craigmcn

I attended a writing workshop with Yvette Nolan on the weekend and one of the exercises was to write about a place. Here’s what I came up with:

Another day’s ride got him to another grey town. Sometimes he thought he could be riding in circles. The general store, the livery stable, the hotel (the only two-storey building in town), the blacksmith, the saloon and its batwing doors, invariably with some drunk stumbling through, sometimes in, but usually out. Wagons on the road, horses and mules tied up, filthy children moving about, maybe playing, maybe just causing trouble.

And in the desert, under the broiling sun, baking the ground, dust. Dust everywhere, on everything. Every shaft of light visible by the dust floating in it.

Unfortunately, having already written it, I can no longer use it for NaNoWriMo, but I’ll probably work a similar idea in.

Photo: OLD COWBOY TOWN by ERICINWALES, on Flickr