“We might go places that the reader could never imagine, but he’s willing to follow because we have paved the way with everyday, ordinary experience.” (Walter Mosley, Elements of Fiction)
Writing Exercise: Anchoring the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
Techniques Illustrated by the Quotation:
Grounding the unfamiliar in the familiar: Using concrete, everyday details to make surreal, strange, or heightened narrative events believable. Establishing reader trust through ordinary moments: Building emotional credibility early on through specific, sensory-based observations or actions. Layering: Starting in realism before slipping into abstraction, metaphor, or speculative territory.
500-Word Prompt:
Write a scene in which a character begins the day performing a mundane task—making tea, fixing a broken zipper, trimming a bonsai—but through a subtle shift, the scene bends into the uncanny, surreal, or symbolic. Do not signal this shift with exposition or overt narration. Let the transformation emerge naturally from within the reality you’ve established. The emotional tone should evolve alongside the narrative, pulling the reader from comfort into curiosity or awe without breaking the illusion.
Focus on the sensory precision of the ordinary. Let the transformation feel inevitable rather than abrupt. By the end of the scene, something fundamental about the character’s perception or circumstance must have changed, though no one else may have noticed.
Evaluation Criteria:
The first 200 words establish a textured, lived-in world with concrete, ordinary detail. The turn into the surreal is grounded, subtle, and emotionally resonant—not decorative or confusing. The character’s internal experience deepens in tandem with the external shift. The language remains consistent in tone, avoiding jarring stylistic leaps. The final image leaves a lingering emotional or thematic impression.
Strong Response Example:
A man sharpens pencils before a Zoom call. He notices the shavings begin to resemble curled woodwind reeds. The pencils no longer write but hum softly when touched. He finishes his task. The call begins. His boss’s voice emerges in clarinet tones. No one acknowledges the change. He accepts it. His sense of isolation lessens.
Weak Response Example:
A woman drinks tea. Suddenly, she’s floating. The world is a dream. Her cat talks to her. It’s all very confusing. She wakes up. It was a dream. (This fails to establish stakes, relies on cliché, and detaches from emotional continuity.)
Follow-Up Questions for Workshopping/Revision:
At what moment does the scene begin to shift? Can you make the transition more seamless or earned? How does the character’s emotional state reflect or resist the strangeness entering the scene? Is the surreal element symbolic, and if so, does that symbolism arise from the character’s situation or remain external? Are the ordinary details precise enough to make the reader feel grounded before the shift?
Recommended Reading:
Excerpt from “Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar
Cortázar starts with a man visiting the aquarium, observing axolotls. Through subtle narrative layering, he becomes the axolotl. The transition is fluid, haunting, and psychologically grounded. It exemplifies how the surreal becomes inevitable when tethered to the ordinary.
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