EXERCISE: My little town

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Original posting: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 20:53:00 -0400

At 06:53 AM 6/28/2001 -0700, TheWonderfullRabb wrote:

I have tried to instill in her the values I was brought up with. Respect your elders, do not interrupt, thou shalt not steal, lie or cheat, stay out of trouble, walk away from a fight, think for yourself and respect yourself and body.

Okay...

So, here's the thought.  Take a set of values (such as those above).  Take another set (wildly different or just a little tweak here and there).

Consider these as characters.  Put them into a situation, and rub well.  See if the friction causes flames, smoke, or just noise.

I.e., suppose one person holds "Respect your elders" as a core value, while another believes that the elders should be quickly disabused of any expectation of respect for aging (or perhaps simply believes that only the young really deserve respect, old folks just waited longer :-)  Now put them in the situation of taking care of their invalid mothers in a hospital, perhaps with the old moms in side-by-side beds?

Something to play with, eh?

EXERCISE: How Do You Make A Mirror A Community?

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original posting: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 05:47:05 -0400

Always interesting, and more often than not a bit challenging...

Taking the technological simplicity of listserv (join the list, get copies of postings, and repeat!  Simple, no?) and somehow trying to hang our humanity (or perhaps our inhumanity?) on that web of bits.

How do you think community forms in f2f (face-to-face) groups?  What does it take to turn a melange of strangers into someone that you would trust to comment on your writing?  How do you define the edges of the motley crowd?  Or do you need to?

And then, if you will, contemplate a bit on what the electronic parallels might be.  Remember that the owner of this list has some other things to do, that all the participants gathered here are volunteers, and that no one has to do anything in this collation of imagery and light.

Something to contemplate on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

(what does this have to do with writing?  Welladay, if one considers writing as being something that happens between and betwixt some people -- at least a writer and a reader? -- then perhaps considering the ins-and-outs of list formulation might aid that.  Even if one focuses a bit finer, perhaps the way that people think and form communities might inform your writing, eh?  Or, if you want to, you might do a piece based on the odd little interactions out here on the edge of cyberspace -- just don't call it "You've Got Mail" okay?)

Oh -- if you want to franticulate about how a list like this might best be a writers' workshop, feel free!  That's always a fascinating gear to grind.

(Franticulate?  Frantic speculation, I suspect, although it might also be be articulating frantics?)

"My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality" Oscar Wilde

EXERCISE: Title Challenge!

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original posting: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 04:33:46 -0400

Hi, ho...

Title:  The Electric Eclectic

write, write, write...

EXERCISE: Transpose that fear!

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original posting: Fri, 06 Oct 2000 23:45:59 -0400

Okay, a little harried, but consider this one...

First, pick something that you don't like, or are actively afraid of.  Ants? Spiders?  That ugly oily slick that tried to absorb you that summer?  Tigers?  The grinding gears of the sausage machine, that inexorable gnashing, clashing, crunching?

Second, list some of the pieces of that which really bother you.  Maybe it's the itty bitty legs on the ants?  Or the smell?  The way the gears seem to vanish into each other?

Third, walk through your fear, slowly and carefully.  Do you sweat?  Does your mouth turn dry?  Shaky knees?  Quivering fingers?  Hair stand up on your arm as the goosepimples tighten?

Fourth, translate!  Suppose that instead of the little ants, the blanket on your bed acquired some of those characteristics?  The beady little eyes on your vest?  Or maybe the bath water decides to act as if it were that oily slick?  What if the car engine decided to grind, and crunch, and gnash?

Write up that scene, where your character confronts your fear, embodied as another.  When the graveyard begins to grin like the tiger...

Write!