Oct 10 2009
Weekend Writing Exercise
Randomly generate three pairs of verbs and adverbs at Creativity For You. Write a story about a character who embodies the three sets of ideas. There’s no word goal or page target, but if I assigned this in class, I’d be happy if each student finished two pages in an hour.
Admittedly, I never really understood what an adverb was. Damn my school system! Could you provide a mini-lesson?
Adjectives modify nouns. Adverbs are words that modify anything else. So, for example, in the sentence “I am gleefully wacky,” gleefully is an adverb because it modifies an adjective (wacky). In the sentence “The Joker cheerfully executed his hapless minion,” cheerfully is an adverb because it modifies a verb (executed).
As a rule of thumb, most adverbs end in -ly. (“Well” is one of the exceptions).
Ok, I got it. I’ll join ecstatically!
I got my three pairs. Wow, this is going to be tricky, but I think I’m onto something. He’ll definitely be different from my prior protaganists. I’m giddy!
“temporarily allocate”
“urgently admire”
“exclusively enjoy”
I’m thinking… creepy businessman stalker who has a compulsive NEED to “follow” someone’s life in secret. He has… he made some bad choices in life which still haunt him, and the only way to get the ghosts of his past to go away is to focus on the glamor of someone else’s life instead. This would probably make him a celebrity stalker. Weird.
My three pair came out to make a pretty coherent character:
normally inspect
organize namely
differently sound
I’m seeing an overly analytical, offbeat nice guy. I’ll call him Waylo. Now I just have to write him.
bother really
coordinate again
finish instantly
I’m seeing someone putting together a very careful plan, coordinating and coordinating. And it all comes together in a single instant: a really bothersome person is murdered by a well-prepared car-bomb.