Think of a work of fiction that you cherish.

State the major reason why you love reading it.

How did the author achieve this effect?

“ Anyone who has lived to the age of eighteen has enough stories to last a lifetime” – Flannery O’Connor

Write down a particular memory that haunts you.

Write down ten things that could serve as story ideas.

- People

- Emotions

- Thought

- Situations

“Sam wasn’t sure if it was a wonderful sign or a sign of disaster, but Sam knew…”

Finish this for the next five minutes.

Open up one of the works of fiction you cherish – write out a page, word for word, to let yourself feel what what it might have been like to create those words.

Make small notes to yourself about

how the author accomplished a particular effect.

Think of a a character. If that’s a problem, make them a performer: a singer or wrestler who’s hit middle-age and is finding most of their career is faded glory, or a parent or child who is having difficulty with his or her own parent or child.

Think of a specific desire for this character.

Recall the worst person you’ve ever met. Or make someone up.

Assign one redeeming quality to

the character – kindness, courtesy, sympathy. Then write a passage showing this person doing that redeeming action.

Go back to that character who you gave a desire.

Now give that character two contrasting traits. Jot them down.

Ex: He is overly considerate to people, but turns into a bastard when the barista leaves room for cream and sugar in their Starbuck’s coffee.

Bring the character you gave the desire into your mind: now bring them to life.

Have something life-changing happen to them.

Give him or her a major dramatic

question.

Go back to the five books you cherish: write down the dramatic question for each of them

Ex: Will Roland catch the Man in Black?

Will Holden find a place where he belongs?

Can a political assassin ever be right?

Return to the character - the one with the dramatic question.

Now write an entire story around the major dramatic question you created.

It should have a beginning, middle with escalating conflict, ending with a crisis, climax, and consequence. One more thing: This story can be no longer than 500 words. Not 500 pages. Five. Hundred. Words. Afterward, if you’re so inclined, you can turn your idea into a longer work.

Observe the Rockwell and write a passage from the FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVE of one of the characters.

Observe the Rockwell and write a passage from the THIRD-PERSON OMNNISCIENT PERSPECTIVE of one of the characters.

Observe the Rockwell and write a passage from the THIRD-PERSON LIMITED PERSPECTIVE of one of the characters. Have a sense of impartiality.

Showing only.

Recall a dialogue exchange you had in the past few days. Do your best to write it down, being faithful to what was actually said. Don’t airbrush out the boring parts. Write it down just like you’re transcribing from a tape recorder. Use colons to note speakers.

Jack: Hey manTim: S’up.Jack: Where are you? Tim: Ah, no where. Just Tanner Brothers. Jack: Oh. Is that, like, near by where you guys found your dog?Tim: I think so. My mom found it. That dog is so ugly. Jack: She’s a pug, right? Tim: Oh my God! Red bell peppers are $1.49 a pound. That’ll give me ample amounts of vitamin C all week! What’s that? Yeah, she’s a pug. But she stinks. Her face smells like a corn tortilla wrapped around a cat turd.

Now take the same dialogue, rewrite the exchange, this time making it snappy and fictionalized.

You see the difference?

Think about SUBTEXT

Create two people sitting down to a dinner of tuna steak – one suspects the other of being unfaithful (in some way) and the other is guilty (in some way). Write a dialogue exchange where the sore topic isn’t referred to directly, but instead simmers beneath the spoken words. Don’t enter the thoughts of the characters. Keep the conversation focused on the tuna steak they’re eating. If you exhaust the tuna steak, then talk about movies or politics. Silly, but see if the finished product doesn’t have a ring of truth.

Description: Pick a place and describe it vividly. Use color, shape, motion, temperature, scent, time of day, sounds. Use everything that fits what’s happening.

Don’t use the crap that doesn’t matter.

Think of those five books. State their THEME in a word or two.

Nothing Happens “All of a sudden” or “Suddenly”: Removing yourself from the moment and putting your reader in your place.

- Think of a time when something really SUDDEN happened to you.

- Then depict the moment in a page. - Remove yourself emotionally- Focus on the vivid details- Use at least one piece of dialogue with

proper dialogue rules