writing exercises

1/26/09 writing exercise 3-completed

I remember the last time that my pretty pink RAZR worked properly.

I used it to text a friend from the gas station on Sunday,

And minutes later, the screen died.

I was able to revive it momentarily, enough to receive an occasional text message,

But alas, come Monday, the screen was blank and lifeless:

Blacking out after each text received and each one sent.

And that’s when I ventured to the local T-mobile retailer,

To find that my RAZR was dead.

 

My RAZR had a happy life, for a cell phone.

It was by far my favorite phone to date,

Despite it being of the flip variety.

The bright pink color allowed me to find it quickly in my purse

Or to spot it from across a cluttered room.

It was girly and no man would ever wish to take a call on it.

Yes, it was only a phone, but it was such a little statement of me.

So I will take a small  moment and mourn my little pink phone.

 

writing exercise 4: Person, Place and Song

01/23/09

The Exercise
Write a short piece of fiction – about a thousand words. It may be a complete short story and it may be the beginning of a longer piece. but it starts as follows:

The first time I (or Name) heard SPECIFIC SONG TITLE by SPECIFIC ARTIST OR GROUP, I (or Name) was down/up/over at PLACE and we were doing ACTION.

The Objective
To begin a story simply and specifically. Nothing grand, just close evidence that may lead somewhere. Solve your problems through physical detail.

writing exercise 3: Writing Line by Line

01/23/09

A friend of mine is  part of a prompt community, and every week they get a phrase that they have to use in a piece– a poem, an essay, a story, etc.

This week’s phrase is: “last time I saw…”

You have to use this phrase in your piece, anywhere. It can be any length. Any genre.

01/23/09: writing exercise 2 completed

Finally have this assignment done…so much for it only taking a week.

Their wedding day had always seemed more like yet another business transaction in their life than the celebration of marriage.  In fact, they often jokingly referred to it as the merger of the families: his children and hers, rather than the day that they were wed.  But in every joke there is a kernel of truth and that is what makes it so humorous to us.  Everyone kiddingly called them the Brady Bunch, but in that show that was so popular when the children were young, at least Mike and Carol enjoyed each other’s company.

 

She had gone into it with very few expectations.  She simply needed someone to provide monetarily for her children and upon finalization of “the merger”, that included all of the children, both those that were biologically her own and those that were not.  She cared not that he was often gone for weeks on end for business trips.  She cared not that she found receipts in his jacket pockets for places of ill repute.  She cared not that he often made eyes at her friends when they attended social gatherings or that he goosed his secretary every time she passed.

 

He often missed birthdays, minor holidays, recitals, performances, and games; but he always provided the instruments, the costumes, and the uniforms without batting an eye. 

 

No, their agreement was that she would raise his children and that he would provide the finances to raise all of the children.  It wasn’t much more than that really. 

 

It never had been.

 

It was never expected to be.

 

As she then looked around at her six grown children with their families and glanced at the fading wedding photo full of young smiling faces which was propped up near the coffin, she realized that he had kept the only promise he had made to her. 

 

She realized that he had kept his side of the bargain to the letter and she had never told him how much she appreciated that.  She thought how she hoped that he had felt the same for her. 

 

And finally, she was able to shed a tear for her husband of nearly forty years, and wished desperately that she had known him better.

writing exercise 2:

01/06/09

The Instruction:

Today’s exercise is called The Wedding Picture. Paste yours, your parents, your grandparents, or a stock wedding photo and write a one page fiction inspired by it.

writing exercise 1:

12/28/08

1. Surely it was not him sitting in the poorly lit corner of my favorite hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant: I had driven nearly 1,500 miles to escape him, telling no one where I was going.
2. Had the night not been so windy, had I not had the fire so low as to allow for a slight downdraft from the chimney, had I not chosen the short pink candle by which to read rather than a heartier stock one, my light would not have faltered and I would not have noticed her there, staring at with the affection that only a mother has for her child.
3. The children had not expected this: a merry-go-round in their own backyard.
4. I felt as though all that is uniquely me hung in the balance as our family and friends awaited those two little words from me.
5. It was the usual family drama, only this time, I somehow found myself unengaged and uninterested.
6.  I had never thought of the snowy streets of New York City as breathtaking until that moment, but with the silver sparkle perpetuated by the full moon, I could not help but be in awe.
7. Chicago had never been my favorite city and I could not for the life of me figure out why I had agreed to come back.
8.  She wiped the condensation from the window with her fur-trimmed hoodie and strained to find her parents’ sad faces in the throng of people that crowded the train platform.
9. The calendar said that it was her birthday, but she didn’t feel any older as she donned her running shoes and slung her long red hair into a functional ponytail.
10. She could see her breath in the cool, crisp morning air and although she knew it was her turn to build the campfire, she retreated further into her giant sleeping bag and was struck by how much it seemed like a sarcophagus.
11. She jumped back as though the computer mouse was covered in acid.
12. The cave-like domed glow of the fluorescent lights was as harsh as ever, but somehow, she managed to look ravishing despite the greenish cast that they imparted to all other objects.

writing assignment 1 : beginning in the middle

12/27/08

(my words, paraphrased, just in case there are infringements on copyrights)

We are to consider how story opening lines relate to the center of the story: how they are telling a story mid-stream, how they pull the reader in immediately and engage them.  Some beginnings incorporate important characters, goegraphy, setting, class, education, potential conflice, etc. 

The objective of “this exercise is to get into the habit of beginning your stories in the middle of things. Because you are not obligated to finish these stories, this exercise lowers the emotional stakes and helps to shake up and surprise the imagination.”

 

writing exercise introduction

12/27

Some girlfriends and I are working on writing exercises to enhance fictional writing.  I liked the idea of expanding my horizons, as I write technical papers all day at the office and write this non-fiction blog by night, so fiction will be a nice change.   It is loosely based on the book  “What If? Writing exercises for Fiction Writers”

It appears that I cannot write normal posts to anything but my first/main page, so I need to have a different hierarchy for this writing exercise page.  I think that I will title and date in bold to indicate the beginning of a new “post”.  I will add new “posts” to the TOP of the page which means, that basically, this page will be in the same newest to oldest format as my main page. 

This is really just a page for me to keep up on my writing exercises and not meant for anyone to really follow, other than possibly, the other women participating in the exerise with me.