Describe a Stranger You Noticed Recently

He looked like one of those Italians who grew up with the wrong kind of Catholics, and who now traveled to Florida in the winter – but he was darling with his grandchildren. When he told them to sit down he would nod, not vehemently, and his eyes would push up his eyebrows a little; he would make a knob with his hand, his finger pointing out, as though it had been disengaged from a cup of tea, and he would push a single button with it in the air immediately above the table. His way of urging was kind. His thin lips made his open mouth urgent, but not to be taken too seriously.

Write Historically

In 1832 Elizabeth Barnaby managed to sell over the course of the entire year two pounds of beans per day. This netted her $.32 per day, which allowed the Barnaby family to purchase a regular supply of candles and cloth for work clothes, and the family’s industrious tether to the land continued to raise their prospects, albeit quite slowly. One of Elizabeth’s diary entries noted, “40 p. to-day!” While we cannot be certain what was the cause of the sudden jump in income, we can, through the concomitance of several of Elizabeth’s diary entries with documents showing incremental increases in the family’s landholding, draw a conclusion that she may have been able to sell more beans as the family land increased; and one allowed for the other continuously, as her efforts, and eventually the efforts of her children, contributed to the overall health of and to the ability of the family to make productive gains.

Conclude Without Beginning

She can rest.

Write a Poem Containing a Synonym for the Word "Foxotory"

If you play with wires in the afternoon,
Do you imagine that they move
A weary soul? What else
Is like a satisfying turn of the wind
In the direction that you wanted? Earth? –
Better places there are none
For producing a moment of cerebral cunning.

Write the Beginning of a Job Interview

A full job interview would have taken me much longer than the prescribed half-hour. So here's the beginning of one.

Marvin walked into the room and shook hands with Mr. Trotter.

“Good morning, Mr. Andrews. Elijah. Nice to have you come in.”

“Good morning, sir… er –“

“Please, you may call me Elijah. And may I call you –” Elijah Trotter looked at Marvin’s resume before Marvin had a chance to speak, then looked Marvin in the eye as they both said “Marvin” simultaneously, the former with the appropriate questioning tilt and the latter almost rushing.

“Yes, of course, certainly, thank you –”

“Good – that is always an important piece. Please, have a seat. I’ll be interviewing you this morning. Is there anything I can get you, first – coffee, tea, you know, that sort of thing?”

“Um –”

“Do let me know, anything you want.”

“Um, I’m actually a little thirsty –”

“Did they not offer you any water at the desk?”

“I, actually, I arrived right at 9:00, and they ushered me right in.”

“Oh – perfect. Well, hold on a minute.” Elijah picked up his phone. “Hello Harold. Fine, everything’s fine. Would you please bring Mr. Andrews a bottle of water? Thank you.” He hung up the phone. “He’ll be here any minute. So, tell me about yourself.”

Write Something Cartographic

What’s more important than the dividing line?
What suspenseless and beautiful colors?
What decision to include a name?
What accuracy?

Confuse Your Reader

Perhaps you won’t find this worthwhile, but John, a.k.a. Sally, met his father for a game of bingo when he died. His father’s mother, Sally, a.k.a. Sal, slept soundly that night, after opening and digesting a can of sardines. Sal, a.k.a. John, was a hard-edged man, but he liked bingo and his son had a soft spot for him. She lost the thought of his tears in the brine of her sardines, as he had eaten sardines so often throughout his life. Her sister-in-law said that when her son had died, it had been so hard for him, the loss of her son. One doesn’t know how to stand in a situation like that of leaving his son behind. That is why the carnival and the sardines and the bingo were now her favorite things, too.

Narrate Someone Sleeping

Jenny is sleeping soundly and calmly. She lays on her back, her head lounges in the pillow slightly to the side, her mouth is closed, the fluffy sheets don’t even move to her breathing, her hair is being pressed into a plumage. She is no less at rest than the northern evening beach, or the deep beach of the night under the moon.

Write a Seinfeld Plot

Kramer tells George that he should propose bring a friend golfing day to Steinbrenner, who loves the idea.

J. Peterman tells Elaine that he wants her to start working on a line of Yankees inspired clothing. She begins having meetings with George’s boss, Wilhelm, who secretly becomes enamored of her.

Kramer’s mother, Babs, starts going to Jerry’s comedy shows, and Jerry starts acting like Kramer.

Kramer invites himself to bring a friend golfing day with George. Steinbrenner and Wilhelm both bring their wives, but Wilhelm is not feeling well, and has his wife go with George, while Kramer plays golf with Steinbrenner and his wife. Wilhelm’s wife teaches George to play golf, and Kramer convinces Steinbrenner to trade a starting pitcher to the Mets for a reliever.

After Jerry hears the news about the trade the following day, he starts to go haywire at his comedy routine and falls off the stage. Babs rushes him to the hospital, and stays with him.

They put Jerry in the same room as Wilhelm, who had come to the hospital for some tests. Elaine eventually shows up with Kramer, and Wilhelm starts hitting on Elaine. Kramer tells Jerry about the golf outing, and when Jerry gets mad, he won’t let Kramer defend himself.

George continues to play golf with Wilhelm’s wife, who tells him that the Yankees should start to make golf clothing. George makes his way to J. Peterman’s office, where he surprises Elaine by having scooped her. Elaine beats him up; Peterman makes her take George to the hospital, and they both see Wilhelm there with his wife.

Write a Circle

I owe my father partial credit for this exercise; we both developed the idea independently of one another. He did it, too: perhaps he will contribute his excellent example.

If I am articulate,
I can be a communicator.
If I can be a communicator,
I have two choices to make:
Will I or will I
Not be a communicator?
Will I or won’t I
Be a communicator?
I have two choices to make:
And if I can be a communicator
I will be a communicator,
Articulating if I am.

Convey Pain

“Mommy, my finger hurts!”

“Your finger hurts? Where?”

“It hurts a lot!”

“Where? Show me.”

“See? Look, I bit that part off right there and now it’s bleeding.”

Emily gave me the ring finger on her left hand. I examined it carefully. She had ripped the cuticle out of its lodge. “Yep – those hurt a lot. Next time, don’t do that.”

“It burns.”

“I know. We’re going to put a Band-Aid on it and it will feel better.”

“Oh – guess what Jenny did to James yesterday at school.”

“You tell me while I put this Band-Aid on.”

“Okay – she kicked him, right down here, and then afterward he was rolling around on the ground holding himself there; and the sound he made sounded like he was trying to cry but he couldn’t; and he was just coughing, and his face looked really weird.”

Write in Jumbled Syntax

Videogames is nowadays the kids problem. Out of the whole world, a kid is stuck in a room. He doesn’t know anyone, or her, sometimes a girl can be it. Unless they are playing with friends and on the Internet, and it’s better. Have you ever seen a video game – if not you should? You would see its ineducatable. First of all, when you blow things up; finally, some videogames are puzzles and good for the brain, but why? Not unless they do good, and the rest is bad, after all they are made with people, and perfect people are not.

Write Something Exciting

“He could not have been any clearer, Bill – ‘The time is now.’”

“I agree: and what we are about to see is unprecedented, coming to you, in your living room, on your computer, text updates, twitter feed, via CNN live broadcast. John, you tell me – what is the buzz down there?”

“Well, Bill, you can hear the people yelling in the background – and for everyone seeing this at home, it’s hard to get a sense of the crowd gathered here, off the Florida coast – let’s get the camera to pan that way – there, you can see, that’s about one-hundred-thousand people.”

“Thank you, John. We’re watching on CNN, in a few minutes, the first NASA water landing since the US went to the moon. The astronauts in the space pod carrying cargo – Martian life… how can you describe this feeling?”

Describe a Typical Morning in Highly Metaphorical Language

The sun examines me asleep; and as one knows when he is being considered a vista, my eyes know that it is day. I remagnify my duties: help me, Lord, for I am astride the sea.

Translate the Passage Below from German to English--If You Know German, Skip Today

Den Gott des Ganges und der weiten Botschaft,
die Reisehaube uber hellen Augen,
den schlanken Stab hertragend vor dem Leibe
und flugelschlagend an den Fußgelenken;
und seiner linken Hand gegeben: sie.

From Rilke’s “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes”

The Glenmary Gardens had broken soft,
like effort ever taken from the resourceful,
onto a valley veiled from the calls that men
once forgotten make in their feeling through all;
once opened for all they sought to save all: woe.

Note: This exercise was adapted from one of my favorites in creative writing class that I took with Mark Rudman senior year of college.

Write Cleanly

Day opened. Leonard woke up; the sun brightened his room. A square of paper lay on the floor. He imagined that it was a letter from Mrs. Elm: “Dear Leonard, I am glad you studied well enough to get an A. We should talk in the afternoon. Don’t forget. Love, Mrs. Elm.”