Crunch: The Youths
Writing Exercise #11
Inspired by
’s post at last week, herein lies a dialogue with my past self.If you have ideas for Prompts, Crunches, Sprints, Relays, Stretches, Fables, or other writing exercises in the future, please leave them in the comments! If you would like to write your own take for this exercise, please comment with a link so that I can see what you wrote and support your work, maybe even share your version with my subscribers. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, comments, or constructive criticisms as well!
Enjoy!
Crunch: Write a dialogue with your past self.
“What are you doing?”
“Writing. This is a website called Substack.”
“What’s that, there?”
“That’s my profile picture. It’s a Sacred Heart on a Betsy Ross flag.”
“…that’s boring. Do you call yourself Scoot?”
“Yeah, it’s a joke, see—”
“Also boring. Do people actually read what you write?”
“Yes! Not a lot but more than I ever thought ever would.”
“Did you write that story about—”
“—the spaceships? Yes! I called it Sandbox Earth.”
“You finished it?”
“Yes! I’ve been thinking about it since I was…well, since I was you.”
“Whoa.”
“I know.”
“Do you do anything with dragons?”
“Not really. I’ve got some ideas but I haven’t done dragon-stuff yet.”
“I like dragons. I’ve got a whole binder of ‘em!”
“Ohhh man. I remember that. Every possible drawing of a dragon you could possibly think of is in that binder. How do you keep it from breaking?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I look at ‘em. You know how with Pokémon there’s like energy types and evolutions?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“This is like that but…cooler. You can mix ‘em and you gotta feed ‘em these like…energy things. If you feed ‘em different types they become different dragons.”
“I forgot about that angle. That is cool.”
“Do you still have this binder?”
“No. I threw it out eventually—probably when I moved. Our parents cleaned our room once we left town and got rid of a bunch of stuff. This binder weighs like a thousand pounds—I didn’t want to carry it around.”
“Oh.”
“These ideas never go away though. That’s what’s neat. They live in your head! And until you start writing on Substack—”
“I’ll have a cooler name than Scoot.”
“Well, still waiting on that one. But no one gets to see these stories until you start writing in public. So it’s kind of cool to let them out. Eventually I’ll get to the dragons. I’ll do your ideas justice, I promise.”
“Niiiice. Do you want me to tell you about them all?”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
(342 words )
Talk to me!
Your feedback helps to improve my writing. I would really appreciate a comment on your thoughts on this writing exercise. Consider telling me your thoughts about:
What would you tell your past self if you could?
When was the first time you thought about writing?
What kind of dragon are you?
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!
Have you taken a look at the section called “The Volume” recently? All my longer-form stories are kept there! Be sure to take a look and catch up on any stories you’ve missed!
Thank you and God bless!
I want a dragon story!
Your past self is quite judgemental! 😅