Let's write!

Today's challenge is action, specifically action designed to lead the reader in a certain direction.

Write a couple of paragraphs describing someone doing something, in third-person. No dialogue. Just describe what they're doing so that the reader can picture it. Don't say what they're doing, as in "The two boys played basketball", but described how they're doing it, as in "Tom jerked left, then shot to the right as Roy followed his feint, dribbling the ball far ahead." Notice there's no mention of basketball in the second example.

The thing is, think about the purpose of the scene in the larger story and write it so that it serves that purpose. For example:

You're writing about a girl drawing under a tree on the banks of a stream. What's going to happen in this story?

If your story is about the girl herself, you might describe what she looks like as she's drawing. "Terry gazed at the distant mountains, studying the forest line as met the visible slope. Her brow creased as she bit her lip, then she dropped her sky blue pencil back in the box and slipped out her favorite ultramarine blue."

If your story is about her talent as an artist or perhaps even about the drawing itself, you might describe her drawing the picture. "Over the faint marks outlining the huge oak, she scribbled a great cloud of kelly green foliage over an umber trunk and glimpses of branches, then provided it gravitas with shading of deep green and cool gray."

Or, maybe your story is about what's going to float down the river in ten minutes - a basket, or I suppose if it's Doctor Who, a dead body, or the water turns purple or dries up completely. Then you'd probably want to describe the stream more than the girl. "Setting her pencils and artboard aside for a moment, Terry watched the stream as it flowed past, the splashes of water as it hit larger rocks glittering in the sunlight.

Basically, think about your scene in the larger context of your story and adapt it to match its purposes.