Stretch: The Dragon
Writing Exercise #3
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Enjoy!
Stretch: Write about a dragon, but like, make them interesting
The captain looks at the distant storm clouds and shudders, that chill that rides up from his tailbone to his neck, causing an involuntary shiver.
“What is it, Cap’n?”
He closes his eyes, and remembers…
= = =
The Old Wizard sprawled a big map out over two tables he had forced together.
“Just a moment, just a moment,” The Old Wizard had said, pulling some glass lens out from a shamble of shelves and lab equipment. The captain could hardly step anywhere in this room without tripping over some pile of books or a flask with an exotic looking colored liquid.
“Here! Take a look.” The old wizard handed the captain the lens.
“What am I looking at, old man?” the captain had said.
“This, my boy, is a map of the world. If you’re going on an expedition you’ll need to know it.”
“If it’s already on a map it’s precisely what I don’t need. I’m going off the edge of the world!”
“Perhaps you hadn’t noticed…” The old man had pushed the lens over a more empty part of the map. It said, Here there be dragons, and had an almost comical drawing of some serpent.
“You don’t expect me to believe in dragons, do you?”
“Oh, I most certainly do! If you’re going off the map, you need to know about them.”
“What do I need to know?”
“That we know almost nothing about them.”
“How is that supposed to help?”
“It’s, uh, well, I see how it doesn’t. But knowing what you don’t know is the first step to learning what you don’t know, so you start to know what you know and don’t know what you d—”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Now see here. Is it any wonder we don’t know about dragons? They thrive in the unknown! They don’t just live in the mystery, they are the mystery. The more we discover, the fewer dragons there are.”
“And what do you want me to do if I encounter one?”
“Hope it doesn’t notice you!”
“And if it does?”
The old wizard had paused, and looked the captain dead in the eyes. He said, quietly: “Hang on.”
= = =
The captain looks back at the mass of clouds, the darkness beneath, the flash of lightning and thunder. He thinks he sees the massive beating of giant wings within the clouds.
“Captain? What do you see?”
“A dragon.” Thunder rumbled over the ship, from the distant storm.
“What do we do?”
The captain turns, and looks his first mate dead in the eyes. He says, quietly: “Hang on.”
(436 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:
Do you find dragons interesting or tropey?
Do you like watching storms?
What’s your favorite stormy-day comfort food and/or drink?
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! Come back next week for another writing exercise!
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Thank you and God bless!
1. Interesting, depending. Mushu in Mulan, hilarious. Smaug in The Hobbit, awesome. I haven't seen the Hobbit movies so I wouldn't know about that one.
2. I do, if I'm safe. Rain on the window, lightning in the distance, oh, that's fun. When the power goes out and you're worried about tornadoes, not so fun.
3. Mountain Dew and ice cream. I'm a simple guy with simple pleasures. :)
I'm generally put off by dragons in any story now. It was all fine and good in ASOIAF, but it's just become mega tropey, especially the notion of riding them. I was mildly curious about what all the fuss was about Fourth Wing, but then after a few pages, nope. I slogged through Priory of the Orange Tree, which had some merits, but the beginning trials for Tané felt pretty cringe due to just peddling tropes. I'm probably an outlier for generally disliking that book.