Metis' 1st Assignment

[Dragon's muse]

Craft a scene/chapter/story that incorporates the following elements:

A vending machine
A pair of snowshoes
Three large, uncut emeralds

Happy writing!

[Metis]

Tough...vending machines are only found in civilization, but snowshoes are only needed for treks where civilization is far away...

Might take a while.

[underwhere]

Nobody says the story has to be based entirely in reality. If you can manage to believably "suspend reality" for the purpose of your story, or create technological and/or societal advances which allow for the suspension of reality, you could give us all quite an interesting read. Or, you could just go for the really absurd and forget about reality altogether, in which case, you might even go on to describe at some length the absurdity of the situation. A confused narrator can make for a very interesting vantage point from which to write.

By the way, these are not your only options for how to handle this, just the first few I could think of. Feel free to utilize one, more than one, or none of these ideas.

The wonderful thing about fiction is that there are no "right ways to write a story". There may be better ways, but each take on a particular story presents its own challenges. Have some fun with this and all of your future assignments. After all, if we didn't all enjoy the process, we wouldn't be here trying to learn to write better.

[Metis]

Well, my first idea was for a sexy female thief who hides in a vending machine in a museum until nightfall, then wears snowshoes to get past a pressure sensitive floor in order to steal the three large emeralds. While she's on the floor, a security guard comes in and makes her play with herself or else he'll trigger the alarm. So, she has to masturbate standing up while being careful not to set off the alarm on the floor.

But then I decided that a pressure sensitive floor alarm was stupid. Back to the drawing board.

[underwhere]

Well, my first idea was for a sexy female thief who hides in a vending machine in a museum until nightfall, then wears snowshoes to get past a pressure sensitive floor in order to steal the three large emeralds. While she's on the floor, a security guard comes in and makes her play with herself or else he'll trigger the alarm. So, she has to masturbate standing up while being careful not to set off the alarm on the floor.

But then I decided that a pressure sensitive floor alarm was stupid. Back to the drawing board.

Okay, but if you really think its stupid, have some fun with it! This is FICTION, not real life.

A pressure sensitive floor alarm could present all kinds of interesting possibilities, most of them probably absurd. BUT as they say, the truth is often stranger than fiction. I'm sure that some designs for burglar alarm systems have been silly or just plain dumb before. That doesn't mean they aren't worth writing about, though.

Sometimes what I do when I write is I begin with a very basic idea or thought. In fact, some of my strongest writing begins that way in concept and as I begin to write to flesh out the idea, I wind up with a piece worth writing home about. (Sometimes, I actually have written home about them, too.) In this case, just let the writing flow from the idea. Try not to be too judgmental of the writing at this stage. Thats what editing is for anyway. So long as the story flows pretty well, you can always make the idea more plausible as you go along either by further enhancing the idea or having it collapse in on itself causing all sorts of problems. While enhancing an idea is the usual route that seems to be taken, I saw a play a few years ago entitled "Well" (http://www.lisakron.com/well.html) which took the latter approach of having the play collapse in on itself with riotous effect. Both are possible and limited only by your own imagination.

[Nikita]

Well, my first idea was for a sexy female thief who hides in a vending machine in a museum until nightfall, then wears snowshoes to get past a pressure sensitive floor in order to steal the three large emeralds. While she's on the floor, a security guard comes in and makes her play with herself or else he'll trigger the alarm. So, she has to masturbate standing up while being careful not to set off the alarm on the floor.

But then I decided that a pressure sensitive floor alarm was stupid. Back to the drawing board.

Not bad. This is almost flash fiction. How many words did you use? I don't think there was a word limit on this assignment. You can use as many or as few words as you want. Might as well try. What do you have to lose?

[Dragon's muse]

Well, my first idea was for a sexy female thief who hides in a vending machine in a museum until nightfall, then wears snowshoes to get past a pressure sensitive floor in order to steal the three large emeralds. While she's on the floor, a security guard comes in and makes her play with herself or else he'll trigger the alarm. So, she has to masturbate standing up while being careful not to set off the alarm on the floor.

But then I decided that a pressure sensitive floor alarm was stupid. Back to the drawing board.

i like it. That has potential. Suspend your inner critic and see where it goes. Save that inner critic for the first editing pass.

[H Dean]

You can find snowshoes and vending machines in Alaska. You can also find snow shoes used as decorations in restaurants that have odd decorations. Also, snow shoes can be found in a museum. Hell, there are a lot of places and reasons for snow shoes...hell, you can even play tennis with 'em.

as was said before, this is fiction. Let it go. Though, snow shoes would not save anyone from a pressure sensitive alarm system, which is not so uncommon as you might think.

[Nikita]

Well, my first idea was for a sexy female thief who hides in a vending machine in a museum until nightfall, then wears snowshoes to get past a pressure sensitive floor in order to steal the three large emeralds. While she's on the floor, a security guard comes in and makes her play with herself or else he'll trigger the alarm. So, she has to masturbate standing up while being careful not to set off the alarm on the floor.

But then I decided that a pressure sensitive floor alarm was stupid. Back to the drawing board.

poke