Continuing the series of writing exercises inspired by Susan Breen’s The Fiction Class, today we are moving on to plot. For more information on the book and this series of posts, please check out the original book review here.

Plot: This is an exercise in learning how to write a climactic scene. A boat sinks during a storm, and only ten of its passengers make it onto the lifeboat. One by one the passengers are knocked off until, after a month at sea, only two survivors are left. There is not enough food for both of them, and one of them is going to have to get rid of the other. One of them is a teenage girl who is very strong for her age, but she is blind. The other is a musician from a successful boys’ band. He is twenty-six years old and smaller than the girl. Who will survive? Write the final scene.

“It’s dark. Why is it always so dark?” Ryan whined. For the twenty-ninth day straight.

“God,” Sandra thought, “what a prima donna. I’m blind. You don’t hear me complain because it’s always dark.”

Ryan was right. It was dark. Dark and cold and rainy and dreary. Sandra was also right. Ryan was a prima donna. A spoiled, petty, princess of a “boy” (if anyone can still legitimately be called a boy at twenty-six). They were both right. For the twenty-ninth day straight.
Continue reading Homework Assignment Three: Plot