KURT VONNEGUT
#1: Extreme Versions of YOU
Think about your own characteristics. You have a wealth of elements and quirks that form your own character. Think of one of these elements and take it to an extreme. Create a fictional character based on an extreme version of yourself. Who are they? What is their name? What major characteristics do they have? You may have an urge to throw pistachio nutshells on the floor when you crack them open. Perhaps your character has a carpet of pistachio nutshells on their bedroom floor - what kind of character might they be?
Write a 300 word monologue in the voice of an "extreme version of you," placing them in, or reporting on, an extreme situation. Thinking about yourself, and building fictional characters around elements of your own character, can be a great source of inspiration.
#2:Dialogue with the future
Place yourself in one of the years listed below and imagine yourself either in a crowd of people, somebody's house, or somewhere else, speaking to somebody. Write a piece of dialogue (1 to 1 .5 pages)
2100
2500
4000
100,000
#3: Expanding Dialogue
Rewrite the line of dialogue shown below five times, expanding the level of detail, and perhaps changing the meaning, on each rewrite. After the final rewrite, add a line of dialogue from the other person in response.
"I've never let you down before."
#4: Word Progression
Starting with each word below, write a continuous list of words, each word an association of the previous one, until you reach 15 words. Continue this with each of the four words. Construct a sentence, short or long, containing the four words at the end of each list.
Cardiac arrest
Mountain
Ballerina
Despair
Good writing to you!