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Assignment
Write a one-page scene using one of our past pictures as inspiration. Choose one of the pictures from the class website and insert it into the blank assignment (Google Doc) found on Google Classroom.
The assignment requires you to not write a story but to write a scene. A scene is a moment in time. It’s uninterrupted, relatively short in real-time, and by no means a long story with multiple conflicts, days of activity, multiple dynamic characters, or the development of a long-drawn-out assault of characters moving through various settings.
The scene, quite simply, is a chance for you as a writer to slow down, describe the setting, and take a character or characters through a touch of conflict, but not provide a lot of answers to what is happening or why it’s happening.
Having a little mystery by making a reader wonder is a good thing in this assignment. If you leave your reader wondering and wanting more, you did your job. If you leave your reader confused and wondering what happened, you left too much out. So it’s a fine balance, but one you as a writer should try and figure out.
You can think of a scene as part of a larger story. It could be the ultimate moment of a novel during the climax where the main characters make a decision that the whole novel relies on. It could be the first page of a novel or the last page of a novel. It could be a scene at any time in a book, but it’s not as long as a book. All that matters is that this is a scene.
This assignment allows you to continue or start over your previous writing. It also gives you more time to develop a good, complete, and clean piece of writing. The beginning can be subtle or abrupt—we probably don’t have a lot of information about what is happening. The end will also be subtle or abrupt—we might be left with some kind of cliffhanger that leaves the reader curious or wanting more.
Requirements
Have 1 consistent point of view. 1st or 3rd person is recommended. Do not switch back and forth between points of view.
CHOOSE 1 of 3 Narrative Leads
Dialogue - Punctuate and paragraph correctly.
Sensory Detail - Paint the picture for the reader by describing the senses one could experience in the picture. All are not required to be used, since not all senses are always experienced, but sounds, sights, touches, and smells are typically available at all times. Tastes are possible but not always experienced, so it’s up to you if you use that particular sense.
Figurative Language - Use at least 3 clear examples of figurative language that flow with the story and don’t feel awkward or forced. Figurative language makes a story creative and thoughtful and unique, not weird, strange, or confusing. My recommendations or go-to types for writing in scenes like this are metaphors, similes, alliteration, and personification. And if you use alliteration, 2-3 repetitions of a beginning sound works well. More than that gets a little tiresome and unnecessary.
1 Font Only - Times New Romans, size 11-12
1 Page Only - Nothing longer than a page.
Multiple Paragraphs - not just one long paragraph.
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