Part Two: In a paragraph or so, describe an action, or a person feeling strong emotion—joy, fear, grief. Try to make the rhythm and movement of the sentences embody or represent the physical reality you’re writing about.

It is the same every time. There’s the feeling in your stomach, your gut, the kind that you punch a torch down and the light keeps going forever, down, down and falling, that trick where you can’t see the light but you can see the darkness. And then there are your hands, which aren’t shaking, no, not so much, but you have heard that other people, their hands shake. Lips, your lips are dry so you lick them, but that’s worse, it’s not going to make it better. So you look again and page through the slides and your knees are bouncing, bouncing, bouncing and you’re not the kind of person who swallows right now but it’s what someone would do if they felt like you. And when you page through, space, space, space, your fingers are nervous, not dancing, they’re stumbling and staggering, hardly in control like a nervous tic scrolling up and down and up and down and you look up and over at the monitor and you hear the applause out front and the runner hands you your water as you stand and what do they say, oh right can’t stop it now it’s happening anyway and you walk toward the light and-