The world had turned gray. Nothing but mud and asphalt surrounded the unpainted house, little more than a box made of concrete blocks. Charlie, dressed in faded work pants, rubber boots, and a thick wool sweater, steadied himself with a hand on the top rail of a weathered cedar fence. Behind him, nothing but ash-colored sky, bare trees, and plumes of smoke belching from the factory in the distance. A lone sparrow rested on a branch, one beady eye watching.

Using the poem of their choice for inspiration, have group members create a character, a setting, a situation, and a character goal, from the poem and write a brief short story. 

For example, a whimsical visual poem by the late poet bp nichol contains only two words, blob and plop. If you write the word blob, draw a line under it and align the word plop under it, the visual suggestion is that of the word blob reflected in water, and overturned, to plop. 

(It's a clever little poem that has to be reproduced visually for its full effect.)

 What sort of character do these two words suggest, in what setting, and what situation? Maybe a person sitting hunched at the edge of a pond, watching his or her reflection in the water? 

What might a character in this setting and situation want more than anything else? What obstacles might he or she have to overcome to attain that goal?

With these components or ones inspired by a more conventional poem, individuals may construct a story.

Imagine two characters. One wants to do something and the other does not. Or one wants something the other has. Write a dialog between these two characters, where one character wants to persuade the other, and the other is determined not to give in. This will create extrinsic tension. 

To illustrate this, pair individuals off and provide each pair with a subject of debate. Whichever side one takes, the other's must take the opposing view. Have each pair politely and respectfully debate their subject for five or ten minutes.

When the time is up, have each individual transcribe the dialog as closely as possible. Then have them remove all niceties such as please and thank you, any repetition, and all filler words,  to capture the essence of the argument, rather than the exact words each spoke. 

When they have finished, have both individuals read their transcriptions aloud to see how the accounts differ. 

If you have time for a "Part II" to this exercise, have each pair revise their dialogue set to include a couple of "beats" or the the "action tags" that show the small actions characters take as they engage in dialogue.

For example: He swung around to glare at her. "I didn't say that at all."

During this creative writing activity, encourage group members to ask questions that reveal character, rather than only questions about appearance. For example, someone might ask "How does your character express anger?" or "Has your character ever shoplifted?" 

The answers may be kept short or, if you have time, answers may explain the "why" of the response, such as "My character suppresses his anger because when he was a teenager, in a fit of rage, he slammed the car door as hard as he could and caught his dog in the door as the dog tried to jump out after him. This broke his dog's spine, and the animal had to be put to sleep. Ever since, the character avoids confrontation, and when faced with the anger of another turns pale and stutters."

The groups should discuss this for several minutes and then choose a spokesperson to present the group decision to the class with an explanation of why they chose the name they did. 

Discuss the appropriate use of dramatization and narrative summary, and provide students with an example of each.

Then present individuals or small groups with a statement that inappropriately "tells," such as Jane was angry with her father.

Have them first change the telling into active showing by writing a passage that dramatizes the statement.

For example: Jane turned away from her father and rolled her eyes at her brother, then she stomped from the room.

Then have them summarize the same passage in an appropriately vivid way.

For example: Jane did what she always did when she was angry with her father. She turned away from him and tried to get her brother on-side by rolling her eyes. Except this time, her brother didn't smile or say something funny or reassure her in any way. He just looked down at his plate as if she had done nothing at all. 

When everyone has finished, have an individual from each group read the two passages aloud to the entire class or workshop and ask the group if they would change anything about either example. 

Have each member in the creative writing class or workshop bring in an image, along with a short written passage, on a separate piece of paper, that describes  what the image means to the individual.

Collect the images, shuffle them and pass them out, so that no one has the image he or she brought. Now have each person write a passage that describes the subject or event shown in the photo and what it means.

Have each individual read his work aloud. Following this, ask the owner of the image to explain what the image meant to him or her. 

The brook in the gully behind the garden, a trembling trickle most of the time, was tonight a loud torrent that tumbled over itself in its avid truckling to gravity, as it carried through corridors of beech and spruce last year's leaves, and some leafless twigs, and a brand-new, unwanted soccer ball that had recently rolled into the water from the sloping lawn after Pnin disposed of it by defenestration. (p.108)

Activity: Ask students to name the ways this sentence imitates or draws parallels with the brook it describes.

Distribute a short story to everyone in the group and have them read it. Ask them to make an A-Z list of appealing words from the story, one word for each letter of the alphabet, if possible.

When everyone has finished, suggest a starting word, and have someone choose a word from his or her list that begins with the final letter of your original word. Have each person in turn add a word that begins with the final letter of the word that came before it, and say what they liked about the word they chose.

Alternatively, have them create a piece of flash fiction one word at a time, with each student contributing where possible.

"Acids, bases, compounds," Dorothy explains, "for group homework." Instantly jaded, knowing long monosyllabic nonsense oozes, pupils quickly revolt.

Have students go on for as long as they are able (X,Y, Z can get a little tricky), and then if you like, have them work in the reverse direction. Or ask them to use the idea, setting, or character that resulted to write a short piece of fiction.

Such limited constraints will sometimes yield fresh and surprising concepts or descriptions.

1. As cold as __________
2. As unpredictable as ______________
3. White like a _______________
   

As an accompanying creative writing exercise, a discussion of what a simile should not be would have value.

Students might choose the worst simile they can find from sites such as The Manbottle. They could then explain to the others why the simile does not work.