I love a comment Anderson makes in the colon chapter. “When I imitate other writer’s sentences, trying on their style, I don’t use the same content as the writer. I try their structure or the way they put their sentence together.”
Let’s play with the sentence from Hiaasen yesterday.
_____ told me to empty my _____:______, _______, and ______.
The TSA agent told me to empty my bag: my kindle, my laptop, and a sippy cup of water.
Use the sentence to free write a 100 word short.
The TSA agent told me to empty my bag: my kindle, my laptop, and a sippy cup of water. No wonder I set off the bells and whistles. The agent takes the water over to a special machine which analyses the content. She clears the contents of danger and returned the sippy cup to my kiddo. I apologized profusely for forgetting the water was in the bottom of the bag but the agent was quite tetchy with me. I stepped to the side to wait for my husband who once again was being checked for explosives. Every time he flew. I wondered for the 100th time about the nature of random.
Reexamine your 100 words for where you can add more detail.
The TSA agent told me to empty my bag: my kindle, my laptop, and a sippy cup of water. No wonder I set off the bells and whistles. The agent took the water over to a special machine which analyzed the content. She cleared the contents of danger and returned the sippy cup to my kiddo. I apologized profusely for forgetting the water was in the bottom of the bag but the agent was quite tetchy with me. I stepped to the side to wait for my husband who once again was being checked for explosives. Every time he flew. I wondered for the 100th time about the nature of random.
Eh, I fixed a few tense issues but my brain refuses to find anywhere to add stuff. hrm….
Post your own examples in the comments if you like.
T.A. Henry 