The Middle | DI Week 4 - Post 2

The Middle is a creative exercise found in the book "Creative Boot Camp" by Stefan Mumaw.

Stefan said that a story is a powerful communication vehicle because it's universally understood. The flow of the story is known so well that you can often predict the outcome of a story before it's revealed. But what happens when that story isn't linear and you're left with the task of filling in the missing pieces? Let's find out.

Instructions: Get with your partner. Together you are tasked with writing a story from the middle. You're given the beginning and the end. The two of you only have three sentences with which to connect the beginning of the story with the end in five minutes.

Beginning

A man woke up in the center median of a busy highway unable to remember how he got there. He was holding an authentic eighteenth-century Spanish sword in one hand and an empty bottle of fabric softener in the other.

Middle

Starting to get flashbacks of the historic-themed party he attended and a failed shopping stop, he gets on his feet. He finds himself in front of an exotic pet shop where a young woman gets out with a pet chicken on her shoulder. He tries to touch the chicken but the woman hits him with her heavy purse and the chicken falls to the floor.

End

Dazed, he picked up the chicken, apologized to the young woman, and rode away.

AI Image made with Microsoft Bing Image Creator

This particular exercise was a bit difficult for me, I couldn't think fast about how to fill in the middle of the story, it took me more than five minutes but I completed it.