I would like you to set a story in one of the three following settings:
a hospital
a foreign country
a blackout
Write the BEGINNING of a story. The first 500-750 words.
We want to smell, hear, and see your setting. We also want to hear it written about with credibility. So you’ll have to do a little research – both functional and imaginative – in order to write this one convincingly. Don’t rush! Start by shutting your eyes and scanning the story world, just like you did during the meditation exercises. Then, try looking at photographs, or finding basic facts or terms that will lend your writing credibility. Believe me, with these two things combined, we will feel that you as the writer have experienced these “strange lands,” whether you have or not!
Remember how I said that a setting is also a situation? As soon as you place a character in a setting, you have a situation – a story. That character must interact – live or die – in that place and time. We all have the same needs to survive – food and water, shelter, a sense of safety – so how does your character secure those things? For this assignment, I’ve picked three settings that have inherent dramatic possibility. A blackout is not a place, per se, but it is a situation with physical parameters.
For the foreign country, if you like, you may write from the point of view of a tourist or visitor. You might want to pick a place you’ve visited in the past, but you don’t have to. Anyone going to a foreign location steps immediately into a dramatic situation. Use functional and imaginative research to create your setting.
We all realize that the traveller cannot know a land like a native. However, avoid out-and-out erroneous information, as well as clichés and assumptions about people and culture. Don’t write about a place in the way you’ve heard someone ELSE write about it. Imagine and research the place yourself.
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The respiratory machine was
working perfectly. The squish and the splash were consistent, like a
well-functioning watch. The warm light in room 507 created a peaceful evening
atmosphere. The private room featured a large window with a view of the city, revealing
a clear sky. Wooden floors adorned the room, and a small living room connected
to the main bedroom. The bathroom was shiny and spacious, providing ample space
for two individuals.
He lay unconscious in bed
while the machine monitored his breathing. She moved a recliner next to the bed
and to the right of her husband. She wore the outfit he loved: a brown skirt
and a black turtleneck blouse. She applied makeup to be with him. In her left
hand, she held rosary beads, counting with her right hand.
—Maria.
Madre de Dios. Ruega por nosotros los pecadores.
The night had just started
when Ada arrived to relieve her mother-in-law, so she can have some rest. Ada started
praying the moment she gets inside the room. She prayed for almost three hours
when suddenly, the praying stopped. It was almost 10 o'clock. Ada started
laughing, then sobbing, then crying; the memories of a life with him were too
painful to bear. Tears fell from her face and landed on her big chest.
She became angry when she
saw tears landing on her enormous breast. The fight they had about her desire
for breast augmentation came to mind. Something he was absolutely against to.
—You are mine, Ada. I don't want
other men looking at you.
—Your macho hombre attitude, I hated
it. If you love me, you will do it for me.
She was angry because all
the wives in the neighborhood and Alfredo's work buddies had undergone breast augmentation
or nose jobs. Now, in the hospital, guilt made Ada feel foolish and
superficial.
—I only want you to wake up. I hate
the hearing of that STUPID MACHINE every time I enter this room! Alfredo, you
are mine. You don't deserve this. You don't deserve this stupid bitch.
Ada sobbed, taking her
hands to her face as she leaned forward.
She was in a rush of
flashbacks inside her head—love, sex, passion, laughter, joints, weed, parties,
trips, and adventure. Ada and Alfredo's life seemed like something from a
magazine. Constantly traveling, shopping, he provided her with time and money.
They already had two small children, Sofia, 5, and Amanda, 2. During the day,
she managed the businesses while lying to the girls about their father being on
a business trip.
Caroline the mother-in-law,
spends all mornings with her son while Ada works. They switched roles in the
evening. Caroline taking care of the girls at night and Ada arriving to the
hospital. At 6 pm after work Grandpa Martin goes to his son house and sends the
nanny home. He manages the girls until granny Caro arrives. Ada oversees night shift.
She needs to support his man and needs to cry alone, away of the kids. The hurt
on his chest is overwhelming. She cannot long stand this neither one to.
By 11 pm, the nurse would
come to change the urinal disposal bag. Seeing him in this state was worse than
torture. The hurt in her chest was overwhelming. Just a week a go they were
bouncing in the bed as rabbits.
The nurse at night is the
same two days ago. Miss Frida a chubby but highly experienced nurse. She is
constantly dress in all pink. She arrived for the pee bag.
