Writing Workshop – Week 4 Exercise

This week’s exercise based on Betrayal by Patricia Duncker:

Think about a group or sub-culture the narrator belongs to. Put a couple of those people in one room and create a scene where some tension exists between the characters. However, the narrator is not part of the tension, and is mainly an observer. Focus on the use of language. The narrator obviously has a love for language and injects a lot of humour and colourful descriptions into the scenes.

The other students were stomping and shouting loudly as they entered the classroom, and I tagged behind them slowly even though we were already late, not wanting to interrupt their boisterous behavior, fearing the possible repercussions. The fat one was called G’romm whose hobby was to smash things. The fatter one was called K’romm who loved nothing more than to bash things. And the fattest one was called Q’romm whose favorite activity was to trash things. Amidst all the smashing, bashing and trashing, you have yours truly who is dashing. And all this while our teacher Tom’s teeth were gnashing. He loathed tardiness, and he gave us all the evil eye, but he did not dare reproach us, as his physique was rather unimpressive, feeble even for an orc. He had nothing to fear from me obviously, but if the others were to fully unleash their barely suppressed violent tendencies and to come smashing, bashing and trashing towards him, we would be in immediate need of a replacement teacher, of which there is none.

Tom was not his real name. His real name was in fact T’Gromm Orkenstein III, and he hailed from a noble family of distinguished marauders, but he changed his name to Tom when he ventured out into the human world.

Writing Workshop – Week 4

This week’s exercise based on Betrayal by Patricia Duncker:

Think about a group or sub-culture the narrator belongs to. Put a couple of those people in one room and create a scene where some tension exists between the characters. However, the narrator is not part of the tension, and is mainly an observer. Focus on the use of language. The narrator obviously has a love for language and injects a lot of humour and colourful descriptions into the scenes.

Click here to read the story

This week’s assignment sure was a lot of fun. The exercise clearly brought out a lot of creativity from everyone. It’s amazing to see all the characters, scenes and settings everyone came up with, and it was fun to read them all.

More importantly, I also had a lot of fun writing my story and I allowed myself to indulge in my love for fantasy. At first I was afraid that it wouldn’t work out too well, but the others enjoyed the story. The only thing I should think about is how I should have the narrator connect more with the audience. Go a little deeper and bring in an element which the reader can relate to. For example, in the part about ‘reciting poetry’, I can work that out a little bit more to convey the feeling that the narrator feels like an outsider in this society (which he is!). Again I completely agree. That would make the story more interesting. But all in all it was pretty good.

I’m also particularly interested in the opinions of people who read a lot of fantasy. So for you fantasy lovers are there, and I know there are a few, let me know what you think!