Writing for Character Assignment:
The Situation - We are onboard a delivery shuttle en route to replenish a mining colony. Based on some very finely tuned mathematics, there is only exactly enough fuel to bring the ship to its destination. The pilot discovers a stowaway on board - a young girl who wanted to visit her brother on this mining colony. Her extra weight will result in the shuttle burning up during re-entry. Regulations require that he toss her into the nearest airlock and blow the hatch in order to save the mission.
Starting in medias res, write a short scene - not exceeding ten dialogue lines in total - that results in the girl remaining in the spacecraft. The object of the exercise is to use dialogue to reveal the true character of each.
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Suggestion - less is more. Be sparse with your dialogue.
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Caution - avoid
deus ex machina endings.
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Restriction - Avoid the sexual. It makes the characters more interesting... and your task as a writer that much trickier.
* Bonus points if you can name the science fiction short story from which this is drawn.
The Bulwer-Lytton Awards!!!
Hey y'all,
As a capper for last week's lecture on great beginnings/endings, check out the above site. This is an annual competition held to honour the
worst openings in a novel for a given year. Some of these really stink but are good for a laugh. Btw, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton was a contemporary of Mary Shelley and gave us that immortal opening "It was a dark and stormy night."
And, as a reminder, this week we're going to look at great character. Your homework, should you choose to accept it, is to bring in a line of dialogue that illustrates great character. You can have A/V accompaniment but we need the words.
