Writing Exercises 14: Visit Your World

First published 2/17/2002; last edited 12/16/2004

Perhaps you've created your own world in which you set your fiction. It could be a fantasy world, a science-fiction world, a horrific world, or something just a step to the left of boring old reality. If you aren't a fiction writer, then pick some other writer's world for this one. Write about your world!

Variations

#14a. View it from space. What does the world as a whole look like?
#14b. View the ground with a magnifying glass. What does each blade of grass or clump of soil look like?
#14c. Imagine that there's a zoo in your world. How are the animals contained? Which animals are grouped together? What do they look like? How do they behave? Which ones can you find in the petting zoo? Which ones invoke sounds of awe from the patrons? Which ones do people fear? What other attractions can be found at your zoo?
#14d. You travel between two cities on your world. Who do you see along the way? How do these people treat you? What means of transportation do you use? How crowded is the landscape? What do the houses look like?

Social Structures

#14e. You visit a library on your world. Who patronizes this library? Which books are kept up front? Which books are kept behind the counter? Which sections are largest?
#14f. You visit a house of organized religion on your world. How big is it? How well-kept is it? Who do you find there? What noises do you hear? What does the place smell like? Describe what worship is like in that place.
#14g. You enter a city on your world for the first time. What's the first thing you notice? How do people treat you? How are they dressed? How crowded are the streets? What is the architecture like? What are the smells? What are the sounds? What animals do you see? What means of transportation do people use?
#14h. Visit a school. Who goes to that school? Who teaches there? What subjects are taught? How are they taught? How much time do people spend there? How are students and teachers expected to behave? Is there a dress code or code of conduct? How are students evaluated?
#14i. Go inside a home. How is it a decorated? What is the architecture like? Which rooms are large or important and what are their functions? What is done inside this house? How many people live here and how are they related?
#14j. Go out into the wilds of your world. How dangerous are they? How wild is wild? Who and what do you encounter?

Forms of the Exercise

Although the exercises are framed as questions, there's no need to just go down a page and answer them.

#14k. Answer the questions as though you were being interviewed about your travels on TV or the radio.
#14l. Write a journal entry as though you actually visited these places.
#14m. Write a scene from a story or screenplay set on your world.
#14n. Write an article for a newspaper as though you'd visited this world. Or, write an article for a newspaper of that world.
#14o. Write an entry for a history book of that world.
#14p. Write a dialogue with a citizen of that world.
#14q. Write a poem as though it were written by a great poet of that world.