Writing Through the Wardrobe: Week 2 (Adult) • The Habit

Lecture 4: Dramatic Irony

Writing Exercise

Depict a normal household scene from the point of view of a family pet. This is an experiment in dramatic irony, so think about the ways a dog or cat would understand (or misunderstand) things we human beings take for granted.

Lecture 5: Exposition

Reading Exercise

Go to your bookshelves and pull out five of your favorite novels. Read the opening pages of each and answer these questions for each:

- Does the story start with exposition, or does it start with in-scene?
- If it starts in-scene, does it start with action, dialogue, or description?
- If it starts with exposition, identify the point at which the author first brings the reader into a scene. And is that entry into the scene happen through action, dialogue, or description?

Lecture 6: Some Guidelines for Dialogue

Writing Exercise

Write a scene of (mostly) dialogue, about 300 words long, in which two or more characters are at odds. DON’T allow your characters to say what is actually going on inside them. Your reader should know the characters’ inner states by watching their gestures, hearing their silences, and interpreting what they say (not taking it at face value)… just like we do in real life.