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IWW
Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: "Patchwork"
These exercises were written
by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop (http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).
Prepared by: Alice Folkart
Posted on: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Reposted on: Sunday, July 29, 2012
Reposted on: Sunday, November 15, 2015
Reposted on: Sunday, May 19, 2019
Reposted on: Sunday, March 20, 2022
Reposted on: Sunday, March 31, 2024
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Write a scene in 400 words or less that incorporates one
item from each of four categories supplied with this exercise.
Often, a good tale begins with a collection of story elements
that seemingly have no relationship to one another. This is
your opportunity to select a few, mix them together, and show
your readers the scene that emerges.
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Setting: A Park, a Zoo, a bedroom, a mountain trail, the
interior of an airplane, a jail cell
Character: A teenager, male or female; a 70-year-old woman;
a Buddhist priest; a coal miner; a celebrity, a Boy Scout
Leader
Historical Period: The present; the future; sometime in the
19th Century (or any Century you find interesting); the year
you were born
Situation: A robbery; a plague; a political rally; a rock
concert; an execution; a revelation.
What kind of story could you make of a scene in which it is
the year 2056--a Rock concert is in progress a few blocks
away, and a Buddhist priest is waiting for someone at the
entrance to a zoo?
Or, a 70-year old woman sits in a jail cell. It is 1898, and
she is waiting to be executed.
Or, it is the present day. The 70-year-old woman enters a
bedroom and discovers that she's been robbed.
There are many possible permutations with these different
bits of data. See how you can work some of these pieces into
an interesting scene.
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In your critique consider how creatively the author has used
the bits of data to build a framework on which to hang a story.
And then discuss how the author has or has not fleshed out the
character and situation. Comment on any special characteristics
of the story. Does it feel factual or fantastic? What makes it
feel that way? Would you want to read more? Why or why not?
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.
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