An exercise in remembering and writing emotion. Robert Olen Butler, from whose teaching this exercise comes, believes we call up the emotion we put into a scene just as a method actor calls up emotions from the past to portray them in the present. By avoiding summary, analysis, and naming the emotion, we avoid predigesting the scene for the reader and allow him or her to contact it just as we did. Write a scene of dialogue in which one of the characters has a secret he has to tell the other. An exercise in writing dialogue with an undercurrent of conflict.
Good dialogue is always more than just surface talk.
An exercise in plotting. Conflict is vital for an effective story, and understanding the conflict is a central part of telling the story successfully. Adapted from Roberta Allen's Fast Fiction . Write a story inspired by a personal ad. An exercise in character and plotting.