The rest of the week you are still more than welcome to leave your responses in the comments and talk about each other’s work, but I can’t guarantee I’ll respond. For Saturdays, I will participate in the comments-workshop.

Some things to keep in mind when approaching a workshop setting:

• Start with something that works for you, like if the repetition is driving a point home well, or if the tone draws the reader right in. We could all use some encouragement, and this a small gesture that goes a long way!

• Avoid simple statements like “I don’t like” or “I like.” These are generally non-specific and therefore unhelpful. Instead, try to explain why you like or dislike something.

• Try to remember to refer to the narrative voice of the piece as “the narrator” rather than assuming it is the “you” of the author. Some of these pieces will be fiction, some non-fiction, some poetry, and we can quickly stray into the unproductive realm of hurt feelings if we accidentally get too personal.

• The name of the game with critique is constructive criticism. “This is bad” isn’t constructive. “The repetition in this piece doesn’t feel purposeful, and therefore is a distraction, rather than helpful” is a much more constructive statement.

• Have fun! Most–if not all–writing is collaboration. Remember we are all here for the same reasons. Happy writing ducklings!

Today’s Prompt

Describe a scar (or birthmark, or other distinctive, involuntary, permanent mark on the skin) on an imaginary character. No non-fiction for this prompt! We are sticking with fiction for today. Describe this mark in as much detail as possible: how did the character get it? do they know? have they made up reasons if they don’t know? Think about what impact this mark has on the character, large or small. Think about how you can use it to show us more about who they are. What do other people think when they see it?

Limit yourself to just one paragraph, or anything less than 400 words. Is this the beginning of a bigger story? The germ of a character? Have fun!

My Response

Sometimes, Jex wondered where the scar on their hand came from. It had always been the same: pale, slightly puckered, raised just barely above the unmarked skin around it, and stretching from the knuckle on their thumb toward the back of their hand. Their dad always had a new story for it. ‘A cat got you,’ ‘you tripped into a bush,’ ‘a bit of glass from something broken.’ The favorite for when trying to convince them to be more like a man—whatever that meant—was that they had tried to punch another kid at preschool, and caught it on his tooth. Never mind that it wasn’t in the right place for that, Jex hadn’t known how to punch back then.