Ref: Pages 24 and 25 of the text by Robert Olmstead.

1. Make a list of ten times when your mind is not paying attention to itself.

Daydreaming
Staring off into space
Walking along the street
Petting the dog
Sipping coffee
Drumming fingers
Twirling hair
Pulling weeds
Shining boots
Sweeping the floor

2. Write a paragraph in which you give one of these activities to a character. Now bring her out of her quiet with an opposite action accompanied by the idea she’s been waiting for.
Cyrdwynn knelt in the dirt and pulled weeds from Mayor Hugh’s garden. The morning was still cool and the vegetable rows were wet with dew. Then the answer came sharply to her, like a thorn in the thumb. She jumped to her feet and stared down the road leaving town.

3. Now create a new paragraph in which you give your character an unaffected companion.
“Stymie, tonight I’m going to march off with that rabble of pikes into the dark, down the road away from town, away from Hugh’s farm, and leave you here to pick weeds and kick rocks.” Stymie stretched and opened his mouth to meow but couldn’t be bothered to usher the sound. “She said I can’t join the company.” Cyrdwynn shielded her eyes from the rising sun and bounced the balls of her feet. “But they can’t stop me from following them.” Stymie rolled over onto his back and sneezed. “She won’t leave me behind.”

Cyrdwynn knelt in the dirt and pulled weeds from Mayor Hugh’s garden. The morning was still cool, and the vegetable rows were wet with dew. Then the answer came sharply to her, like a thorn in the thumb. She jumped to her feet and stared down the road leaving town.

“Stymie, tonight I’m going to march off with that rabble of pikes into the dark, down the road away from town, away from Hugh’s farm, and leave you here to pick weeds and kick rocks.” Stymie flicked his tail and opened his mouth to meow but couldn’t be bothered to usher the sound. “She said I couldn’t join the company.” Cyrdwynn shielded her eyes from the rising sun and bounced the balls of her feet. “But they can’t stop me from following them.” Stymie rolled over onto his back and sneezed. “She can’t leave me behind.”