Writing Exercise Wednesday #5 + Thursday Result

Welcome to WEW #5 on this Leap Day of 2012.  Let's get to it!


Prompt:  Earthnut, full-blood, igloo, sashay

Result:

“To survive in an igloo,” Portia began her book report, “one must be a full-blood earthnut. Which means,” she said staring down the new student Turk Moran (who she called Turk Moron), “blood thick enough to live in the earth. Which is what an igloo is – frozen earth. For more information, please see my bibliography. A bibliography is…”

“Thank you, Portia, we all know what a bibliography is. You may be seated,” Mr. Brown instructed.

Portia closed her fuchsia folder with rainbow and butterfly stickers and sashayed down the aisle back to her desk.

Turk, being the newest kid in Buzz Aldrin Middle School, and being a polite young man from Texas, smiled the biggest, white-toothed grin at Portia.

Portia flounced her ringlets, rolled her eyes and looked away from Turk before he could tip his imaginary hat.

Writing Exercise Wednesday #4 + Thursday Result and Happy Birthday to Me!

WEW #4

Prompt: Metaphor as a thing. Where would your heart be, what would you see?

As an example, I did three exercises with this and was a coffee table book, a table of contents, and a painting. I’ll post my painting result tomorrow. Have fun!!!

Result: I am happy to post on my birthday and look forward to a bday lunch and dinner!

I am a painting. My frame is my bone structure. My heart was given to me by my artist. The many splashes of color, royal blue, deep red, bright yellow and orange, are my many moods. Thankfully, there isn’t too much black on me – you don’t want to be around me then.

I see you looking at me, studying, smiling. I like it when people smile at me. With the lighting just right, I look better and so do you. My lines are like an English country road – such a beautiful journey to take – you never know what you’ll find and see for the first time. Or trail along a familiar brush stroke. Some things are worth looking at again and again.

Don’t stay away too long. I like to see your smile.

Book Review: Blink and Caution

My first guest blogger is Lynn Becker! She is my friend and book reviewer extraordinaire.

Blink and Caution, by Tim Wynne-Jones, is an ambitious, captivating young adult novel. The writing and structure are pretty complex, but the mystery is compelling and accessible, providing a strong hook to keep the reader engaged. 

There are two main characters, whose stories are told in different voices, with different POVs. The character named Caution is narrated in third person present tense, as in "She sniffs, rubs her nose with the cuff of her jacket," which has become pretty common in YA fiction in the last few years. It provides immediacy and tension, as the reader feels like s/he is experiencing the story along with the character. The second character, Blink, however, uses the much rarer second person present tense, as in "You're uptown and hungry." This is pretty experimental. In addition to providing a clear way to distinguish between the two voices, I think this second person present tense brings a lot more tension to the story--it's a very active voice. 

The novel is gritty, but it's also incredibly human, and real, and earnest. Plot-wise, we are in Toronto, where Blink is living on the streets, foraging for breakfast in fancy hotels, when he finds himself caught up in a high profile kidnapping case. Caution is also on the streets, having escaped from her drug-dealing boyfriend, but clearly still on the run--from the boyfriend as well as a terrible secret in her past. How these two cross paths and form an alliance forms the basis of this powerful and, ultimately, sweet story.

It's a dense read, but if you can find the time, it's highly worthwhile.  It also won The Horn Book Award for Fiction. And he's Canadian. (last bit added by Angela)

Lynn Becker

www.lynnbeckerbooks.com

WEW #3! + Thursday Result

Welcome again to Writing Exercise Wednesday. When I was in a previous writing group, we always did some writing before critiquing. One of our favorite ways of creating an exercise was to take the dictionary, pass it around and each person would pick one word from different parts of the dictionary.  Sometimes we'd try to make sure we picked good words and sometimes just went with whatever was landed on. Always interesting and fun.  So here we go!

Prompt:

Sneak, jiggle, true, cape

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Result:

True to form, my brother the sneak, decided to see if my hamster could fly.  Or at least, float.  I found out by accident.  He was looking guilty with shifty eyes and a smirk, so I followed him to his room. I peeked through his almost shut door and found Moby dick’s cage on Samuel’s dresser.  Sam was bent over something, working.  I leaned in and hit the doorknob with my forehead.  It creaked open and Sam turned around, eyes wide and mouth drooping. 

“Becca!” he yelled. He pulled me inside, shutting the door behind me.

I squinted for effect. “What are you doing?”

“Moby Dick is going to go where no hamster has gone before.”  He held up a red cape, which was more like a parachute, grabbed Moby Dick and tried to jiggle the little harness over his squishy body.

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to check out the other exercises and the results posted by people who participated. They're great.  Monday I'll post a book review too.
Angela

Writing Exercise Wednesday #2 + Thursday Result

I've been thinking about what to call these Wednesdays.  Maybe WEW - as in Whoo! we're doing a writing exercise.  Or WE Wednesday - as in we the writing community or we're doing it together or we're taking time for our writing selves.  WEW might just be easier and mean all that anyway.  And it's fun!  Which is the point.  So, here is today's exercise.  Enjoy.

Prompt:

Choose a quote and begin.

“There are names for what binds us…” (Jane Hirshfield)

“If you do not come too close…” (T.S. Eliot)

“No one owns the old road…” (Larry Laurence)

“What a long, strange trip it’s been…” (Jerry Garcia)

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Result:

If you do not come too close, I will not smell you. If I do not smell you, I will not eat you. And I do so want us to be friends! Perhaps I can wear a mask like a doctor. No, it won’t fit over my whiskers. Perhaps we can dip you in perfume. No, then you’ll be too stinky for my delicate nose. Perhaps your scent will wear off – or maybe – I’ll get use to it. No? No. Then I guess we won’t be friends. I will give you a head start running as I count to five. You can probably make it to your hole by then. But after that – watch out!

Angela

Writing Exercise Wednesday #1 + Thursday Result

Seems like a good day to have a writing exercise pop up!
In this exercise, there are a list of names first and then a list of adjectives. You can use as many of either as you want. Just see what kind of fun sentences flow through your mind and jot them down.  I'll post mine tomorrow in this same post after the prompt.  Feel free to share - and definitely have fun!

Alex, Earl, Rosa, Joanne, Carlotta, Grace

joyful, bitter, inventive, bloodthirsty, wiggly, busy


Here is what I ended up with:

Carlotta was a busy inventor. She never ceased to amaze the town’s folk with her creations. Whenever someone had a problem, they brought it to Carlotta to solve.

One invention was for her bloodthirsty rival – Earl.  She managed to shut him up permanently.  By accident.

If I were to rewrite, I might make the first line: Carlotta was a problem solver.

No genre is attached to this result but it could be anything right now. If you have a specific genre in mind when going into an exercise, you can let your imagination flow in whatever direction you want.  If you have any sentences to share, feel free!