1) (3 pages) Choose a photograph that affects you in a powerful way emotionally, that brings up strong positive or negative feelings. Write about it in two ways:
– Write the facts. What can you KNOW by looking at the photograph?
– What can you imagine that is not clear in the photograph? Make up a story about what you imagine is going on in the picture; the background, location, people, weather, etc.

2) Describe an event or action you are fairly sure you will never experience firsthand. Use the first person (“I”) and be very specific–the more details you incorporate the more likely it is that your reader will believe you. Include your feelings and reactions. (1 page)

3) Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it. It could be a corner of your bedroom, an old tree you sat under one whole summer, a table at McDonald’s in your neighborhood, a place by a river. What colors are there, sounds, smells? When someone else reads it, she should know what it is like to be there. She should feel how you love it, not by your saying you love it, but by your handling of the detail. (300 pages)

4) Find 5 stories from a newspaper, popular magazine, or tabloid that seem to you to form–either partially or wholly–the basis for a story. Briefly list what each story is early in your writing practice for this assignment. 
Next, sketch out, free-write, or outline a story based on one of them that captures your imagination. Indicate where the story begins, who the main characters are, what the general tone or mood will be (dark or comic, etc.), and from whose point of view you would tell the story.
Often, these newspaper accounts will be the “end” of the story and you will have to fill in the events leading up to the more dramatic event that made the news that day. Or perhaps the story leads you to ask what is going to happen to the person now. (1 page)