Date:         Fri, 8 Mar 1996 23:13:18 EST
From: the late great <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE:  Don't Look Now
Comments: To: they who wait <writers@mitvma.mit.edu>

[whoops!  it's friday again, the sole is on the griddle, and the fellow
with the words forgot to lift a few to stretch the writing musculature.
So, let's get to it...]

A Sentence Start:

    In one step, she went from concrete and snow and wind into forest
greens and sunshine and breezes.

[who is she?  did she intend to go or was it an accident?  will she ever
come back?  how?  why?  where and what and who?  let the unanswered
questions parade around in your head for a while, form into a marching
corpse of your very own, and burst into music flowing out your fingers
and onto a page...]

For those who would like a little longer exercise:

1.  Remember Pandora?  Don't open this.  Really, don't open this.  And
curiosity tickles and frets and wiggles until...she just opened it a
little bit.  And then...

So, pick a number from one to six (three cheers for dice!)

    1.  Don't turn off the switch.
    2.  Make sure you feed the pet in the basement.
    3.  Don't look under the bed.
    4.  Do leave when the alarm rings.
    5.  Don't look too closely at what the "makeup" counter sells.
    6.  Do turn off the t.v. when you go to bed.

Don't like these?  Pick one of your own--maybe you want to take on the
rule that real men don't wear pantyhose?  or other fantastic beliefs of
sexual, racial, religious, etc. parochialism?  How about the well-known
fact that...well, you get the idea.

2.  Our hero(ine) is going to have some trouble dealing with their duty.
Maybe they are tired, curious, forgetful, excited about something else,
or whatever, but they are going to break the rule.  They are going to
put on those pantyhose and take a walk on the weirder side.  The switch
is going to go off, the pet is going to get hungry, the hidden secrets
under the bed are going to be revealed...it's all going to be shown!

Figure out why they are going to break their promise.

3.  And then comes the result.  What happens when unsleeping wives make
hot dogs fly?  Can the neighbors deal with a hungry, angry pet 'roo out
and about in the backyards?  Or where do hookers go for dinner after a
hard night's work?

So what happens when the borders of normal behaviour shake a little?
Suppose people really could fly, they just didn't believe it...

Think a little.  Then take your reader with you in breaking out.  And
don't forget that stuck to the bottom of the box was a little dab of
hope...

tink