1.

Write the paragraph that would appear in a one or more characters after establishing the
piece of fiction just before the discovery of a voice. As subject, use either a trip or the arrival
body. You might perhaps describe the of a stranger (some disruption of orderthe
characters approach to the body he will find, usual novel beginning).
or the location, or both. The purpose of the
exercise is to develop the technique of at once 6. Write a novel opening, on any subject, in
attracting the reader toward the paragraph to which the point of view is third person
follow, making him want to skip ahead, and objective. Write a short story opening in this
holding him on this paragraph by virtue of its same point of view.
interest. Without the ability to write such
foreplay paragraphs, one can never achieve 7. Write a monologue of at least three pages,
real suspense. in which the interruptionspauses, gestures,
description, etc.all clearly and persuasively
2. Take a simple event: A man gets off a bus, characterize, and the shifts form monologue to
trips, looks around in embarrassment, and sees gesture and touches of setting (as when the
a woman smiling. (Compare Raymond character touches some object or glances out
Queneau, Exercises du Style.) Describe the the window) all fell rhythmically right. Purpose:
event, using the same characters and elements to learn ways of letting a character make a long
of setting, in five completely different ways speech the doesnt seem boring or artificial.
(changes of style, tone, sentence structure,
voice, psychic distance, etc.) Make sure the 8. Write a dialogue in which each of the two
styles are radically different, otherwise, the characters has a secret. Do not reveal the
exercise is wasted. secret but make the reader intuit it. For
example, the dialogue might be between a
3. Write 3 effective long sentences: each at husband, who has just lost his job and hasn't
least one full typed page (or 250 words), each worked up the courage to tell his wife, and his
involving a different emotion (for example, wife, who has a lover in the bedroom. Purpose:
anger, pensiveness, sorrow, joy). Purpose: to give two characters individual ways of
control of tone in a complex sentence. speaking, and to make dialogue crackle with
feelings not directly expressed. Remember that
4a. Describe a landscape as seen by an old in dialogue, as a general rule, every pause must
woman whose disgusting and detestable old somehow be shown, either by narration (for
husband has just died. Do not mention the example, "she paused") or by some gesture or
husband or death. other break that shows the pause. And
remember that gesture is a part of all real
4b. Describe a lake as seen by a young man dialogue. Sometimes, for instance, we look
who has just committed murder. Do not away instead of answering.
mention the murder.
9. Write a two-page (or longer) character
4c. Describe a landscape as seen by a bird. Do sketch using objects, landscape, weather, etc.,
not mention the bird. to intensify the readers' sense of what the
character is like. Use no similes ("She was
4d. Describe a building as seen by a man whose like...) Purpose: to create convincing character
son has just been killed in a war. Do not by using more than intellect, engaging both the
mention the son, war, death, or the old man conscious and unconscious mind.
doing the seeing; then describe the same
building, in the same weather and at the same 10. Write a two-page (or longer) dramatic
time of day, as seen by a happy lover. Do not fragment (part of a story) using objects,
mention love or the loved one. landscape, weather, etc., to intensify
characters, as well as the relationship between
5. Write the opening of a novel using authorial them. Purpose: the same as exercise 9 but now
omniscient voice, making the authorial making the same scenic background, etc., serve
omniscience clear by going into the thoughts of more than one purpose. In a diner, for
instance, one character may tend to look at casually related (allegorical or lyrical structure,
certain objects inside the diner, the other may for example), a radio play, an opera, a film that
look at a different set of objects or may look could only be a film.
out the window.
21. In a fully developed monologue (see
11. From exercise 10, develop the plot of a exercise 7) present a philosophical position you
short story. tend to favor, but present it through a
character and in a context that modifies or
12. Describe and evoke a simple action (for undermines it.
example, sharpening a pencil, carving a
tombstone, shooting a rat). 22. Write a passage using abrupt and radical
but thoroughly acceptableshifts from the
13. Write a brief sketch in the essayist authorial-omniscient point of view to the third
omniscient voice. person subjective.

14. Write three acceptable examples of purple 23a. In a high parodic form (in the way
prosethat is, highly self-conscious and arty Shakespeare seriously parodies the revenge
prose made acceptable by subject, parodic tragedy in Hamlet, for example), plot one of
intent, voice, etc. the following: a gothic, a mystery, a sci-fi, a
western, a drug-store romance.
15. Write a brief passage on some stock subject
(a journey, a landscape, a sexual encounter) in 23b. Write the first three pages of the novel
the rhythm of a long novel, then in the rhythm plotted in 23a, using the trash form as the basis
of a tight short story. of a serious piece of fiction.

16. Write an honest and sensitive description 24. Without an instants lapse of taste, describe
(or sketch) of (a) one of your parents, (b) a a person (a) going to the bathroom, (b)
mythological beast, and (c) a ghost. vomiting, (c) murdering a child.

17. Describe a character in a brief passage one 25. Write a short piece of fiction in mixed prose
or two pages) using mostly long vowels and and verse.
soft consonants (o as in moan, e as in
see; l, m, n, sh, etc.); then describe the same 26. Write, without irony, a characters moving
character, using mostly short vowels and hard defense of himself (herself).
consonants (I as in sit; k, t, p, gg, etc.).
27. Using all you know, write a short story
18. Write a prose passage that makes effective about an animalfor instance, a cow.
and noticeable use of rhyme.
28. Write a short story about some well-known
19. Write the first three pages of a tale. legendary figure.

20. Plot each of the following: a short-short 29. Write a true story using anything you need.
story, a yarn, a fable, a sketch, a tale, a short
story, and energeic novel, an architectonic 30. Write a fabulous story using anything you
novel, a novel in which episodes are not need.