EXERCISE: she said quietly...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 02:27:30 -0500

"Don't light that gasoline," she said quietly.

There you go.  Take that line.  Who is she?  Who is she talking to?  Where is the gasoline?  Why are they going to light it (or not light it!)?

Build those characters, fill in that scene, shore up the plot, and (at the very least), write the next paragraph.

If you want to go ahead and write the whole tale of woe, comedy, or whatever, feel free to do so.

(WOW!  Did you really write that?  Oh, you should go on and finish...;-)

[Poets may feel empowered to take the gist of the point and embellish it.  Essay writers may prefer to pontificate on their own versions of the concept.  Etc., etc., etcetera, as Yul Brenner said.]

EXERCISE: Simile, Metaphor...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 21:00:00 -0400

A good simile is tinder for the mind, and a fine metaphor is like aloe for the heart.

Snicker.  With a bit of cross-dressing for the words, let's consider those fine comparisons.

The bonfire of the id, the lotion of the soul?

Go ahead and sketch some of those thoughts out on the blank page for us, eh?

EXERCISE: Slashes of the Pen

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 08:45:34 -0400

You've walked into a bookstore (your choice as to whether it's one of those supermarkets of intellectual pursuits or a more intimate bookstore that actually seems to know something about the the tomes on the shelving).

Sitting right there in front of you, practically begging to be picked up and bought, is a new issue of "Slashes of the Pen."

Tell us a little about the book jacket?  What's the back page got on it? How about the first paragraph of this little work?

Go ahead, tell us about the writing under that title, "Slashes of the Pen."  Is it fiction, poetry, non-fiction?  Hardback, paperback, or something else?

If you want to, go ahead and write a poem/short story/flash of fictions under that title.

Write!