Monday, December 08, 2008
Spot the missing info...
Real Characters
Pick ten people you see throughout the day or week and write a one-sentence description for each of them. Spin off a fictional character based on what they suggest to you. Tell us something of who they are, not just what they look like.
(exercise from PoeWar, http://www.poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/)
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The intern leaned forward, playfully flirtatious, still getting the job done.
Clothes, attitude, everything was casual, until you saw the eyes.
Alone, chain-smoking, facing but never watching the endless T.V.
Hurrying out of a meeting, cell phone attached, arguing with the ex.
Calm and collected, skilled and confident - every inch the role model.
A ready smile and a joke to hand, good humour turned bitter when the company downsized.
One look, and you knew all those people who had mastered self-deception were amateurs by comparison.
Violence roiling under the surface, kept in check with daily hard labour.
Regimented, sterile, some people just look like they were born in a lab coat.
Eyes, crinkled and laughing, make an ordinary face beautiful.
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So, exercise for the reader: what haven't I told you?
James
Labels: geekery, I think too much
posted by James at 2:19 PM
3 Comments:
Among a great many other things, Age, race, or gender.
Now I want to know who they are!
Yay, Star wins the prize. And you know some of them, but I ain't namin' names.
Also, Yay! Someone out there still reads.
Thought- the first five use "the" in place of a gender-specific pronoun, and it's not as pretty. The last four are much smoother by taking the missing pieces completely out of the equation rather than subbing.
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