Exercise 4 and 5

I have learned a very special lesson in the past couple of days.  I've been reading a book called "Bird by Bird," Anne Lammot, and she talked about how her father had to take time out of his day to really work on his writing.  I did not take time yesterday to work on my writing, and fell behind.  I will be doing yesterday's and today's exercise today.

Exercise 4

This is a long one.  It taught me about different types of openings for stories and asked me to write a sentence for each type and then go back and start a story, but use different types of opening sentences and see how they change the story.

With a generalization

We all know the stories from the old folks homes are true, but none of us really wanted to believe there were ghosts living there.

With a description of a person

The woman had auburn hair, a grey coat, and a slight tilt to her mouth that hinted that she knew more to the story than she was giving.  She was our only witness to the robbery, but why was she out for a walk at night in a coat in 73 degree weather?

With narrative summary

Alfonso had been working at Papa Giani's Pizzaria for thirteen years as a pizza maker.  Papa Giani was like a real father to him too, but Papa had just announce his retirement and his successor: Ralfi.  Ralfi and Alfonso had started at the pizzaria at around the same time, but it had taken Ralfi a little longer to understand the art of making pizza.  Alfonso had picked it up faster, and was head "chefarino" as they called it at Giani's, before Ralfi was allowed to prepare any on his own.  Ralfi got even though and started shadowing Giani in the business side of things, and now Ralfi felt like he was getting the last laugh.

With dialogue

"Josh, dude, you know you're like a brother to me right?" Michael called from the bathroom.
"Sure."  Josh called back from the living room.
"I need you to come in here and take a look at something."

With several characters and no dialogue


The boys sat outside on the roof smoking cigars and taking pulls of a Jameson bottle that was passed between them.  The party was still going on downstairs, but it was that point in the night where everyone was starting to pair off and start hooking up.  None of them felt any special need to get a faceless girl to go down on them that night, so they just enjoyed the sweet and tangy smoke that filled their lungs.

With a Reminiscent Narrator


It was the summer that I turned 17 and Janey Smithe was about to become my girlfriend.  She had no idea it was going to happen, and I had no idea how I was going to make it happen.

With a Child Narrator


Under the bed is my secret world because I can pretend that anything is happening in that darkness. I especially like to act like I'm in a movie theater and all the yelling I hear is just part of a scary movie that I know will be over soon.

By Establishing Point of View
First Person


James always asked me to come out and play when we were younger.  He still does, but now he throws rocks at my window instead of ringing the doorbell.

Third Person


In the dusty corner of the old frontier general store a little boy sat in heavy thought, or at least as heavy thought as a nine-year-old could muster.

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Now my story I want to start comes from Exercise 1- see if you can tell which sentence I'm using.

Generalization
Saying "I love you" is never easy for anyone, but when you say it to the right person, everything seems to hit you at once.

Description
Anne was a semi-beautiful girl with soft but thin blonde hair and thin but regularly set cheekbones.  Her eyes were not remarkably blue like her blond hair would have suggested, but dark brown that clashed with her long almost translucent eyelashes.  She was average looking, but she was loved by a wonderful man.

Narrative
Anne and Henry had been dating only a short time, but it was always very clear to them they were perfect for each other.  Their first date had been a regular dinner and a movie, but there never seemed to be an awkward moment.  A month into the relationship, Anne didn't have to finish her sentences before Henry knew exactly what she was going to say.  They were perfect, and they needed to tell each other.

Dialogue
"I love you."
While uttering those three little words, her face flushed, her entire body felt lighter and she was so happy.  Two days later, while walking to her front door with her thoughts allowed to rattle around in her head, she suddenly felt a heaviness in her chest and a little nauseated.  She was beginning to realize he may be it, the man.

Description of characters without dialogue
Anne and Henry stand there motionless at her front porch step, his arms wrapped around her shoulders, her hands clasped together at the crook of his back.  They had said goodnight a few times by this point but neither wanted to let the other go.  They both were aware this was going to be a special night, but neither wanted to be the first.




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Exercise 5

In this exercise, I am to write a story about a time in my childhood that made me terrified or weak, or gave me some type of strong reaction.  I am supposed to put my heart on the page.  I can really only think of one, so I'm sorry that you have to read this:


The phone was close enough to the softball diamond the adults would allow us to go, but far enough away we could still make a little mischief.  We ran over and the taller of us picked up the receiver.  It was one of those heavy, black things with probably a billion mutant bacteria on it, but we weren't aware of that having grown up with the hand sanitizer craze yet to hit.  She began poking the silver buttons on the pad, each with a muted metallic click under her pudgy finger.

"Yes, hello, I would like to order a pizza.  Extra cheese and half pepperoni, and half sausage.  What?  You can't do that?  Well then shove it up your butt!"  She slammed the phone back on the receiver and we both began giggling.

It was my turn, so I picked up the receiver, put it to my ear and started pushing in our home phone number, one of the only ones I knew by heart.  I heard the dial tone, and the computerized beeps as I pushed in the little nubs with my numbers on it- 2-8-2- and so forth until I had punched all seven.  The dial tone began again, and then turned into the annoying disconnected sound you get when you had been on the phone too long.  I didn't care, though, because I had a really great joke, and I was going to tell it.

"Uh... hi.  Is your refrigerator running?  Oh it is?  Well you better go catch it!"  I had probably heard this on last weeks nicktoon, but I thought it was hilarious, and so did my accomplice.

"You know you can still call 9-1-1 and they will pick up."  She said her dark brown eyes boring into me daring me to say she was wrong.

"That can't be right, not on this phone, you have to pay to use it," I said dismissively, and then added a, "duh!" for good measure.

"Try it then," she said with something in her voice that made me start to believe she knew what she was talking about.  Then she added, knowing I would have to do it an "I dare you."

I picked up the phone and started to dial the number.  I wasn't about to act like I was scared, so I dialed quickly and stood there defiantly when I was finished.  But the phone's dial tone wasn't there, but the automated ringing sound when a call actually goes through, and before I knew it, I heard "9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

My eyes about popped out of my head and I slammed the receiver back on the port and was about to run when the phone began to ring!  My heart began to beat so fast, and my mouth felt dry.  There was no way I was going to answer it.  I looked at her begging with my dark chocolate drop eyes to not answer either, but she did not heed my advice and picked up the phone and began talking to the woman on the other end.

I began to rack my brain for the short six years I had been alive trying to think of a time when this would have happened to a Tanner sister or on the Rugrats.  I came up short but knew it had to be a felony and that I was going to get grounded or not get to go to Zyanne's birthday party next week.  My heart was pounding and I was about to start crying when she hung up the phone.

"Don't worry.  I explained everything, we're fine.  Don't cry."

"I'm not going to cry."  I said only half convincingly.  I know I have to will myself to stop, crying would just make me look guilty.  At that moment, she and I made a pact to not tell anyone, ever.

Today, I'm 23, and I'm finally breaking that pact.

Exercise 3

Today's exercise is again focused on starting things in medias res, but this time they have given me the task of starting a story from a given line.  The line they gave me was "Where were you last night?"  They also said that I should get friends to give me lines to start, so I am going to put it on facebook, and do a couple more stories tomorrow from the ones my friends give me.  Here is what I came up with:


"Where were you last night, Kaitlyn?" Mary asked her daughter while scrubbing a particularly tough lasagna pan from the night before.  She eyed Kaitlyn, whose face was slouched so close to her cereal she thought the girl might be scanning the bowl for words in her Alphabits, like she did when she was four.  "I called Jessie's mom, but she said you girls didn't come over to her house last night."

Kaitlyn's head shot up from her bowl to search her mother's face for a hint of what she could possibly know.  After concluding it was a safe question, she answered, "Did I tell you Jessie's?  We went to Jessica's.  I must have accidentally messed up the names."

"No, I must have heard it wrong.  Jessie and Jessica, it's an easy mix-up." Mary said with a gruff laugh as she scrubbed harder at a particularly tough patch of crusted parmesan.

Kaitlyn contrived a short giggle, "Yeah, what did you think we were doing?  Drinking down by the park and having sex under the bridge like the other kids at my school?"  Because you'd be right.  Kaitlyn had never lied to her mother, but she knew this was a night it was better to just keep to herself.

"Of course not!  I know you girls better than that.  You've got good heads on your shoulders and your futures to think abou-" That's when Mary looked up from her non-stick baking dish and saw the bruise the size of a half dollar on her daughters neck.

Exercise 2

Today's exercise is writing pairs of sentences that are in pairs, they can be arbitrary, but should have some kind of connection.  The examples they gave are birth and death, falling in love and filing for divorce, and the not so opposing spring and summer.  Then I was told to come up with my own pairs.  So here it goes:

Birth and Death

Looking into those small black eyes for the first time was like seeing myself, finally, as a complete person, without the loss of life that living had taken from me.

I had just seen him three days ago sitting up in his chair, his hair was a little more unkempt than usual but he seemed fine; I can't believe he's really gone.

Falling In Love and Filing for Divorce

I looked up from the cards in my hand and his grey-blue eyes met mine, he had never looked at me that way, but all I could think was, "Oh... shit."

"Jesus, after seven years of being together, three months married and you're done with me and everything we've made, Sandra?"

Spring and Summer

With that first bud of the season, Max began to look at life in a new light; winter had been hell, but this small leaflet gave him new hope.

As the summer sun sank into the deep magenta of the sunset, next to that backwoods pond they always came to as children, he asked her to dance and all she said was, "Finally."

Pregnancy and Babysitting

She handed him the stick, put her head in her hands and leaned them on his chest for support unsure of her unbalanced feelings; she was only 23!

Gale enjoyed kids, as long as she could give them back to their parents at the end of the night; a 32-year-old day care provider, she was able to satiate her maternal clock and still get to go home to her white carpets and impeccably organized apartment.

Belief and Lies

"When I was six years old, I believed in three things I knew were fantastical: 1. Santa Claus, 2. Unicorns, and 3. My father would come home; the first two I never stopped hoping were real, but the third I knew could never happen."

Everyday she looked in the mirror and told herself she was the most beautiful person in the world and any man would be lucky to be with her, but I guess we all have little lies to tell ourselves to make sure we get up the next morning.

Epicurean and Stoic

Jonathan lived in the lap of luxury, a highly sought after lawyer in his gucci suits, money was not an option and he had women falling at his feet, but for some reason the only thing he wanted was Jamie, his young virile assistant.

Growing up my brother had a very tight schedule he would have stick to in the mornings and I would take longer showers just to agitate him, but who knew that would translate into his leaving for Iraq in four days.

Music and Film

Daddy always teased me about my bird legs, but when I took that stage during our 10th grade talent show, with every note I showed everyone just how bird-like I really was.

It had been a truly terrible first date with desperate topics of conversation going into long awkward silences, but as soon as the movie started and he felt just how perfectly she fit under his arm, they both knew this might be something special.

Ok, that's all for today.  I read ahead a little and tomorrow I get to actually start to write a story.  No more teasers.  Yay!

Exercise 1

Today's exercise is supposed to focus me on beginnings.  I am to write the first sentence of a story, focusing on the idea of writing in medias res, or starting in the middle of things.  This is to remind me that a story doesn't need a lot of back information all at the beginning, but it does need a hook that will keep my audience from losing interest and wondering what's happening on Grey's Anatomy tonight.  I am to write 5 opening sentences, so here it goes: (And as always comments are welcomed and encouraged)



She swiped at her alarm clock, missing it by inches, and thought to herself, so it's going to be that kind of a day.


Glancing down at the gorgeous flowing white gown draped over her frail frame she knew she had to fake a smile; her grandmother already knew too much.

Her heart began to pound and her head began to feel light when she realized that by saying "I love you," she may have accidentally begun the rest of her life.

His French bulldog puppy's ears were far to big for its head, and matched its owner with surprising accuracy.

His smile was barely legible, but Ruth Marx was aware he had something on his mind, and she was certain it was her.

My friend and Co-Worker Joshua Curtis told me about the idea of a 30 day challenge where you pick something to do for 30 days. I have missed creative writing and haven't woven a story on paper in a long time, so I thought I would give it a try. I decided to make a blog that will make me want to write, and would easily be able to share it with my friends and family... or at least anyone brave enough to take the time to read it.  I am beginning on the 1st and running through the whole of June; 30 days worth of creative writing exercises. 


I have been batting back and forth the idea of possibly going back to school to receive a Masters degree in something.  I am a staff member at Ball State University and would get a good discount on any classes I take while working here.  They do not have the degree I would truly prefer to have, lighting design.  However, I have always been interested in writing, especially the possibility of playwriting or screenwriting.  So, at the end of the 30 days, perhaps I will have decided whether I should go to school again for a masters in creative writing... we will just have to see!