Activity

Hey everybody!
So, I think that this annual theme thing is going to be one of my favorite parts of the guilds.  I can’t wait to get started…

but then again, I DON’T HAVE TO!

The wait is over.

Our theme for 2018 is Description and Setting.  I’m kind of generally planning on starting with basic description techniques, moving into active description and POV-immersed description (if that’s what it’s called) and then eventually ending up with creating our own interesting settings to describe.  But for today, I want to start with a baseline.  So, today’s assignment is pretty simple: describe this coffee shop as your hero walks into it for the first time:

Keep your descriptions to about a hundred words and try to encapsulate as much of the coffee shop experience as you can.

Later this week, once everyone has shared their descriptions, we’re going to do a simplified critique (except we’re only going to be positive this time.)  So, once you’ve shared your description, read someone else’s and point out something they did that you really liked.  A specific detail that worked for you, a technique that made your internal writer feel giddy inside.

(OH HEY, this brings up a good point.  So you guys might not know this *sarcasmnotavoided* but we have a critiques forum on Rillumen!  I posted an excerpt there to get the ball rolling, and have already received some amazing and much needed feedback!  It’s p cool.  HOWEVER, I’m… uh… the only one that has posted.  That makes me sad bc 1) I know you guys aren’t getting the opportunity to learn from each other, and 2) I’m not getting the opportunity to read y’all’s stuff.  Both of those things make me sad.  SO, since I can’t really threaten to come drag you out of your introverted corners and and pry an excerpt out of your fingers, I can only ask: please go post something in the critique topic.  It’s a little scary, but not too bad.  You just need to post a page or so, maybe just a hundred words.  You can do this.  I believe in you.)

Anyway, without further ado, I’ll kick this off with my own humble description:

The wood paneling under the counter clashed violently with the slate floor and the black marble countertops.  Naked lightbulbs dangled from the ceiling, washed out in the sunlight beaming through the storefront window.  Someone with handwriting much nicer than mine had chalked fancy drinks and fancier prices onto the artsy blackboard wall behind the cashier.  Next to the swirly words hung a poorly aligned, darkly stained shelf with bright white mugs and saucers – each rotated perfectly to hide the chips and cracks gathered through years of service.  It was clean, bright, sterile.  Empty.

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