10 December 2014

Wednesday Writing Prompt #2

Here's the second in the series. 

He stood on the opposite pavement, a tall man in a calf-length overcoat

Now read it again, and this time think about that phrase. List the questions it throws up. This is the sort of thing you should be aiming for:
  • The He denotes that someone else is seeing this person - and give the reader a break... please don't make the narrator an off-page omniscient entity.
  • pavement denotes more urban than rural setting
  • a tall man - why would the narrator mention this? Why not just a man? Because his being tall means something to the narrator. Why does it?
  • calf-length overcoat - this is a specific observation. Again, why? Is it out of the norm dress for other people on the street?
  • There is no full-stop (period) given. Should there be more to the sentence?
With no clue given, the narrator could male or female or a child (dependent on age - articulating calf-length coat), and could convey the story in a third or first person viewpoint.

Drop by next week for Wednesday Writing Prompt #3.

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