Writing Exercise - Find the Story

I'm a sucker for writing exercises. My bookcases are filled with titles like, Pen on Fire, Writing Down the Bones, What If, Page after Page, the 4 a.m. Breakthrough, etc.

One of my favorites though is one I've been having fun with since I was about 5 years old. I call it Find the Story.

How to Play

Trust me, you've played this before, it just might have been a while.

The rules are pretty basic — see if you can spot a story.

Di's Xray Story

For example, I was waiting to get an xray yesterday and in the waiting room there was this pudgy guy, tan, about 50, with is german wife, who I couldn't help but notice was wearing some wildly expensive diamond earrings. The couple looked like they'd just got off a sailboat — happy and casually dressed. In fact, they seemed to be in almost too good a mood for someone in need of a an x-ray.

I had found my story: The man, Stuart, had accidently swallowed one of his wife's (Anna's) diamond earrings last night, when it fell into an iced gin and tonic. It was a big joke now, one they hoped to tell friends when they got back to California. But later today, when they were sailing out of the Sound, that earring was going to get lodged in Stuart's intestines and Anna was going to have to perform emergency surgery.

I could see it was going to get dicey because Anna had already downed a couple gin and tonics and her poor English was going to make it hard to call for help . . . not to mention I sensed a storm was coming in.

You get the idea . . . you see people and make up stories. It's the most basic thing writers do. Not to mention it's a hell of a fun way to pass time while you're waiting for an xray.

Did you see any stories today?