Exercise Wednesday: Road Trip!

Ever get the urge to just jump in the car and take off? (If the answer’s not yes, you are a liar.)

It may be uniquely American–particularly in summer, but the lure of the open road is powerful, even in the time of three-dollar gasoline. There’s a certain freedom associated with the open highway, where there’s no traffic jams, a pleasant breeze, and just an open future from here to the horizon. Maybe it stems back from the pioneer spirit, when people abandoned their eastern lives for the promise of wide-open west. (Of course, the problems then were far more serious than long stretches of road with no radio or cell service.) 

Today’s exercise is to write a passage in which a character contemplates or decides to take a road trip.

Is it a planned roadtrip, or spontaneous? Is the character running away from something, running toward something, or both? What do they eat (or plan to eat)? Where do they sleep (or plan to sleep)? How are they going? Who’s going with them and what else is coming? Are they moving? Going away to college for the first time? Evading capture? Headed for a new job?

Time limit: 25 minutes

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