Hi there,

I don't want to pretend that I am with @freewritehouse because I wanted to help people from Guatemala, Congo or Indonesia. I don't mind if it would come to it, for, like any other sane person, I'd like more even distribution of production and consumption around the World and thus wishing for financial wealth spreading more evenly among poor and suffering people. Yet my incentive reason for joining the club was different.

By trade, I am a programmer and in lieu of this occupation, I am pretty much left to my own devices all-day studying guidelines, defining the business models and writing code. Then you come home, meet your family, and once in a blue moon meet other people at a party. Not much interpersonal communication, not much opportunity to find out what other people, who live next to me think, feel and what is their spiritual essence.

Therefore in writing, you are secluded and trapped by your experience (mine is very specific as I am an immigrant) and have no idea what goes through the minds of your fellow countryman or for that matter other people in the World.

Thus, "finish the story" exercise offers you a benevolent opportunity to expand your circle of topics, find out what other people think and how they go about fitting in the offered situation framework. The prompt sort of throws you in the river and you either have to swim and sink.

Another advantage of the "finish the story" is that you are given the backbone of a character. Unlike the situation when you have to come up with your own characters, you don't have to spill all your guts on the "paper" so everyone can see and secretly laugh at you. ))) You as if are jumping on already moving bandwagon. All you have to do is replace the coachman and know how to drive horses.