Exercise Nine

Return to the character for whom you have created a desire and contrasting traits.  time to bring this person to life.  Write a passage where this character is pursuing his or her desire in some way.

It’s Friday, 8pm.  Dad’s funeral was exactly two weeks ago, almost to the minute.  Mom is expecting the girls and me Sunday afternoon.  In Vancouver.

I pick up my paycheck at the front desk as I slouch out the door.

I have no money in savings, but with my Christmas bonus we should at least be able to get to Vancouver.  It would mean the girls had nothing under the tree to look forward to Christmas morning, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

A bell rings as I push open the door to the liquor store.

“You don’t need to drink tonight,” I say to myself “just getting my paycheck cashed because no one else is open this late, and maybe a pack of cigarettes.”  At the counter I restate my purpose. “I just need to cash this and I need a pack of Parliament Lights.”

As the cashier fulfills my request I eye the rows of flask sized spirits behind the counter.  It really wouldn’t be so bad just to have a little drink tonight to calm my nerves about the trip, right?  I may get a small thing of whiskey if they aren’t too expensive.  I’ve never bought one of those little bottles anyway.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, how much are those small bottles of Elijah Craig?”

“5.97″

“Kinda high for a little bottle init?”

“I don’t know why they wanna charge so much for these little things.  You might as well get a handle.  They’re only about twelve bucks.”

Makes sense to me, and I’d have some on hand.  I still don’t have to drink too much tonight.  Just buying more doesn’t mean I need to drink more.

“Yeah, alright.  Hang on a second I’ll go grab one.”

Don’t worry if it comes out a little clumsy.  Dimension doesn’t always happen overnight. -good call GWWWF

Exercise Eight

Return to the character for whom you created a desire.  now give this person two contrasting traits.  Jot down the contrasting traits.  We’ll be coming back to this character again soon.

Cares a great deal for her children but participates in self destructive behavior.

Exercise Seven

Recall the worst person you’ve ever met.  A psychotic boss, a back-stabbing friend, a playground bully.  Or make someone up.  Next, assign one redeeming quality to this character–kindness, courtesy, sympathy, a fondness for animals.  Then write a short passage with this person in action.

“Awll righd!  Makin’ muonie, makin’ muonie!”

In case you don’t speak dumbass, that’s my new Branch Rental Manager, Mark.  We are finishing out another day at America’s premier car rental establishment, ________.  And apparently, we’ve made him proud today.

“Steven, you sold ‘full boat’ twice today!?  Hell yeah son, that’s how you make that muonie!” Mark said as he reviewed the numbers for the day.  “It’s just me and you tomorrow son.  Imma show you how we used to do it at my old store.  We used to MAKE BANK on Satadays!  All you gots to do is have the cars clean and lined up in the front all shiny and people will pay whatever you tell them to pay.  THAT’s how you MAKE…MUONIE!”

It was 6:45, we close at six, and I was ready to go home for the weekend and start dreading my return to this hell hole on Monday.  I power down all the computers and we are all grabbing our personal belongings from our seldom used desks when we hear a knock at the door.

“Shit,” I say, “that’s Mr. Summerlinn returning his car.”

“Mr. Summerlinn who lives in Ponder?  Who always needs a ride home?” says Steven.

Ponder is a sweet little town about 40 minutes from our current location.

“It’s too bad we’re closed,” I say

“It’s alright guys I’ll take care of him,” Mark says “enjoy your weekend.  Oh wait, your mine tomorrow son!” he says, pointing to Steven.

Steven and I look at each other and shrug.

“Have fun tomorrow buddy,” I say.

“Well, gotta make that money,” he says with a smile.

Exercise Six

Think of a character. Then think of one driving desire for this character. Once you find the character and the desire jot them down.

Selene, a single mother of two, who works two jobs to meet the needs of her family desires to see her estranged mother after Selene’s father dies.

Exercise Five

Return to the work of fiction that you chose as your favorite.  Pick a passage that you especially like.  Write out a page or so of this section, word for word, just to let yourself feel what it might have been like to create that particular arrangement.

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (ch. 24)

Luckily there was a strong updraft in the alley because Arthur hadn’t done this sort of thing for a while, at least not deliberately, and deliberately is exactly the way you are not meant to do it.

He swung down sharply, nearly catching himself a nat crack on the jaw with the doorstep, and tumled through the air, so suddenly stunned with what a profoundly stupid thing he had just done that he completely forgot the bit about hitting the ground and didn’t.

A nice trick, he thought to himself, if you can do it.

The ground was hanging menacingly above his head.

He tried not to think about the ground, what an extraordinarily big thing it was and how much it would hurt him if it decided to stop hanging there and suddenly fell on him.  He tried to think nice thoughts about lemurs instead, which is exactly the right thing to do because he couldn’t at that moment remember precisely what a lemur was, if it was one of those things that sweep in great majestic herds across the plains of wherever it was or if that was wildebeests, so it was a tricky kind of thing to think nice thoughts about without simply resorting to an icky sort of general well-disposedness toward things, and all this kept his mind well occupied while his body tried to adjust to the fact that it wasn’t touching anything.

A Mars bar wrapper fluttered down the alleyway.

After a seeming moment of doubt and indecision it eventually allowed the wind to ease it, fluttering, between him and the ground.

“Arthur…”

The ground was still hanging menacingly above his head, and he thoughtit was probably time to do something about that, such as fall away from it, which is what he did.  Slowly.  Very, very slowly.

As he fell, slowly, very, very slowly, he closed his eyes–carefully, so as not to jolt anything.

The feel of his eyes closing ran down his whole body.  Once it had reached his feet, and the whole of his body was alerted to the fact that his eyes were now closed and was not panicked by it, he slowly, very, very, slowly revolved his body one way and his mind the other.

Exercise Four

Take this opening phrase: “Sam wasn’t sure if it was a wonderful sign or a sign of disaster but Sam knew…”  Write down that fictional opener, then keep going.  Freewrite, meaning write without stopping or even thinking too much, just scribble away however things come out.  You should write for at least five minutes but feel free to go as long as you like.

Sam wasn’t sure if it was a wonderful sign or a sign of disaster but Sam knew his pants should not be this wet.  Yeah, sure the football game had made him sweat a bit with anticipation but the sensation he now felt was reminicent of childhood, of that one bus ride that stretched the limits of his bladder until he couldn’t take it anymore.  Much to his relief Bob was already on the case with a roll of paper towels in hand getting ready to dive head first into Sam’s crotchal region in a cleaning frenzy that would have impressed Billy Mays.

Luckily though, much like the soda Billy sucked up with the newest piece-of-shit device, that’s just was Bob was cleaning now.  Apparently the blue team had just scored a touchdown and this upset Bob a bit beyond what his cup holding hand’s motor control could contain.

Sam had never really cared much for football but, having just started a new job, felt a bit obligated to attend a watch party when invited by the guys in his office.  The soggy crotch incident did have one welcomed side effect though, he now knew what team he was not rooting for…blue.

Exercise Three

Create a week long writing schedule, encompassing at least 5 hours of writing time, with the installments lasting at least an hour each.  Work on a piece of fiction using this schedule for a full week.

Due to unemployment my schedule is pretty messed up right now.  So lets just say at least one hour of writing a day, in the morning if possible.

Exercise Two

Write down ten things that might possibly serve as story ideas, drawing from things that happened to you over the past week.  Then pick the idea that looks the most promising for a story.  List several ways in which this idea might be turned into a fictional story.

1. The mystery of the funny tasting “Green Monster Shake”.
2. The 2 hour job fair interview.
3. Crawfishing with grandma
4. Fishing with grandparents
5. Unemployment
6. Trying to sleep through the night with a rambunctious dog.
7. Traveling through rural Arkansas and Missouri to see sister’s christian private school volleyball game.
8. Conversations with the elderly next door neighbor who is obsessed with my dog.
9. Discovering quinces
10. Picking out pumpkins with mom

The 2 hour job fair interview

• discuss grandparents telling me about the job fair two days ahead of time and the preparation leading up to it
• discuss how my suit didn’t fit after gaining unemployment weight
• discuss the actual job fair
  • the process
  • the other candidates
  • the my temperature
  • the interviewers
• discuss my inner monologue after the fair and conversations with others

Exercise One

Choose a work of fiction that you cherish.  In a single sentence, try to state the major reason why you love reading this work.  Then list several ways with which you think the author achieved this effect.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

Douglas Adams makes the most impossible things seem more plausible than everyday occurrences.

• By putting the reader and the main character in a position of ignorance and discovery
• By creating a logical framework in which absurd happenings fit and contribute to the resolution of the unknown
• By utilizing relativity in the reader’s mind.  For instance, once you accept that the Earth has been destroyed by Vogons to make way for an interspace bypass, the inclusion of a two-headed, three-armed companion and an unprobability drive are not that bizarre, relatively speaking.