I joined a Dallas area writer’s meetup today and saw this exercise on their message boards. I like it. I’ll have to give it a try soon. I may talk about my morning walk through my yard.
Take something you do everyday, or a small simple pleasure, about which you can be very specific, and write it down. Think of opening a box of chocolates (Forest Gump), scraping the flavorful burnt rice from the bottom of the pan (House of Sand and Fog), bathing your child (one of our members), or picking out a shade of nail polish amongst the myriad of offerings in the salon (another one of our members). Driving your kids to school, taking an exam, ordering a latte, dressing your grandfather…
In a story it is often these details that validate the piece, put it in a distinct place in time and space. And sometimes through the prism of a small event, we can see larger things, like the theme of the piece, the nature of the main character, or something about ourselves.