An exercise from Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft book – write a piece of narrative with no punctuation…

People were all around her shouting dancing singing hugging kissing laughing and all she could see was the sky with its low grey clouds that wanted to rain but were being kept off by the blast of music from the stage the thump thump thump from the bass the belting melody of the lyrics and the pulsing energy radiating from the performers and reflecting back to them from the crowd that was too crowded and pushing in on her and she needed to get out and please let there be space to breathe she couldn’t breathe pushing through the jam-packed wall of humans snaps and grumbles as she shouldered through but she kept going she had to keep going she couldn’t breathe and the music kept playing the thumping and the pulsing and still overhead the clouds pushing down and down and please let there be an end to this crowd, please let there be air please let there be somewhere where the music wasn’t jarring every bone and organ in her body she needed to get out there was a break a glimpse of space she had to get there she pushed and squirmed and stumbled and staggered out only to be brought up by the waist high fence she hadn’t seen she was at the front not the back and trapped worse than ever please she had to breathe