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? …
It had taken a week of solid work – every evening after dinner – but it was finally done. It was beautiful. A proper display cupboard for the Collectors’ Edition dolls she’d been buying for years. She’d already had the cupboard, a lovely glass-fronted antique. It had just needed some decoration, to put each of …
The dim, golden warmth of the bath house was almost painful after their trek. Sarah shooed them towards the mid-heat tubs. “Strip and in.” Evan was tending the fire. He made a point of turning his back to them and focusing on feeding wood to the flames. Eleanor was grateful for the courtesy but still …
The leaves on the palm trees outside his hotel window waved mockingly on the afternoon breeze. ‘Here you are in paradise’ they seemed to say, ‘but all you can do is pace about your too-large-for-one hotel room, talk on your phone, and tap on your computer.’ And the room was too large for one person, …
It was a quiet morning until the call from Jason Bandswitch, the Manor was in uproar. Lady Charlotte had disappeared. He was waiting outside for me as I made it to the end of the drive (newly gravelled thankfully, the rain’s been back in force, and the previous surface was a mud pit), his face …
“If that’s an egg, I’m a gargoyle.” “Well you’d better climb up on the roof then, because it is.” “It’s the size of my torso and made of copper. Look at the tarnish marks from where the water’s dripped on it.” “So? It’s still an egg.” “Fine, it’s a pretend egg. “Why would someone create …
Cadan’s chair went flying as he bolted upright, pushing her behind him, tense and ready, as he focused on the shadows in the doorway. Shadows who resolved into Matthew and Evan as they moved inside, eyeing Cadan with a mixture of surprise and caution. Matthew spoke first. “You’re alright then? We were fearing the worst.” …
“Most medicines can be as harmful as they are healing. It’s all to do with the affliction, the dosage, and the patient.” Nadira knew it was important to remember the two-sided nature of the cures they created, but did Healer Mentor Fong have to start every single lesson with it? And usually finish with it …
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 …
Georgina looked at the diagram on the table. Leonard was clearly very proud of it, pity it looked like nothing so much as a square plate of spaghetti and meatballs. “So this is the layout for the ball.” Leonard puffed his chest out. “Yes. The door is there.” He pointed to one side of the …
The DNA of Stories 