Today, we’re revisiting one of our most popular writing exercises! If you’ve participated in this one before, don’t worry. It’s different every time. And to the many new faces, WELCOME! I hope you enjoy this exercise.
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:
- Select one word from each of the three columns, and then you must
- 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 website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
See if you can guess!
I climbed the rope ladder, every step a wooden board creaked beneath my feet. Reaching the top, I flung open the trapdoor and breathed in the smell of paint and pine sap. I opened my backpack and started throwing everything I could find in. Picking up an abandoned necklace, I froze, sweat dripping down my back. This felt wrong; should I disobey the Captain’s orders all because of a necklace or leave before the memories start coming back?
oof, this one’s a bit of a tuffy.
I’m gonna guess Theif, Ship, and Nervous?
Nope. Guess again
Scared soldier in a treehouse?
Almost, but not quite
Ooh, like how you added the sense of smell. Nervous soldier in a treehouse?
Still not quite there!
Uncomfortable soldier in a treehouse?
Perfect! Nice guess
My pulse roared in my ears, practically drowning out the clatter of pots and voices echoing through the high-ceilinged room. My stomach normally ached with hunger every time I came down here, but today all I could feel was a nauseous knot, tightening with every step I took. The usual chorus of good mornings greeted me as I slipped through the bustling crowd of people, but I could barely manage a smile in response. I swallowed, an image of my younger siblings appearing in my head, starving and desperate. For them, I thought, as I grabbed the bread off the shelf and ran.
Thief, kitchens, nervous?
This kind of feels like Alladin. Great job!
Did you use Theif, Kitchens, and Nervous?
Now who’s the thief? That was my guess! Just kidding, *sighs* I guess I’ll share
It was a good guess! Besides, I couldn’t exactly take it back could I? XD
True….
I’ll pick a thief in a kitchen but a scared one…just to be different. 😉
This is really well written by the way. I love your word choice.
My nose is still twitching despite all my efforts. I can’t help that everything here smells so freakin’ good! Why did I have to die here, longingly watching but never able to have the delicious food being cooked? Ahhhh, bacon, the thing I want most, but can never have. I know it’s there, just hidden by the rim of that pan… no, I’ll just have to get used to this new… diet.
Maybe ghost, kitchen, frustrated?
So close!
Zombie, kitchen, frustrated?
Frustrated zombie in kitchen? If so, chefs, look out!
Yup! You got it!
Awesome!
“This walk was your idea, so we going left or right, Uncle?” The pixie faced babe of two and ten stopped and looked at me with inquiring eyes.
“Eyes like twin stars is a cliché. Eyes like blue fire smoldering, smoldering with…with…” I was at the cusp of genius, if I could but press past this mental block.
“Twin stars sounds simpler.”
And just like that, my army of near flawless words abandoned me. Nieces were treasures in disguise, but they often concealed themselves too well as nuisances. “I never aspire for simple when I can reach the moon, Celia.”
“Make the eyes twin moons then. Which way? There’s no sign.” She crossed her arms and ground her shoe into the dirt.
So many in humanity’s mass couldn’t appreciate the labors and fruit of someone truly great. But in time, yea, perhaps in time and careful teaching, Celia would comprehend what kind of man her uncle was.
“Fine, I’ll choose. Looks more beaten down this way.” She started down the left path.
I hastened to catch up. “I daresay you’d like Robert Frost. He was rather simplistic.”
Celia only sighed.
Aack! I forgot the sentence constraint. *face palm*
Lol. This is really good anyhow.
Fork in the road, grandparent, and stubborn?
Wait… sentence constraint… ha ha oops.
I’m going to guess he’s a frustrated poet at a fork in the road?
I like your character’s voice and the imagery you created.
Thank you one and all! I was going for a conceited poet on a fork in the road.
“Come on guys. Let me in.”
“Nope.” They both laughed at me as I clung to the handhold/foothold boards nailed to the tree trunk. Their faces filled the square opening above my head, but even if they moved, I still wouldn’t be able to go higher and climb in unless they gave me permission. I thought maybe the rules would work different since this wasn’t an actual house, but the first time they invited me over, we learned that I couldn’t get by on that technicality. They’ve been using it against me ever since.
“You do this every time,” I whined. “It’s not funny anymore.”
“It’s kind of funny,” Steven said. I bared my fangs and hissed at him, but that only made him and Greg laugh harder. They really were jerks. They only reason I hung out with them was because they were the only ones who would hang out with me. They thought I was cool. Everyone else was afraid of me. Steven and Greg trusted that I wouldn’t hurt them, even though they’ve given me plenty of reasons to want to.
My hands were getting tired of holding myself up, and I made the mistake of looking down. I never really liked heights. It would be different if they let me in, or if it were safe for me to fly right now. But I was terrified of losing my balance on the ladder and falling and breaking something. I decided to head down.
I started to step on to the board below the one I was on, but the breeze picked up. It shook the branches above me and swiped up the wide brimmed hat that I used to keep the sun from burning me alive. It landed in the center of the yard where there was no shade.
“Guys let me in there now!”
This time they could tell I wasn’t playing anymore. Steven extended a formal invitation, and I climbed in. “You’re getting my hat for me when we leave,” I told him.
Greg shrugged. “Or we could just let you wait up here til night time.”
They both started cackling again. I sighed. I really needed to get my dad to teach me that hypnosis thing. I would never do anything to hurt them, but seriously, these guys needed to be taken down a peg.
Disclaimer, I didn’t really pick a trait, I just liked the idea and went with it trusting that one would work it’s way in naturally.
He’s a friendly vampire in a treehouse. I’m guessing. This is really good! I enjoyed reading it.
You got it! And thanks. 🙂
The teasing felt natural. Fun!
And glad I wasn’t alone with the sentence limit. :p
“I do.” He glanced over to the pale-faced figure squirming and sweating in the gallery and suppressed a smile. It would not do to burst into laughter in the middle of giving testimony, especially considering what would happen if all the strings were traced back to him. But, oh, what an epic this would make, once it’s all said and done. With a flourish, he slipped the pencil that he always kept with him behind his ear, straightened out his coat, and began.
Clever/Conceited (???) poet in a courtroom? I can’t exactly pin the trait you chose in words, but your character’s voice and personality are definitely shining through already. Nice job.
Thank you! I was going for cruel poet in a witness stand, but uh, the sentence limit got to me, heh.
Poet, Witness Stand, Clever?
Panic flooded my chest as another explosion went off overhead. The screaming surrounded me, echoing in my heart. I was determined to help as many afflicted as possible.
I turned to the woman next to me, “Ma’am, I need you to let me see that wound on your head.”
Frightened Surgeon in a Bomb Shelter?
Yup. I was going for Helpful Surgeon in Bomb Shelter, but I realize that he seems more frightened. 😉
Love this!
I trudged along the road, my feet dragging and making large streaks in the dirt path. I looked up and groaned; what now? First the unspeakable tragedy had come upon the earth, leaving me devoid of company, and now this? What was I to do, after all, I was known as of the most indecisive people I’d ever heard of! I knelt down and put my head in my hands. I looked around; to the right, or to the left?
Hopeless last person on earth at a crossroads.
What was this place? I seemed to be in a pitch-black room, with no one else for company. I felt for my katana, but it was gone. I told my rising panic to shut up, working through my situation. I was alone, on a cushy seat in a huge room; weaponless, but at least I wasn’t dead. I stood up and felt my way around, placing each foot carefully in front of the other.
Suddenly the room was filled with light and sound, and a female voice traveled all around me eerily. I ducked and sat tensely, waiting for an attack, but none came.
Uncomfortable Soldier in a Castle? This is really good! I love it!
No, but thank you!
Nervous ninja in a movie theater? Like how you described the setting. Good job!
Yes! that’s it. Thanks!
I frantically worked but without the proper tools I was afraid there was no chance for her.
On a bluff was not my ideal place to do an emergency surgery. I washed the deadly gash with water from a nearby stream and staunched the heavily flowing blood.I knew there was nothing else I could do. Please, please stay alive Julie! I thought. Tears flooded my eyes but did not fall. When I felt her pulse a moment later it had stopped. She was gone.
Sad surgeon on a mountaintop. This was good.
I sat on the green cot, tears crawling down my face. I ran my hands through my hair. My mind went back to that scene from eight years ago, the time that changed my life around for forever. The time that I, a happy, loving husband and father, had become a miserable wretch. Why, oh why, had I allowed myself to get so wrapped up in that case, that I had allowed myself to kill another human being. And now, because of those ten seconds that I had lost my head, not only was my family husbandless and fatherless, but so was his, and I was destined to a life within these dusty walls for the rest of my days.
Ooo this is really good! Makes me want the rest of the story.
I’m gonna guess detective, prison, hopeless/sad/angry? Don’t take the mixed emotions as a bad thing– you did good making it real. No one feels just one thing at a time. 🙂
Thank you! Guessed it right! The emotion I picked was hopeless!
Yet another deafening crash sounded from above, the tiny room shaking so hard that violet paint flaked down from the walls. They were supposed to be equipped with shock-cancelers, but it looked like they’d been overloaded–the humans shouldn’t have had the explosive power to do that, but I wasn’t surprised. We’d underestimated them at first because of their incredibly fragile bodies, but as it turned out, their hearts were full of destruction; all they did was break and kill and–
Another blast reverberated through my core, and my antenna pulsed in defiance, even as I watched a crack split the metal ceiling in half.
“Stupid, arrogant wetskins,” I hissed as the world caved in around me. “Go back to the demon-lair you came from.”
Angry alien in a bomb shelter?
Yep!
I have finally entered the house.The house that I’ve been waiting to get into for weeks. It didn’t have any expensive equipment to take, but I’ve spent weeks surveying and scoping the place out. After entering on the ground floor, I tripped down the stairs and pulled the light chain, which did nothing. Switching on my flashlight, I saw what I had not wanted to see, and tears dribbled off my chin; he wasn’t there.
Sad detective in a haunted house?
Maybe a sad last person on earth in a basement?
thief, basement, sad?
You got it!