Story Writing Exercise 1
A fat, squat chicken is stuck on a roundabout, sparsely populated with trees and surrounded by several lanes of traffic moving fast, beeping and swerving past in a blur. She appears to be in a panic, and keeps trying to find an appropriate place to cross, but every place she dashes to on the outside of the roundabout is just as unlikely a place to cross as the last spot. Too dangerous. She scratches her head, puzzled and frustrated. What can she do?
A tall, skinny, sly-looking fox is walking along on a street opposite the roundabout, and spots the chicken’s dilema. The fox seems to suddenly think of a cunning plan to somehow get to the chicken, with the likely possibility of eating her for dinner. He licks his lips sloppily, and disappears down a side street. It seems the chicken doesn’t have much time left!
The chicken resorts to clumsily climbing trees and attempting to jump off them and ‘glide’ over the layers of traffic – however, each time the chicken jumps off, she glides down too steeply and this procedure seems futile. The fox appears in a car and circles the roundabout, reaching out and trying to grab the chicken, whose new agenda is to run away from the impending doom. Eventually, the fox manages to grab the chicken round the neck and slurps with glee… However, he doesn’t notice the flashy sports car undertake and swerve in front of him, and this results in a crash! bang! cloud of smoke. The chicken flies out of his hand, high up in the air and lands on the other side of the street – albeit looking a little dazed and confused.
