Writing Exercise 5: Children's Fiction for Adults

I recently bought a book without being aware that it was a children's book. I suppose that is a risk when buying online and not being able to pick up the book in your hands. But, I'm not complaining, because, like the reviews I took fancy to said, it was a great read. It was The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley. Victorian and gothic with ghosts and strange sounds. I have to say it was certainly better written than the Castle of Otranto (written for adults, can you believe). The events happen rapidly enough to read the story in a few hours and yet it lost none of the atmosphere and scenery. The amount he said in few words impressed me and was a refreshing change from Entropy, good though it was.

Anyway, that was just a little background for why I came up with this prompt:

1)Write a story with an unseen presence, that can be heard and smelt and felt. Invisible man, ghost, rats in the wall, anything.
2) The story must be written with a rapid voice. If you normally meander and describe your characters, don't! Let their actions speak and try and cram as much action into as few words as possible, like children's fiction can.
3) Try and give the colours, the tone of the story, a blueish feel. Subtely mention the blue things in the surroundings to enhance this impression.


Forgotten Fairytales by `zemotion on deviantART

Unlimited Plot Prompts

Not necessarily anything you'd write about but it does help get you thinking when your well runs dry. I personally wouldn't write a story about a feathery eagle that needs to get to the opera after escaping outer space alive.

But you might. What do I know? Anyway, here's the link.

http://www.gkbledsoe.com/articles/process/writing_prompt_generator.html

Eagles in space... maybe there's something to that.

Writing Exercise 4: Splitting Yourself Up

Forget your limbs for a moment, your fingers your arms and elbows. Your toes and legs, they fade away into nonexistence. Forget you posses the body of a human being, an upright bipedal.

All you are now is a cloud of consciousness, a series of thoughts, of conversations with yourself. What voices are clearest in your mind? Which two voices assert their character the most? Your supposed devil and angel? Your ego or libido?

Take the two strongest personalities that live inside you. Don't give them bodies, put them on an infinite plane with nothing but talk to fill the void.

What will they say to each other now that they are not the same person? How will they come to terms with themselves and each other? Kill the other? 'Walk' away? Befriend? Or something better.

These thought beings that live within you need their own voices from time to time. Give it to them in spades.


Door of consciousness by ~AndreyBobir on deviantART

One Word and My New Writing Regime

My new morning writing exercise! It's free. It's harmless. And you have so little time to write that you can't be critical of yourself. The principal is that you have one word and sixty seconds to write about it. That's it.

So my new writing regime starts first thing in the morning with oneword.com as I sip my tea, followed by an exercise from the Write Brain Workbook, possibly followed by a 3 a.m. Epiphany exercise (depending on how reluctant I am to get back to work on my book - these exercises take some considerable thought) and finally, the serious work on my novel.

As an aside, I am loving this new book I'm reading, Entropy, but unfortunately my copy turned out to be signed. I can't enjoy cracking the spine as I work my way through because I'm so concerned about the condition it's in.
And another thing: I hate novels about novelists and writers (Entropy has hints of this but has enough merits to outweigh it). It really grates at me. Write about someone other than yourself. That's what imagination and research are for.