Can you paint with...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 19:26:36 EDT

all the colors of the wind? (if you don't know where this comes from, you obviously don't hang around with kids who watch the previews on the videos and sing along with all the songs...coming soon to a video near you, another Disney instant classic rewrite of history!)

however, the phenomenon known as synesthesia

(syn.es.the.sia \.sin-*s-'the--zh(e--}\ \-'thet-ik\ n [NL, fr. syn- + -esthesia (as in anesthesia)] : a concomitant sensation; esp : a subjective sensation or image of a sense (as of color) other than the one (as of sound) being stimulated - syn.es.thet.ic aj)

can be a good one for writers (don't tell your family doctor, they might get all upset when you claim to hear colors or feel smells or hear the fog rustling across the sunset...:-)

so, get your die ready...

roll...

1. see
2. hear
3. smell
4. taste
5. feel
6. perceive

and roll again...

1. colors
2. melodies
3. odors
4. flavors (sweet, sour, bitter, salty?)
5. tactile touch
6. sensations never before experienced...

seeing odors? dig a little deeper and expand on that...maybe you are trying to describe a character or place, and want to remind us that they are really quite unclean...

Jack was ripe, so fragrant that I could see the waves of B.O. rolling off his sweating body and wafting across to strike me in the face like three-week old gym socks...

[well, better exercise next week...]

*thump qwerty asdfg zxcvb... fingertip exercises?*

Mix it up!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: April 14, 1995

Pencil and paper ready? Make two lines.

Die ready? Roll...

1. A character with false dignity
2. A character with an allergy
3. A character with a phobia
4. An overly suspicious individual
5. A liar
6. A showoff

Write down the selection at the beginning of the first line.

Got one? Expand them, make them breath, where did they go to school and where are they now?

Roll again...

1. Searching for someone
2. Trying to give a surprise party
3. Trying to continue a lobe affair
4. Planning a change in career, job or profession
5. Refusing to admit they are sick
6. Trying to get somewhere on time

Write down the selection at the end of the first line.

Okay! This is the goal that imbues them, that drives them right into the waiting grip of our second character...

ROLL!

1. An occult horror
2. A lover
3. A child
4. A sports partner
5. A doctor
6. A spy! or other criminal!

Beginning of the second line, please.

who is struggling to...

ROLL!

1. To achieve success
2. To commit a crime
3. To escape the past
4. To right a wrong
5. To get back home
6. To find a witness

End of the second line.

So,
A character with a phobia, refusing to admit they are sick,
conflicts with
a sports partner who is trying to escape the past.

Put them in a place, fill out the struggle and the climax a bit, and wrap the whole package in words, words, naught but words...

oh, all right, some punctuation here and there, too, I suppose. But the words are the real meat in the pie, don't you think?

when the pie was opened,
the words began to stink,
wasn't that a dirty dish
that made the person think?

(vee-aye-see-aye-tea-i-owe-in...
in the summer pun!
get out the books,
write up the hooks,
pound the keys into a climax...
we're on vacation,
writing every day!:-)