| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: Through the dim rose light he could barely perceive his young
wife. She was lying white and apparently lifeless on her
pillows. He moved cautiously toward the bed, but Aggie raised a
warning finger. Afraid to speak, he grasped Aggie's hand and
searched her face for reassurance; she nodded toward Zoie, whose
eyes were closed. He tiptoed to the bedside, sank on his knees
and reverently kissed the small hand that hung limply across the
side of the bed.
To Alfred's intense surprise, his lips had barely touched Zoie's
fingertips when he felt his head seized in a frantic embrace.
"Alfred, Alfred!" cried Zoie in delight; then she smothered his
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: property employed shall bear to it a near relation of congruity or
contrast; avoid a sub-plot, unless, as sometimes in Shakespeare,
the sub-plot be a reversion or complement of the main intrigue;
suffer not his style to flag below the level of the argument; pitch
the key of conversation, not with any thought of how men talk in
parlours, but with a single eye to the degree of passion he may be
called on to express; and allow neither himself in the narrative
nor any character in the course of the dialogue, to utter one
sentence that is not part and parcel of the business of the story
or the discussion of the problem involved. Let him not regret if
this shortens his book; it will be better so; for to add irrelevant
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: of milk on his first journey. The sight of the smoke rising above the
hovel where the charity-children were being brought up recalled vivid
memories of Benassis and of his kindness of heart. The officer made up
his mind to call there. He would give some alms to the poor woman for
his dead friend's sake. He tied his horse to a tree, and opened the
door of the hut without knocking.
"Good-day, mother," he said, addressing the old woman, who was sitting
by the fire with the little ones crouching at her side. "Do you
remember me?"
"Oh! quite well, sir! You came here one fine morning last spring and
gave us two crowns."
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