L.J. Writes

loopy777 and I recently talked about Loopy's Retroactive and making exposition interesting. While it takes time and energy to work information organically into a story, I think it's worth the effort to get the the audience engaged and interested. This also goes to the basic adage of "show, don't tell." Static exposition resorts to telling the audience what's what, while a dynamic scene showcasing that same information lets the audience experience the facts of the world or story and doesn't feel like deliberate exposition.

On that note, this exercise is about taking a block of information and making it into a scene that is interesting in its own right and moves the story forward, without using obvious infodump tropes like As You Know dialogue. Think of it as a teaser that will leave people hankering to get the rest. Use dialogue, monologue, or whatever other device you think would make it fun. Heck, don't be constrained to novel format--use script format, article format, interview or whatever else you like.

Assignment: Construct a scene or exchange that gets across as much of the following information as possible in an entertaining way. Make up any additional details as necessary, including future plot developments if you want.

( Frankie and Donnie was sweethearts... )

This idea came from reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Betty Edwards' classic work on learning to draw. I was struck by Edwards' assertion that individual drawing styles come through even in plain, realistic visual depictions; as an example, she provided sketches of a model's head done by her and a colleague at the same time.

Since I have a one-track mind, that immediately got me thinking: Hey, could that be true of writing? Does writing style show itself even without deliberate flourishes or decorations? I grew immediately curious how different writing styles would show up in realistic descriptions of a scene. In that sense you might call this more of an experiment than an exercise. It could be an opportunity to get to know your own voice.

Therefore your mission, reader, should you accept it:

Watch the following video (start from the 7-second mark and watch until the 46-second mark--the rest are title page, credits, video manipulations etc.), then describe the scene in writing. Don't try to add meaning or drama other than what's on screen, just describe the scene as it is. The voice can be as formal or as casual as you like, and you can go into as many or as few details as you like including the specifics of dialogue. Convey the essence of the scene as you see it.

If you need names, the boys are Edgar (the dunkee) and his cousin Fernando (the dunker) according to the background information. The cameraman is their friend Raúl.

Same rules apply as the first exercise: Don't look at anyone else's entry until you've done your own, and fold or spoiler-cut your entry to make it easy for others not to peek. From now on I'll be doing my entries in the comments section, too, to separate them from the assignments.