WEEK 2 EXERCISES

I present my second week's writing regiment(gimmicks) to stir your creative juices. If you have a recipe of your own, share it with [email protected]!
I adore emails.

MONDAY

List 3 foods you hate. Pick the grossest.
Now imagine someone who loves that food.
What happens if you interact with him/her? What would you do to avoid eating that food; what lengths would you scale?
What unnatural persuasion does the other person use to induce your consumption?

Describe your flow of thoughts as you do chew or digest the food. Include texture, smells.

TUESDAY

Empty your (small) room trashcan. Take items and weave a story relating the disparate pieces.
Example: gum wrapper, shoe polish can, crumpled resume, tissues, dress tag, hose box

En route to an interview, Joanne got a gum wad on her shoes and pant cuff. Now she can't pay her Visa bill she maxed out purchasing clothes, so she plans to rob an ATM. Tonight.

WEDNESDAY

Practice twisted, nonlinear, storytelling.
Create a first person narrator (says "I saw" rather than "she saw.") Narrator explains the origins of a flag to a nonattentive, know-it-all teenager.

Explain in tall tale style why the founders chose specific colors, patterns, shapes.

Example:
Our TN flag, gal, hadda use that red background. Shiloh, Battle Above the Clouds, Chickamauga, Trail of Tears... You hear? Nashville fancy pants said 'make a white square.' But our bloody bloody history soaked through the material.

Unleash your outlandish gene!

THURSDAY

Write a lousy commercial. You've certainly listened to enough!
Insult a specific viewer.
What kind of product? price? Why does the viewer need/deserve to buy or use the product? Be funny in unexpected ways.

FRIDAY

Listen to radio static. Relax, wait until your brain puts words to the chaos.

Visualize an interior scene, a set-up, with disparate components.

Example: a piano bench draped with clothes and an iron, or a ceiling fan with fether dusters tied to the boards smacking tall window blinds.

SATURDAY

Examine your hairbrush/comb.
What does it say about YOU?
Overworked, immaculate, antique, all-natural, cheap?

Write testimony from a "professional" about a character's state of mind, based on "physical evidence" from a brush.

SUNDAY

Carefully open a jar of a baker's spice. Don't breathe in too deeply.

What's the strongest memory evoked?
Write, using first person. (I skipped...)

Harder step: Insert a disruptive element to the memory, & see what would happen next.
Don't rely on the true event for your plot.

BONUS

Pull a tool or cooking gadget or whatever from your household junk drawer. Pull out another.
Now create a character who's giving directions for a how-to project.
Use the 2 tools.

What goal does s/he desire?
If the articles have proper names, try not using those.
Let the speaker describe tools, steps & goal.

ADDITIONAL BONUS:
Start an easy stretching regiment in the morning.
Whenever I set a goal (ex: 5 minutes of left leg kicks,) a Great Idea(tm)always interrupts my session. Try for yourself.
Keep a small pad beside you & keep moving as you scribble the idea, great sentence fragment, image or plot twist onto paper.