Exercise 53: Normally, Sarah Fletcher goes about her everyday tasks of tending to the elderly. Sarah has always loved her job at the Adult Foster Care even from the time her mother worked there and she got to go along. Sarah checks each chore off the chart in the morning after she completes it: make breakfast, make beds, do dishes, showers, ironing, and the list goes on. Early in the week she had heard that the weather forecasted for the weekend wasn't going to be spectacular. As the weekend crept closer word came that a hurricane would soon hit Florida near the Adult Foster Care. Sarah and the fellow employees started preparing but did not plan on moving the patients but rather to ride out the storm. All was well that morning, the skies were murky with clouds, and the oceans waves hit land harder than usual. Sarah woke early to go in town for all the necessities to ride out the storm. Driving down the road the radio warned of bad conditions and we're evacuating the area. Sarah grew worried, they would not have time to move all the patients...she began thinking just get supplies...we will be fine. Sarah stops with the flow of traffic, CRAP!, a traffic jam. It looks like everyone is fleeing town, just then over the radio an emergency announcement comes on the hurricane is coming sooner than expected. Now Sarah starts to tense up, panicking. She has to get to the market and get back to the poor patients at the old folks home...but she can't possibly make it back if she waits for all of this traffic. Just then she sees a couple unloading their bicycles from their vehicle. It turns out they cannot make the trip away with them. PERFECT, the bikes as some older peoples bikes have large unattractive baskets on the front. This basket will be perfect for carrying all the necessities back home and she will be able to travel in between the stopped cars to make it back home in time. Now that this problem is solved, we hope the bigger problem goes well for Sarah, the employees, and the patients at Palm Adult Foster Care.
Exercise 54: Nadine, the lovely waiter down at Benny's Big Breakfast has quite a reputation around this town. And we're not talking a bad reputation. Nadine is known as the best waitress, she can brighten anyone’s day with her genuine smile and rhyming menus that are oh so catchy! One of Nadine’s most famous entrees is her “Get ride of your bless you’s with warm campfire stew,” this one if by far the best for another feeling a little under the weather. On Monday’s Benny’s is hopping with customers. Why its Nadine’s day for breakfast and she makes another one of her scrumptious famous dishes. This one is the “waffle your way in her and get a bite to eat.” Everyone from the small little town of Cooksville stops at Benny’s for a bite to eat on Monday’s before heading out of town for their daily routines. See Cooksville isn’t too big of a town but Nadine is not only known for her meals in Cooksville but also in the all nine counties nearest Cooksville. One day Nadine is finding herself being experimental. “Hum Hum Hum” she mumbles as she stirs the tart fresh squeezed oranges in with some chicken to give a great oriental flavor. Nadine is making her newest item to add to her menu. As she stirs up the dressing ingredients she begins to think of one of her famous names for the dish. “Nadine’s Specialty? NO. Add some chicken to keep ya kickin’? No, that sounds like your going to keel anytime,” say Nadine. Well you see Nadine is so good at coming up with catchy names she usually uses the first one she thinks of. But today is different, Nadine has already gone through two names and she despises both of them. She begins to feel like a failure. She cannot possibly promote this new dish with a dull name. “What am I going to do,” she wonders. “If I ask someone then they will get the credit and word will go around that I couldn’t think of a name?! WHAT DO I DO!?” She begins to panic when her young five year old comes into the kitchen. “Mommy, what are you cookin’?”, says the child, “Oh nothing, don’t worry about it” Nadine says with a frantic. The child takes a big gasp of air and says “It smells like oranges?! YAY! What are they for? The mom gives in and vents to the young girl. “Its chicken and its going to be the dressing!” I cannot think of a name for this recipe though! “OH NO says the child, “Why don’t you call it ready for chicken mommy?” “That’s not catchy enough honey,” says Nadine. “OH MY GOSH. Thanks honey I have the perfect name!” Now Wednesday nights is a big hit down at Benny’s, as people demand the Orange ya ready for some Chicken?! Dish.
Exercise 56: Continued…(TIMELINE OF PROM EVENTS).
On the way to a once in a lifetime event for any teenage all hell brakes loose and the new young couples car breaks down:
1. Miss prom; call their parents for a ride home.
2. Have friends pick them up, will be late but won’t miss prom.
3. Wait for a vehicle to drive by while enjoying the night dancing to music from the radio and watching the stars.
4. Get into a fight, break up or have a major argument,
5. Fix the vehicle themselves and rush off to prom.
Exercise 57: The occasion is once again Prom. This is the night seniors get to relax and enjoy all the spectacular decorations and activities the juniors put on. Erica is excited for a fun night at prom with all of her girlfriends. She is very pleased with the last hurrah for the year before graduation. Everything goes great but towards the nightcap her ultimate crush asks her to slow dance. She totally wasn’t expecting this but it just thrilled. Erica had just hoped for a good night but this tops that and is the BEST night. To make things better he later asks her where she is going after prom? He wants to hang out. Erica is so happy, she got a wonderful prom and an even better and handsome surprise to hangout with after.
Wow! Impressive that you took a stab at each of the exercises this week! Good job on all of them also. I found the first excerise you posted to be the most interesting and made me wonder if something you have encountered in real life inspired that story.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of what these exercises can do for a writer -- you've generated all sorts of possibilities here, Erica -- these little vignettes could readily be explored further, with the possibility of generating some terrific stories. One thing you've done is keep the stories simple -- the "supernatural" intervention in the Skeleton exercise is the discovery of exactly what's needed at that moment, but the solution is a bicycle, not a flying carpet. Nadine's crisis is one of creativity -- and the solution arises from a very naturalistic source -- her five year old. Caitlin's comment reinforces the naturalism of these stories -- they seem to arise from real life. Readers will see themselves here!
ReplyDelete