This is an exercise from Steering the Craft, writing a piece with no punctuation. I've done it a couple of times before and the effect is always breathless and chaotic. It's rather fun! Delauney plunged down the stairs and into the heaving mass on the dance floor trying to find him from glimpses and hints …
The guard captain closed his eyes and breathed deeply a couple of times, then began to speak. “I’ve known His Highness since we both joined the army. We trained together, and served together. We’ve both been in bad situations, but the Pirate Battle … he saw his best friend, Princess Julia’s betrothed, cut down. It’s …
Narnia is a nightclub with an entrance hidden in the back of a wardrobe in a shop. Not sure what kind of shop, but probably needs to be one that's open late, and where an old wooden wardrobe doesn't look screamingly out of place. Bianca led a sceptical Delauney through the charity shop and opened …
He turned and walked away from the cliff and, as before, she weighed her options, then followed, calling as she went. "I don't even know your name." "Names are powerful. We will discuss them once inside." He was leading her towards a strange building that seemed half natural and half built. As they grew closer, …
“But you promised.” “Yeah, but, you know, things came up. I’ll make it up to you babe, honest.” He wouldn’t, he never did, and now it was time to break one or two promises of her own. While he was busy not booking their dinner out for her birthday, she’d handed in notice on her …
The evening of the ball, the Shipwreck Villagers gathered on the galleon for a party of their own. Grigor suggested Leila bring her loom. She frowned in confusion. “Why?” He looked a little sheepish and said. “You sing when you’re working. If you bring your work, and sit so people aren’t fixing their attention on …
Unlikely Partners: Your main character is left in the forest to die, as the annual sacrifice to the god of the forest. The god shows up, but this year he is not interested in the death of his sacrifice. He is looking for a new servant and/or sidekick. Claudia kicked and strained at the bonds …
Leila and Marya walked home together, laughing over everything and nothing. They were stopped just outside the gate by a stone-faced soldier. “What is your business on the Governor’s estate?” Marya looked him up and down. “We live here.” “You’re not staff, please turn around and leave.” She spoke a little slower. “No. We live …
I needed to deal with the ghost. She’d been in the spirit jar quite long enough and would hopefully be open to a little discussion on appropriate behaviour and how she found herself as a ghost in the first place. I took the jar into the back larder and laid it in a ward ring …
Marya dashed from the bakery, skipping across the road to where Leila was waiting. "Did you hear? It IS going to be the Prince. We're going to have a royal governor." Leila replied. "Lady Oren told us when she came into the shop today. She's decided to leave the island, something about old ways and …
The DNA of Stories 