Brainstorm a list of places that are important to you, ones that you have a strong attachment or reaction to. (This can be positive, negative, or some combination.) List as many as you can.

From this list, choose the one you are most interested in. Close your eyes and imagine being in that place. What do you see? hear? smell? taste? What do you notice in the foreground? The distance? Is it hot? cold? damp? windy? rainy? Is there natural sunlight? neon light? a single candle light? What time of day is it? What time of year? Etc.?

5 minutes

List the five senses across the top of a page (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch). Write as many details as you can associated with this place.

5 minutes

Write a list of similes and metaphors associated with these sensory details as you can.

10 minutes

Freewrite about a particular time that you were in this place. What happened? How did the place effect the event or story?

Due next class:

A one-page typewritten (single-spaced) piece describing the place you have just brainstormed about. In your piece, you should put yourself in this place and describe a story or scene. (That is, something some event or action should happen. For example, your piece should not be a generalized description of your grandmother's kitchen. Instead, it could focus on the time that she was teaching you to bake cookies and her cat ran in causing you to drop your spatula into the mixer, resulting in... you get the idea.) Be as descriptive as possible. Try to make your reader feel what it's like to be in this place.