An exercise from Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft book – write one piece with sentences of seven or fewer words, then one that’s all one sentence…

Exercise 3a – Short

Octavia hung back, scared. She didn’t want to go in there. It was dangerous, everyone said so. Why did Roz have to dare them? Why did Emelia accept the dare? Why did she have to go too? At the door, Emelia turned. “Come on.”

Octavia gulped, and followed. That’s what friends did. Even if they didn’t want to.

The house was worse inside. Dimly lit, with creepy shadows lurking. Octavia cringed at every creak. Could they leave now?

Emelia turned at another door. “Come on.”

They only had to go in. They didn’t have to explore. “Can we go now, please?”

Exercise 3b – Long

Christmas for the Kitchener family was always the same, an early start, straight to Grandma and Grandpa’s, they loved sharing in the excitement of present opening, and had stockings for all the grandchildren strung across the mantelpiece in a great long row of oversized, home-knitted socks, all of them with the same things inside – it wouldn’t do to show favouritism – although it meant 3-year-old Jemimah got the same gifts as 12-year-old Peter, and that wasn’t always terribly successful, and usually meant most of the gifts inside were sweets, all the grandchildren liked those, except for poor Steven, who had type 1 diabetes, and didn’t that make life difficult until Moira had discovered the diabetic-friendly chocolate at the local supermarket so he didn’t have to miss out, even though he insisted it was fine and he was happy just to watch and at 15 he was really a bit old for stockings, such a lovely boy and Moira and Jim were very proud of him and how he and his parents handled his health issues and insisted on him having a normal life, he even played sport, would you believe, and was quite good if the trophies were any indicator, not that the other grandkids weren’t also wonderful, each in their own, unique ways, and it was lovely to have them all together, under the one roof for special occasions like Christmas, or important birthdays, and they mostly got along too, which was a blessing, so many of Moira’s friends’ kids didn’t get on, or had trouble with one grandchild being a little over-indulged by fond parents and creating rifts with the cousins, it was a challenge, but careful discussion and planning meant all the kids got along, if not brilliantly, at least well enough to get through a day without excessive tears.