This challenge is based on something one of my personal writing heroes Jeff Vandermeer posted on his blog at some point. It was part of a series of writing exercises, at least I think there were a couple of them. Anyway I’m not going back to look for the post, you get the idea.

The idea was this, and this challenge will proceed as follows:

1) Find a favorite scene or short section of a favorite book.

2) Read through it very carefully.

3) Write it out verbatim, either long hand or typed word for word into your favorite word processing gadget. Make sure to copy it exactly.

4) Without looking at the copy you made, write a ficly of the scene in your own words taking care to get the feeling and mood as close to the original as you can.

For this you’ll want to take care to make it your own scene, changing names and places perhaps to avoid any imperial copyright entanglements. Maybe pick something that’s already in the Public Domain, Gutenberg is full of good stuff.

Have at it!