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IWW Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Give me Five

These exercises were written by IWW members and administrators to provide structured practice opportunities for its members. You are welcome to use them for practice as well. Please mention that you found them at the Internet Writers Workshop (http://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/).

Prepared by: Ruth Douillette
Posted on: June 1, 2008
Reposted on: April 25, 2010
Reposted on: December 1, 2013
Reposted on: April 26, 2015
Reposted on: April 30, 2017
Reposted on: April 21, 2019
Reposted on: September 27, 2020
Reposted on: August 20, 2023

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Exercise: Choose a person and focus on his or her hands. In no more
than 400 words, write a short story, scene, or poem that shows readers
something important about the person whose hands are described.

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Sometimes it is the small things that give writers the greatest
opportunity to highlight something unique about a particular character.
For this exercise the "small thing" will be hands. Choose someone and
focus on his or her hands. The appearance of the hands and what they do
can show readers a lot about a person.

Note how the hands look: professionally manicured with fire red nails,
ragged fingernails, bitten to the quick, shaky hands with prominent
veins . . .

Note what are the hands are doing: smoothing hair off the forehead of a
child, dealing cards, arranging a vase of flowers . . .

Think of a simile or metaphor that relates to the hands: they quivered
like a tiny bird trapped in a corner.

Consider adding a character who speaks to the "hand person" or asks a
question. Does the conversation distract the person from what he is
doing with his hands? How do the movements of the hands change?  

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Critique by noting how effectively the descriptions and metaphor were
combined to create a story or scene. Did you get a sense of the
personality of the character whose hands were described?


Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.