I have been writing a short story based on the following writing exercise. The aim is to experiment point of views and the use of the first/third persons. I will publish my text in a few days to leave some time to anyone who wishes to write one as well.
The Reluctant I
Write a first-person story in which you use the first-person pronoun (I or me or my) only two times - but keep the I somehow important to the narrative you're constructing. The point of this exercise is to imagine a narrator who is less interested in himself than in what he is observing. You can make your narrator someone who sees an interesting event in which he is not necessarily a participant. Or you can make him self-effacing, yet a major participant of the events related. It is very important in this exercise to make sure your reader is not surprised, forth or fifty words into the piece, to realize that this is a first-person narration. Show us quickly who is observing the scene. 500-600 words.
Taken from: KITELEY (Brian), The 3 A.M. Epiphany: uncommon writing exercises that transform your fiction, Ohio, Writer's Digest Books, 2005.
Alternatively: I also practiced on the use of the imperative form. The exercise comes from the same book and asks, basically, to write a 500 words story using the imperative form: Do this, Don't do that, etc. For example, Hear my neighbour come home from her night shift. Remember the sound of the key lock when I see her in the morning. The author believes that this is also an interesting exercise to see how you will organise the timing of the sequences, i.e. how these imperatives are following each other in a time frame. I will write down the complete exercise as soon as I am home again.
