The Lake Assignment

ENG3U - The Lake

The EASY PART: Describe a lake from the point of view of someone who has just committed murder. Your lake can be any lake, in any season, seen from any perspective.

THE HARD PART! You may not mention the murder, nor refer to yourself in any way. If you use the words me, my, I or mine, you fail the assignment.  This is hard.

Length: Two sides of one page double spaced MAX.

Lookfors: a consistent point of view, evocative and effective diction, subtlety and focus. Consistent tone. There are many reasons why your protagonist may have killed someone. What is his/her frame of mind?

Focus. Do not have 12 hours lapse in your approximately 500 words. Focus your time - better to have only a few minutes pass.

Focus (again.) Do not flit about describing everything within a five mile radius! Focus. Look out of eyes as one would look through a camera. Pan left or right, zoom in or out...

The two POV choices include FIXED (never moving - the lake from a clifftop...) or MOVING (consistent motion of say, someone crossing the lake in a canoe.)

Avoid plot! We are natural storytellers and you will feel compelled to write a beginning, middle and end, with the murder somewhere in there. Don't! Just give me a slice of the middle - pure description. Do not end with sirens wailing. Do not end with your protagonist walking into the water to commit suicide! 

Avoid cliché. A blood red sky? Stiletto-like waves? Avoid the hackneyed, easy phrases and strive for originality.

Do strive for objects loaded with meaning. (e.g. two large trees bearing down on your POV character like judges.)

Your lake can be frozen, filled with people, barren. Avoid dialogue. Avoid flashbacks. DON'T TELL A STORY. SIMPLY DESCRIBE. Be creative.