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Entries Tagged ‘practice’

I was a teenage box office dickhead (a play)

A single-minded and fiery diatribe, a smear piece, a small play (in one act). Based on true events.
Dramatis Personae:
Clay, our Hero
Kat, non-impartial observer, wife to Clay
Ticket Dick, an employee, steward of admittance to the Wehrenberg Theater, complete dickhead
Second Ticket Attendant, a well-mannered employee, a fellow steward.
Couple #2, a young man and woman also attending the [...]

Writing Exercise #4 – Not Ideas, but in Things

Prompt: Write a very brief story told only in images–concrete, simple, visually efficient movements and details. This exercise does not ask you to eliminate people from your prose, just to watch what they do and what objects they crave rather than what they say or think about these objects and actions. 300 words.
* * *
Lightning [...]

Writing Exercise #3 – Sweet and Sour

Prompt: Describe briefly a lake or a backcountry mountain trail (in other words, a beautiful natural setting) as seen by a person who has just lost a parent in a sudden, unexpected death. The last time this narrator saw the parent, they argued violently. In your narrative do not mention the death, the parent, or [...]

Writing Exercise #2 – Indirect Discourse

Prompt: Write a conversation between two people who think they don’t know each other (but actually have many friends in common and have met on a number of occasions). Write entirely in indirect discourse, without any quotation marks or indented paragraphs for each new sentence of speech. 600 words.
* * *
Howard asked her if she [...]

Writing Exercise #1 – Barbarians

Prompt: Write an encounter between two people who do not speak the same language. Stick to one POV. 500 words.
* * *
Sergeant John woke up to the feeling of sun on his face, sand under him, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach around him. He smelled gasoline. He felt heat.
Sergeant John sat [...]