Exercise - February 15 2012 - Troll Sole

Current Exercise for 2-15-2012

"What can you learn from feet? If you're interested in character (or even in plotting), it could be a lot.

Either do a real life observation, or (if you're already engaged in a long prose narrative project like a novel or a memoir), remember or imagine that you or your main character or someone else is looking at some feet. This might be in a waiting room, or from the perspective of being tied up and gagged on the floor, or working a shoe salesperson. Think up a situation where someone is observing feet, and describe them in detail, including shoes if appropriate, pants cuffs-- right up the ankle or a little above. Describe first, then speculate or look for clues.Where could this take you?"

My wife requested to hear more about Dak, so I'll probably do something from his perspective today. Here goes:

Exercise ??? - First Draft

Troll Sole

Slowly, the great blur that was Dak's vision began to coalesce in to something more definable. He could tell that he was very close to...something. He blinked his eyes a few times trying to clear his vision. After a few moments he could begin to make out more details of what he could now tell was a foot and a rather large one at that. He crinkled his nose as the smell of the foot wafted in. There was nothing particularly remarkable about this foot. The sole of the foot looked like a single giant callous. It seemed more like a piece of leather tacked on to the bottom of the foot than actual skin. It was pitted and cracked and was probably thick enough to take a nail without even being noticeable. The toes weren't much better. Gnarled and stunted, they looked more like chopped off roots of a tree than actual toes. The nails looked hard and brittle, probably housing more than a few strains of fungi in their time. The skin on top of the foot was hardly better. Deeply tanned and dry it was doubtful that this foot had ever in its life been in a shoe. Scars crisscrossed his feet, some of them old and barely noticeable and some that looked to have barely healed over. The skin became more grayish near the ankle and coarse hairs sprouted at all angles.

He didn't dare look up. A troll...just great. There was a sound of rummaging through a sack and he knew it was pointless to hope it wasn't his. He jumped slightly when the strangely shaped tin he'd found in the abandoned shop fell to the ground in his view and clattered around for a few seconds before coming to rest. His heart pounding and his mind racing he wondered how he was going to get out of this situation.