EXERCISE: Guess Who's Riding On the Bus?
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writercisesOriginal Posting Aug. 24, 2017
One of the odd TV shows Japan has right now is called Monitoring. Basically, they set up various situations, with hidden cameras, and show us the results. They often repeat a given situation two or three times with different targets, just for fun. Kind of a variation on the old Candid Camera show.
One of the situations on this evening's show caught my fancy. It's pretty simple, really. One or two people get on a bus, late in the evening. One of the people on the bus remarks that they don't like riding this bus, there are rumors that it is haunted. Then, at the next stop, everyone except the targets gets off. The bus goes on.
As they are rumbling along, a woman's voice can be heard, saying, "Help me." Then it says it again. Finally, it says, "Can you hear me?"
If the target asks the driver if he heard the voice, he says, "What are you talking about?"
Then the buttons flash. The driver says, "You want to get off at the next stop?" If the target says "No," the driver turns off the next stop button.
Next, from one of the empty seats in the back, a woman with long black hair, wearing a simple white shift, and barefoot, appears. She slowly moves up through the seats.
If the target asks the driver about the woman, he shakes his head and says, "You are the only person on the bus."
Now, it depends a little on what the target says, but the ghost (she is a very stereotypical Japanese ghost!) may comment something like "You are the first person who has seen me" and "I've been stuck on this bus since I died." But the highlight is that she asks, "Can I go with you?"
Sooner or later, they stop the bus and the TV people climb on, explaining that this is the Monitoring show. At which point, just like Candid Camera and other similar shows, the targets often are quite chagrined.
Okay? You get the basic picture, right? You climb on a bus, and while it rumbles along, a ghost climbs out of the back, comes forward, and sits down near you. After talking a bit, she asks to go with you.
One of the targets on tonight's show, after finding out that the driver didn't hear or see the ghost, happily agreed that she could come home with him. He did mention that he has two kids and a wife, and it might be noisy. When they asked him, later, why he agreed that the ghost could go with him, he said, "Well, I thought living in the bus must be very lonely, so I wanted to let her have a better life."
So, your exercise. Take that basic framework, with getting on a bus or perhaps some other transportation or place, and having a ghost appear and ask to go with you. Go ahead, make up the setting and character, and have them encounter this situation. What do they think? How do they react to this ghost? And what happens next...
Write?
tink
One of the odd TV shows Japan has right now is called Monitoring. Basically, they set up various situations, with hidden cameras, and show us the results. They often repeat a given situation two or three times with different targets, just for fun. Kind of a variation on the old Candid Camera show.
One of the situations on this evening's show caught my fancy. It's pretty simple, really. One or two people get on a bus, late in the evening. One of the people on the bus remarks that they don't like riding this bus, there are rumors that it is haunted. Then, at the next stop, everyone except the targets gets off. The bus goes on.
As they are rumbling along, a woman's voice can be heard, saying, "Help me." Then it says it again. Finally, it says, "Can you hear me?"
If the target asks the driver if he heard the voice, he says, "What are you talking about?"
Then the buttons flash. The driver says, "You want to get off at the next stop?" If the target says "No," the driver turns off the next stop button.
Next, from one of the empty seats in the back, a woman with long black hair, wearing a simple white shift, and barefoot, appears. She slowly moves up through the seats.
If the target asks the driver about the woman, he shakes his head and says, "You are the only person on the bus."
Now, it depends a little on what the target says, but the ghost (she is a very stereotypical Japanese ghost!) may comment something like "You are the first person who has seen me" and "I've been stuck on this bus since I died." But the highlight is that she asks, "Can I go with you?"
Sooner or later, they stop the bus and the TV people climb on, explaining that this is the Monitoring show. At which point, just like Candid Camera and other similar shows, the targets often are quite chagrined.
Okay? You get the basic picture, right? You climb on a bus, and while it rumbles along, a ghost climbs out of the back, comes forward, and sits down near you. After talking a bit, she asks to go with you.
One of the targets on tonight's show, after finding out that the driver didn't hear or see the ghost, happily agreed that she could come home with him. He did mention that he has two kids and a wife, and it might be noisy. When they asked him, later, why he agreed that the ghost could go with him, he said, "Well, I thought living in the bus must be very lonely, so I wanted to let her have a better life."
So, your exercise. Take that basic framework, with getting on a bus or perhaps some other transportation or place, and having a ghost appear and ask to go with you. Go ahead, make up the setting and character, and have them encounter this situation. What do they think? How do they react to this ghost? And what happens next...
Write?
tink