writercises | EXERCISE: Transpose that fear! (Reply)

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!