Writing Exercise: Lies

Monday, December 3, 2007

I'm back from spending an awesome weekend at a tiny Texas bed and breakfast. The women of my family have made this an annual trip and I can't tell you how good it is to get away from everything for a weekend.

But it's back to work now and time for my first weekly writing exercise. Over the weekend I read Antonya Nelson's "Or Else" from the New Yorker. Amazing story. I finished it and immediately flipped back to the beginning to read it again.

After reading, I was reminded of a character from David Benioff's The 25th Hour who claims to be the true author of a very famous poem. In his story, he had authored the work, but it was stolen by a colleague who then got all the credit and fame for it. This turns out to be a lie, but one that is humored by the character that actually knows him.

There are tons or writing exercises about lies out there, so I'm going to start out with something fairly general. Write a scene in which a character tells an elaborate lie about his/her life. 1000 words.