Snapshot Challenge
1. Look at your sentence.
2. Imagine that you’re looking at a photograph (or
snapshot) taken at that moment.
- Use words to describe everything you can see in the
snapshot.
Hints: What was each person wearing? What expressions were on their faces? Where were they sitting? Standing? What was in their hands? What was the weather like? How much light was in the room? What things could you see? What details were there? Imagine looking at the images from top to bottom, or from left to right…What’s in the background? What were people saying? What are they not saying? What do their faces look like they are about to say? What did you see? What did you not see? What were you afraid to see? What did you stare at? What were you amazed to see? What caught your eye first? Who else was there? What could you see out the corner of your eye? What did that tell you? What worries did you have? What did you already know about what you saw? What did you NOT know about what you saw?
Thoughtshot Challenge
- Look at your sentence.
- Imagine that people could hear everything you were thinking at that moment.
- Write down everything that went through your head, everything you thought right then.
Hint: Draw a stick figure. Draw ten thought bubbles over the stick figure’s head. Imagine that the stick figure is you. Fill in the ten thought bubbles with thoughts you were having right then.
Another hint: What did you think? What went through your mind? What did you think when you looked around? What did you wonder? What did you know for sure? What never occurred to you? What’s one thing that you did NOT know then? What did you wish? What did you know? What did you think would happen? What did you believe? What were you waiting for? How fast was your heart beating? What were you sure about? What do you think the other people in the room were thinking? When you heard something, what did that mean? What doubts did you have? What worries did you have? What did you know? not know? What did you tell yourself? What did you answer yourself? What did you answer yourself back?
Senses Challenge
1. Look at your sentence.
2. Write details to show every one of the senses:
What did you see?
What did you hear?
What did you smell?
What did you feel?
What did you taste?
What smells could you notice? Could you smell any food smells? Could you smell any animal smells? What perfumes or colognes or soap smells could you recognize? What did the air smell like? What feelings could you smell in the air? What could you hear clearly? What could you just barely hear? What background noises could you hear? Did anyone’s voice remind you of anything? What did your breathing sound like? Was there any music in the background? Was there any music running through your mind? What noise did you expect to hear? What noise did you not expect to hear? What were you hoping to hear? What were you hoping not to hear? What were your fingers touching? What did anything feel like? Did the feel of anything remind you of something? What taste was in your mouth? What had you eaten recently?
Hints: Try to add variety to your sentences, so they don’t all start with “I.” You don’t have to use every sense, but the more you can add, the better!
Dialogue Challenge
1. Look at your sentence.
2. Imagine all of the conversation that went on at that moment.
3. Write down everything everyone said.
Hints: Dialogue is more than just words. It’s also looks and silences. Pauses. Stares. Short bursts!
What did you say out loud? What did you whisper? What did someone else say? What did you say back?
What did you stop yourself from saying? What did someone say under their breath? What all voices were in the background? What did you hear them say? What were people saying? Not saying? About to say? What did you wish out loud? What song was anyone singing? What did anyone shout? What did you want to shout? What do you wish someone would have said? What’s one thing you’re glad nobody said? What question did you ask? What answer did you get?
Ba-da-bing Challenge
- Look at your sentence.
- Write one ba-da-bing sentence for that moment, with these three parts:
Where your feet were right then What your eye saw right then What you thought right then