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IWW Practice-W Exercise Archives
Exercise: Share a Camel

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 Charles Hightower
Posted on: Sunday, January 28, 2018



In 400 words or less, share with your readers, a person who appears to
have no filter. 'Having no filter' is an expression that indicates a person's
every thought seems to pass into their spoken words, regardless of how
inappropriate those words might be.

The name of the exercise comes from the U.S. cigarette brand, Camel.
It's advertised as having no filter, whereas a filter would make at least a
half-hearted attempt to remove unwanted content.

Show how this unfiltered person impacts the conversation and those
around them.

__________________________________

In today's society, there are social norms of what is appropriate to say in
a given situation. And these practices are generally taught from early
childhood so that the student of social skills would at worst, say nothing
inappropriate. Some folks though, don't seem to learn these skills, and
these unfiltered individuals can toss in a verbal grenade that derails the
conversation and impacts others nearby.

Your story might introduce a jaded individual who just doesn't care what
others think, someone who heavily criticizes others 'for their own good',
someone who swears uncontrollably or introduces sexual innuendo at
every opportunity, a person with a medical condition, or come up with
your own unfiltered conversationalist.

__________________________________

Critique

Was the character believable? Did you experience the explosion of the
unfiltered thought on the conversation? Did reactions from the other
individuals seem genuine? Could you determine how they really felt
about the unfiltered person? Addressing a more subtle level of
characterization, did the author show how the unfiltered individual
felt about the others in the conversation?


Web site created by Rhéal Nadeau and the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Greg Gunther.