

Place

1. Restaurant 2. A Fish Market 3. The Wrong Restroom
4. An Art Museum 5. A Bus Depot 6. A Mortuary

Object One

1. Tuna fish 2. Bowling pin 3. Gardenia
4. A ceramic frog 5. A map of Florida 6. A locked one-year diary

Object Two

1. six gold thumbtacks 2. an opened envelope 3. a piece of wire
4. a key 5. a lump of coal 6. a stick of dynamite

Adjective One

1. ornamental 2. fitted 3. pliable
4. greedy 5. untidy 6. final

Abstract One

1. absolute 2. artistic 3. political
4. mental 5. economic 6. theoretical

Okay? Rolled, picked, and ready to do something with your seven bits?

Think about these people, in this place, with those objects. That adjective and the abstraction both should play a part.

And write!

(based on #44 on page 128 in "What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers" by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter]