Unreal made Real Exercise

Instructions

The point of this exercise is to create/invent something on the page that your reader is so sure is real that they’re tempted to Google it.

Invent something (a creature, an event, an interaction, a place) that is patently unreal, that is, something it would be impossible for us to encounter. You must invent this. What you create can't be something that we already KNOW is unreal. In other words, you may not use an unreal trope that already exists (Dracula, werewolf, Frankenstein monster, unicorn, Narnia, Middle Earth, etc. etc etc.) If you are going to invent a new version of a more generic unreal category (ghost, vampire, alien, alien abduction, talking animal, school of magic, magical land below stairs or through a door, etc.), it MUST be really original.

You got a taste of this in the "Not a River of Bees but..." group assignment that you did in class. You may take the same approach here, if you like, combining two real things from our world in such a way that you convince me of something completely impossible.

Even though this exercise is quite short, you should still make something happen! In other words, if you are focusing on a creature, it must act or interact with someone/something; if you are focusing on a place, an event or encounter needs to happen in that place.

I'm going to be quite strict about the formatting requirements for this story. As with your realism story, the formatting should be standard so that it doesn't distract or disrupt the reader's ability to suspend disbelief.

• 2-3 pages double-spaced (500-900 words)
• 1 inch margins, Times New Roman 12 point font
• indent the first line of each paragraph
• Title
• Your name
• page numbers#
• Word file (doc or docx). If you absolutely cannot create or convert to a Word file, speak to me.

Example

E. Nesbit Links to an external site., Five Children and It Links to an external site., pp 12-27. Of course, feel free to read before and after too, but that stretch introduces the children to the Psammead, the "It" of the title. And, yes, I did Google "Psammead" and found that Nesbit had invented this creature.