It’s FRIDAY, you guys! To celebrate the end of the week and to exercise our writing muscles, let’s play a game.

Here’s how it works:

Below, you’ll find a chart with three columns: Character, Setting, and Trait. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to:

  1. Select one word from each of the three columns, and then you must
  2. Write a paragraph (no longer than five sentences) to SHOW ME the character you’ve chosen, in the setting you’ve chosen, possessing the trait you’ve chosen.

Here’s the catch: You cannot use the words you’ve chosen from the chart in your five sentences.

For example, let’s pretend these are my choices:

Character: dragon

Setting: fork in the road

Trait: clumsy

My paragraph might read something like this:

I turn my snout one way and then the other, the scales on my back rippling. Which path leads to the castle? The spade on my tail twitches with indecision, but I won’t solve this problem from the ground. I throw myself into the sky, my wings catching the wind, and then a tree, and then I’m tumbling! With a great crash and a fiery huff, I land in a miserable heap, not two steps from where I started.

Fun, yes? Can you see my character and my setting and my trait?

Now, you try it! Leave your five sentences in the comments section, but don’t tell me which words you’ve chosen. Come back throughout the weekend to cheer your friends on, and to guess which words they’ve selected from the chart.

It’s the ultimate game of SHOW don’t TELL. We’d love you to play with us!

Character Setting Trait
alien basement angry
baseball player bomb shelter brave
chef café clever
detective castle clumsy
dog walker cave cold
dragon circus conceited
ghost desert island cruel
grandparent doctor’s office curious
house elf elevator daring
ice skater football field friendly
king forest frustrated
last person on earth fork in the road grouchy
lumberjack garden happy
movie star gym helpful
ninja haunted house hopeless
Olympic athlete Hogwarts hot
poet kitchen hyper
president of USA moon jealous
priest mountain top lazy
rock star movie theater logical
sheriff Never Land nervous
soldier park noisy
superhero prison rude
surgeon sailboat sad
sword juggler shoe store scared
thief space ship selfish
vampire tattoo parlor smart
wizard tree-house strong
zombie witness stand stubborn
zookeeper zoo uncomfortable

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 websiteInstagramFacebookTwitter, and Pinterest.