Writing a variation

Here's the snippet from Gone again:

One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone.

There.
Gone.

No “poof.” No flash of light. No explosion.

Gone(2008)

To write your own version:

Open with a normal, almost boring activity.
Introduce a fantastic, sudden event.
Summarise the event for dramatic effect.
Then expand with a couple of small details.

It doesn't have to be great; just see if you can follow the beats in the pattern. You can keep it really simple, just like Gone.

Tip: If you're having trouble thinking of an event, simply look around you, pick one basic property of the world, and then change it completely and describe the consequences.

Write your variation here.

SAVING AND SUBMITTING WORK

If you need to leave part-way through writing a variation, Writelike will save your work so you can come back to it later. Try it now, if you like—close this page and come back; your writing should still be there.

Writing saved in this way hasn't been submitted to your class yet. Your teacher and classmates won't be able to see it, and it won't count towards completing the lesson. When you're ready to submit, click Complete page. (Don't see the Complete page button? Check that you're logged into your student account!)

If you're expecting to see a saved response and there isn't one, make sure you're using the same browser—if you've switched computers, or been working in an incognito window, your work won't be saved.

If you think you'll be switching browsers between working on a variation, click Complete page, even if you're not finished. You can still edit submitted responses.

So now you've written a variation. How do you feel about what you wrote?

Hopefully you're happy, maybe even surprised at what came out.

Hang on to that feeling, because we're not done with this little piece of writing.

But before we do anything else, we need to show you how highlighters work in their interactive mode.

How to Writelike

Writing a variation