It’s been forever since we’ve done a writing exercise here, but I’m guessing some of you are home from school unexpectedly and might be on the look out for activities to keep you occupied.
I like to think I give the people what they want! So, today I have a fun writing exercise for you.
You remember why we do writing exercises, right? It’s very simple:
Practice makes progress.
And eventually practice makes expert.
Do you know who Stephen Curry is? Three time NBA champion and two time league MVP with the Golden State Warriors? You’ve heard of him, right? He’s so fun to watch, friends. When he’s on, he drops three point shots in his sleep.
In an article dated April 8, 2016, Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post reported that Curry shoots “around 2,000 shots per week. He takes a minimum of 250 a day, plus another 100 before every game.”
He practices. And when it’s time to do the thing, his body is ready and knows what to do.
It’s the same for you and me. Our goals are different than Curry’s, but we can be just as dedicated to our craft as he is dedicated to his. If we’re going to continue to improve, we must practice.
So, let’s do it! Let’s engage our brain and get better today.
Here’s how it works:
I’m going to drop a picture here and I need you to write me a paragraph that makes the reader feel HOPEFUL.
Your paragraph should answer three questions, but WRONG ANSWERS ONLY. Do not give me the obvious answer. Engage your brain. We’re not detectives here, trying to figure out what’s happening in the picture. We’re storytellers, taking the ordinary and turning it extraordinary.
Here are the three things I want to know:
- Who’s in the picture?
- Where was this picture taken?
- What’s happening in this picture?
And remember to leave the reader feeling hopeful.
Leave your paragraph in the comments section and be sure to come back throughout the weekend to see what your friends have come up with. And feel free to play as often as you’d like. I know many of you have time to kill! I can’t wait to read what you come up with.
Here’s the picture:
Now! Off you go! Write, write, write!
Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.
Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.
It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.
To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.
For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
I guess we don’t really know the intent on this one. Could you post an example?
I logged on to give you an example and I see Riley has taken care of that for me. Just a paragraph of fiction that feels hopeful and address the who, what and where. That’s it.
Hmm, let’s see if I can do this…
On a moonlit night, a pirate frantically searches for his lost teddy bear. The crew is sailing the Arctic ocean, and the pirate is deathly afraid of icebergs. He looks up in the crow’s nest, hoping it’s there, but there’s nothing but a spider weaving a web. He looks in the dining hall of the ship, but there’s nothing there either but dirty plates, and a pot of leftover gruel from supper. Finally he looks on the horizon, and there, on a ship of his own, is his teddy bear, bravely driving the stormy sea, giving a proud salute to his eyepatched, peglegged friend. And that is what is happening in this picture. The end.
How was that? I don’t know if I did it right, but it was the first thing I thought of to “fit” this picture.
Perfect, Riley! I love the teddy bear and piracy! Fantastic!
Thanks! Glad you like it!
How’s everyone dealing with the whole Coronavirus thing? As for my state, no schools are closed yet, and there’s no reported cases here yet. Praying for everyone who are nearby the Coronavirus cases!
So, my grandparents were on the cruise ship that experienced an outbreak. They’re fine, no illness, but they’re being quarantined at a local air force base with the other passengers. The schools here are starting to close. Lots of announcements today. Haven’t heard yet about my kids’ school, but I assume its forthcoming.
Like you, Riley, I’m hoping everyone stays safe and smart and kind during this bizarre moment in history. Read!
Yup. My state is closing all schools, but I’m home schooled, so that doesn’t effect me. There were a couple cases and at least one death at a local nursing home where someone I know lives. Scary. Unfortunately, all the speech and debate tournaments are getting canceled. I’m praying this all blows over in time for nationals, however, I’ve accepted that that’s not likely. I’m also praying for our leaders and those effected.
Glad to hear your grandparents are okay.
My college went online this past Wednesday. Campus is technically still open, but no one who could leave stayed, and all activities were cancelled. Hopefully things will go back to normal soon.
It was so weird. In the days before my school went digital, they had the janitors spraying the door handles every few minutes, and all the self-serve stations in the dining hall were changed so that an employee was dolling out the food.
Stay safe everyone!
My school has been canceled for the next two weeks, which I guess is okay because one of those weeks was going to be spring break anyway.
This is so cool! I love how much creativity you packed into the paragraph!!
I’m home schooled and I do an online school so they haven’t been canceled, but even church has been canceled. Crazy
His name is Foresight. Well, some of the time, at least. His name was also Rememberance, but right now his name Is Foresight, and that is just what this girl wanted.
“Hello.” She greeted, stepping up to table. Just as she’d heard, he is sitting at this particular table in the Mall cafeteria, his old suitcase on the floor beside his chair, and his glasses resting on the table. Oh, yes, his glasses. Depending on his name that day, the glasses could show you things. Memories, the future… the girl shakes her head. She’s not here to reminisce today. She is here to know.
Foresight had glanced at her upon her greeting, but his gaze is distant. Then, he smiles, and nods as if they are old friends. She thinks they probably are, in the future.
“Please, I need… I need to know where I’m going.” And who I’m going with is unspoken, but no doubt heard anyway.
He looks at her fondly for a moment, and puts on the glasses. The corners of his eyes wrinkle a bit, and he lets out a chuckle.
“What is it? What do you see?”
“My dear,” he says “You will not believe where our adventure takes us.”
A feeling, somehow both warm and cold, fills her so that she is practically vibrating with, with whatever this is. “Mr. Foresight?” She questions, breathless.
“Present, my dear, we will be going wherever you take us.” He leans forward a bit, staring into her eyes with all the intensity of the past and the mystery of the future. “And you are going to take us higher than the highest skyscraper, and deeper than the deepest ocean.”
This is so creative! Good job, you!
Ooh, well done! You have me feeling hopeful, and wanting more!
Beside me, the mounted binoculars squeaked as Addy swiveled them to her right. I tossed my tennis ball at the wall again, waited for it to bounce back, and caught it before it could sail over the railing and kill some poor sap hundreds of feet below us. I glanced over my shoulder at Addy and then down at the city rushing by. It unsettled my stomach even after years of riding these things every day. Shuddering, I turned back to the wall and threw my tennis ball again.
“How long are you gonna do that, Addy?” I asked. “There’s nothing out there to see.”
“Yes, there is. We just have to be patient.” The binoculars squealed again as she turned them the other direction.
I sighed. “You can’t seriously believe those sites. Those guys are a bunch of whacks.”
Addy pulled back from the binoculars long enough to stick her tongue out at me, her short hair falling into her eyes. She brushed it aside and pressed her face to the binoculars. “I have to believe something other than we’re all staring at the end of the world. And maybe the fairy tales were wrong all these years. The knights weren’t rescuing the damsel—they were stealing her back after she ran away.”
I bounced my ball again. “Let’s just get off at the next stop before our moms start thinking we were ‘drafted’ by the militia.”
“If we get off at the next stop,” Addy said, swiveling the binoculars upward, “we will be.”
I sighed, knowing she was right. The air ship’s next stop was in the western district, the militia’s favorite recruitment spot. “Fine. But will you at least quit it? Those things are obnoxious.”
Addy turned the binoculars in every direction, painfully slowly for maximum squeakage.
I rolled my eyes as I threw my tennis ball again. “You’re the worst.”
“You know you—“
“I know I what?” I pushed myself away from the railing, turning toward my friend. “Addy, I know I what?”
She didn’t respond as she adjusted the dials on the binoculars.
“Earth to Addy. You still in there?” I tapped her shoulder.
“Oh my God,” Addy murmured.
“What?”
“They’re real. The dragons are real. And they’re on our side.” Addy pulled away from the binoculars to look at me. “They’re fighting for us, Lin.”
Dragons! So fun!
Yeah, I’m homeschooled too. But, we have a group that meets every week, and if the schools close, we are going to have to “close” too. I don’t like that idea, I love learning!!! I don’t think our church will be canceled or anything, though. I just hope the virus doesn’t reach my county!
I curl up on the bench, wrap a fleece blanket around my shoulders, and watch David peer through the binocular-like device mounted on a pole by the edge of the deck.
“What do you see?” I ask. A light breeze sweeps in off the sea and tousles the whisps of hair that fell out of my braid.
David looks back to me with bright eyes and a grin that reveals the gap where his front tooth used to be. “I see towers,” he says.
I close my eyes, smile, and take a deep breath of the fresh, salty air. “What kind of towers?” I ask, even though I know there are none. The navigation system gave out last night. Last the crew saw, we were adrift in the middle of nowhere. They said it would likely be weeks before we found land. I didn’t care though. We had enough supplies on board to last us a while. And we had won the fight, and I was alive, and so was my brother, and through it all, his inner light was stronger than all the darknesses we faced. In spite of everything, he still smiles and laughs as he did before. And that’s all I need right now. My bench, my blanket, the cool ocean air, and David playing on the deck in front of me.
“Cara, come look!”
“Mmmm. I’m too tired to stand. Just tell me what it looks like.”
“Cara, it’s home! I see home!”
“You do now?”
“No really, Cara, I’m serious come look.”
To humor him, I stand to join him, and as I do, I can make out a hazy shape sitting on the horizon. I squint at it and walk closer to the edge of the deck.
“Can I see those?” I lean into the binoculars, and I see the most beautiful sight, something I feared I’d never see again: Allyssia. The city David and I called home before we left it months ago when our journey began.
“Oh my gosh,” I gasp. “Oh my gosh.” Laughter bubbles out of my throat and a tear slides down my cheek. “Oh my gosh.”
I wrap my arm around David, and together we watch as the ship grows closer and closer to Allyssia. The city blooms into view, and I feel my heart bursting. Home. After all this time, we’re finally going home.
Wow, I love this! Makes me wonder what kind of journey they had.
Lovely, lovely, lovely! And all that hope! Good job.
Oh, I’m all about this! This is fun!
Agent Armstrong knocked on the office door before stepping inside. His supervisor, Agent Marshall, looked up from his desk. Armstrong dropped a photograph in front of the man. “I think I found who will lead their next attack.”
Marshall picked up the photo and frowned. “Not easy to ID when all we have is the back of his head.”
“Oh, I know who he is. The point is what he’s targeting. And it’s not the tower—”
“I know what’s it not.” Marshall moved the photo closer to his face. “By now it’s obvious the ‘Freedom Raiders’ aren’t after traditional targets.”
Armstrong waited a moment longer, just go confirm his suspicion that the supervisor hadn’t figured it out. “The single-level warehouse on down on the left.”
Marshall looked a little longer, his eyebrows furrowed. He dropped the photo and leaned back. “Is this another of your long shots, Armstrong? Because I’m in no mood for wild tangents right now. We have an entire city essentially held captive by a group of rouge, techy teens, and don’t have time to waste on eccentric ideas.”
Armstrong smiled inwardly. Despite Marshall’s seeming annoyance, the man was intrigued. Armstrong had seized his attention and held it in his hands. “He’s the leader of the rouges.”
The supervisor’s eyes widened.
“I just completed an analysis with our best system, reviewing over 10,000 hours of surveillance footage. This kid has been a bystander at nearly every major disruption initiated by the ‘Freedom Raiders.'”
Marshall whistled. “How did we miss that? Wait. How did you get access to that system? Only those with top secret clearance can—never mind. Just tell me how you know the target is the warehouse?”
“He never looked at it long, spending most of his viewing time on the tallest buildings. But the warehouse was the only building he came back to five times.”
“That’s not enough.” Marshall folded his arms. “He also could have been—”
“The warehouse is where our biggest stash of confiscated weapons is.”
The supervisor stared, and his face paled a little. No doubt the man was experiencing the same feeling that jolted Armstrong an hour ago. If those weapons fell into the hands of the teens, an entire underground movement would be armed—a movement that was already hard to contain while disarmed. They would set political prisoners free, or seize key resource depots, or obstruct key infrastructure. A loss of control no one in the agency could afford, nor ultimately survive.
Brilliant! I love the pacing of this.
Beside me, the mounted binoculars squeaked as Addy swiveled them to her right. I tossed my tennis ball at the wall again, waited for it to bounce back, and caught it before it could sail over the railing and kill some poor sap hundreds of feet below us. I glanced over my shoulder at Addy and then down at the city rushing by. It unsettled my stomach even after years of riding these things every day. Shuddering, I turned back to the wall and threw my tennis ball again.
“How long are you gonna do that, Addy?” I asked. “There’s nothing out there to see.”
“Yes, there is. We just have to be patient.” The binoculars squealed again as she turned them the other direction.
I sighed. “You can’t seriously believe those sites. Those guys are a bunch of whacks.”
Addy pulled back from the binoculars long enough to stick her tongue out at me, her short hair falling into her eyes. She brushed it aside and pressed her face to the binoculars. “I have to believe something other than we’re all staring at the end of the world. And maybe the fairy tales were wrong all these years. The knights weren’t rescuing the damsel—they were stealing her back after she ran away.”
I bounced my ball again. “Let’s just get off at the next stop before our moms start thinking we were ‘drafted’ by the militia.”
“If we get off at the next stop,” Addy said, swiveling the binoculars upward, “we will be.”
I sighed, knowing she was right. The air ship’s next stop was in the western district, the militia’s favorite recruitment spot. “Fine. But will you at least quit it? Those things are obnoxious.”
Addy turned the binoculars in every direction, painfully slowly for maximum squeakage.
I rolled my eyes as I threw my tennis ball again. “You’re the worst.”
“You know you—“
“I know I what?” I pushed myself away from the railing, turning toward my friend. “Addy, I know I what?”
She didn’t respond as she adjusted the dials on the binoculars.
“Earth to Addy. You still in there?” I tapped her shoulder.
“Oh my God,” Addy murmured.
“What?”
“They’re real. The dragons are real. And they’re on our side.” Addy pulled away from the binoculars to look at me. “They’re fighting for us, Lin.”
I love this, Rhiannon! Great creativity making it an airship. And the militia and dragon thing—if this were a longer story, I would definitely keep reading.
This was such a fun prompt!
The balcony was the highest that Damien had ever been in his life. The cold wind swirled around him, pushing his over-grown hair out of his eyes. It was so different from the city—free from the suffocating smog that normally clogged the streets. Up here smelled like freedom, like new beginnings. It was intoxicating.
“Smell that, Liv?” He turned and grinned at the girl, still climbing up the latter, white-blond hair whipping around her face.
“What? All I can smell is cold.” She rubbed the tip of her pink nose with the sleeve of her sweatshirt in protest.
“Exactly.” Damien smiled at Liv and grabbed her hand. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
The binoculars had sat here, unused, for a couple decades, at least. Damien swiped at the lens with his sleeve before cautiously peering through.
Despite the grim left from disuse, Damien could see the city clearly through the glass. His eyes passed over the shiny new government buildings and the crumbling old ones, softly glowing in the early evening sunset. Everything had a dull orange tinge to it, strangely peaceful. So different from down in the streets.
A couple silent seconds passed.
“What is it?” Liv, who had hung back while Damien tinkered with the binoculars, crept forward curiously. Damien finally looked up.
“It’s beautiful.” He fixed his gaze out at the horizon, drinking in every bit of the view.
“More like depressing,” Liv scoffed.
“No, come look. You’ll like it, I promise,” Damien said off of her reluctant expression.
Liv shrugged half-heartedly and joined Damien at the binoculars.
“Wow.” Liv stepped back after a couple seconds. “It’s like a different world. How I imagine the city would look in the stories they tell us.”
“Everything’s better up here, I think.”
Lovely! And you have a great instinct for making a passage flow. Good job!
Wow! This is great! Did you choose the names Damien and Liv on purpose??
Thank you so much! And the names were just the first ones that came to mind 🙂
Here’s my best attempt! 🙂
Hendrik stared out over New York City, a ghost of what it once had been. Old cars sat in the streets, rusting to dust. Skyscrapers drooped lifeless in the sky, their windows broken, their metal structures slowly weakening until someday they completely disintegrated. This was all the doing of men—men hungry for more power, more money, more of everything. They had killed this once beautiful city. Hendrik stared down at the Newtrometer in his hand and slowly raised it to his eyes. As a guardian of this world, he had the secret to breaking the spell men had put on the world. With only a push of the button, he would erase all knowledge of progress and technology—and once again, the world would become a place of flowers, of beauty, and of life.
Ooooo! Interesting! I like this a lot!
The city below was crumbled. Anything that was left was what hadn’t been washed away from the tsunami that had hit twelve years ago.
Xavier grabbed the sides of the binocular device that stood mounted on a pole. He pushed it to one side trying to see the horizon of the once majestic New York City. Xavier had never been to New York City before a few weeks ago but this was how he imagined it would be; broken. Even the Empire State building which stood a few blocks away has lost over half of it and didn’t have any windows.
There was a weird clinking noise, than everything went black. Xavier pulled away from the binocular device knowing that his time was up. He put his hands in his pockets looking for more quarters, but he found none. That was the flaw in the binocular device. Presley could build anything but she decided to build a machine that had to have quarters. That was a flaw on her part.
Behind him, the loud groaning of rusted door hinges caught his attention. He turned to look at who had entered, to see Hope. She walked over to join me by the railing.
“They’re fine, I know it,” she whispered. She stood beside him, tapping a finger on the railing.
Xavier stared at her blankly as what always seemed to happen to him whenever she was around. He knew he was going to ask her something, but what was it?
“Oh, um, Hope?” she turned and smiled at him, he froze. Her cheerful smile became mixed with confusion. Xavier shook his head forcing himself to finish his sentence. “Do you have any quarters? I used all mine.” He gave her a half grin, she smiled back.
“You used them all?” she laughed. Xavier couldn’t help but smile. Her cheerfulness was contagious.
Xavier turned to look at the horizon one more time, smile still on his face. “I’ll open the machine and get the quarters back.” She told him. Xavier looked at her, nodded, then turned his attention back to his looking position.
Than he saw it. It was a bright red light that climbed higher and higher into the sky. Hope saw it too.
“It’s Jordan’s flare!” she gasped, knowing what this meant. She turned and smiled widely at Xavier, practically jumping for joy. “This can only mean one thing! He found them, Xavier!” She embraced him in a hug which took Xavier by surprise. “I have to tell the others.” She pulled away from him before running for the door. She turned to smile at him one last time before she bounded down the stairs to tell Quinn and Presley the good news.
Xavier felt a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long time. He recognized it as hope. Hope that his brothers had found other survivors. That life could go back to being as normal as it could be. Hope that they, all of them; Hope, Quinn, Presley, Himself, and his brothers Jordan and Legend, could finally find their parents for the first time in thirteen years.
I love that you named her Hope! Such a fun passage!
I stand backstage, shaking. After an hour in line, I know what I need to do.
“Next!” Comes a harsh, naisily voice.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I step out onto the stage. A strange tingling sensation climbs about my body as a gaze at the empty theater. This- This is where I’ve always wanted to be. This is where I belong. I take another breath, and my trembling reduces.
“Do you know what to do?”
I jump, “I- I think so, yes.”
Walk with joy to the tower viewer, cry tears of wonder, step back, and say, ‘My dreams are coming true,’ with as much emotion as possible.
“Good. Are you ready?”
I nod, mentally placing myself in the shoes of Edgar Pavlou, a young boy who traveled for months to reach America, the land of freedom, only to be hurt and pass out just before sighting land. And now he’s here, seeing New York for the first time.
“Go,” the voice startles me, but I remain Edgar, not allowing myself to break character.
Slowly, eyes open wide, I approach the tower-viewer. My hands shake as I press my face against it, turning it toward the canvas painted Empire State Building. I count to seven in my head, then step back, allowing the emotion of my life, a reflection of Edgar’s, to fill me up, spilling over in the form of tears.
“My dreams are coming true,” I say, and I realize that they really are.
I love this! It’s very intriguing and I would totally read more 🙂
Great job! I really, really like how much emotion there is here.
We can do the challenge again if we want, right?
I decided to do it again, this is so much fun! This one is kind of presenting some backstory for one of my characters in my WIP.
Alaric sat on the bank of the Nachbar Sea, a gigantic freshwater lake near Diamant. He stared at his reflection in the calm water, singing one of the songs he had written about himself. This place gave him peace, comfort, and memories. But Alaric’s chest was weighing him down, and even the music he tried to comfort himself with had no effect.
“I, the great PRINCE- I mean, KING ALARIC, am the new king of Nachbar! Everyone will praise me now! Ha, ha!” He then sighed. Why’d men have to become king in such sad circumstances? The water started to ripple. “Crumbs! My reflection is ruined! I look terrible! Terribly fabulous, but- Who dare ruin I, the great KING ALARIC’S reflection?”
A dark, dragon-like creature rose out of the lake. The monster was surprisingly kind-looking, and stared at Alaric with a sense of familiarity. Alaric jumped up.
“Sweet glistening crystal mirrors!” He gasped. His heart was pounding out of his chest. “How dare you startle me like that!”
“Yurr?” The creature gargled. The young king straightened his cape out. As he scanned the creature over, something came to him. An old memory.
In his mind, he could see his old father, sitting on the bank himself, singing, and he in his father’s lap. This monster. It wasn’t any monster at all.
“Nessie,” Alaric’s eyes filled with tears. “My darling dragon. Father is… Don’t worry. I, the great King Alaric, I will make sure he lives on in our memories forever. I will not let him down, old friend. Never.”
The paper sign taped to the tower viewer was written in an almost childish blue marker: View from this Spot in 15 Years. One Quarter. Elwin had seen viewers around the city before, but this one, he was sure, was new. He didn’t know why anyone would pay to look even more closely at the grey, ugly, sprawling city, but this time – this time he was curious. He fished in his pocket for a spare quarter, approached the tower viewer apprehensively. Hand hovering over the coin slot, quarter half in and half out, he paused. What if, he wondered, it would be better not to know? But it was too late – the coin had slipped from his grasp completely and disappeared into the slot. He heard it land somewhere within with a clank, and the machine gave a sudden hum, rattling gently. Elwin looked around nervously, but no one was watching him. Slowly, he stepped up on the platform, grasping the machine handles to steady himself. He peered into the viewfinder. The image slowly came to focus, and Elwin felt a smile start to grow on his mouth. He started pivoting the tower viewer gently around. He could see beyond the smoggy, crowded, cityscape at what was to come. And it was glorious.
I think I would do this again and try to expand beyond a single paragraph, but I loved this image! A nice way to wrap up the evening, even if I am a little late.