Writing Exercise- flunky

You might ask: What does 'flunky' have to do with writing exercises? Funny you should ask, because I'm having trouble finding a way to meld a slick answer to that question into the meat of my post.

No dice. My cogitation has failed. There is a total paucity of ideas vis-a-vis the melding into the meat.

Have I failed?

Perish the thought! I haven't even done my writing exercise yet. I've gotten plenty of other exercise though, phew. I walked about 3 1/2 miles on Wednesday (I always have to stop as I write that day's name... the D goes BEFORE the N...) and I walked about a mile and a half yesterday.

Still overly weighted.

Okay, so flunky. Today's writing exercise is the choosing of random words and then a ten minute freewrite, using the random words. What is it supposed to do? Jumpstart the creative engine. Get the creative juices flowing. Nurture creative seeds to burst forth and bloom. Saute the creative meat... nope. That one didn't work.

Here's how I will get my random words. I shall go to an article on http://www.bbc.com/ and choose the seventh noun, the fifteenth noun, and the first active verb. Here they come.

Ship, pirates, escape.

Okay, those are my random words. I shall now use them all in a brief, free-written narrative. This will be a ten minute freewrite.

In the word of Inigo Montoya: Begin.

Last night might have been the most ridiculous night of my life. There I was innocently, no seriously, walking along a deserted pier on a mist-blanketed waterfront, a backpack bursting with unmarked bills on my back, and I saw a dog.

I say dog, but what I really mean is the most terrifying creature ever seen. Allow me to explain. It had four legs, a long tail, and a long tongue that gave it the impression of panting. But I think maybe it was a cold-blooded creature of some kind that used its tongue to taste the world around it.

But that was no dog. Nope. Its shoulders came to about as high as my navel, I'm 5' 10", and if it had stood on its hind legs, its head would have been higher than me. In the mist-blanketed dark, it looked like it had fur, but that wasn't fur anyone should pet. Its body was actually covered in scale-like stuff, not small enough to be cilia, but numerous enough to look like fur. It stuck up all over the body, at varying angles, so you couldn't have even petted the thing with the grain of its fur/scales.

The last thing I should mention is that its eyes glowed pale yellow. No, there was one more thing... It spoke.

The dog thingamajig said, "You are he?"

I stopped, my heart hammering like a pneumatic hammer on meth. I grunted, although I had meant to say, "Uh?"

The thing made a noise that sounded like a cross between an old train and a.. well.. a fart. "You. You it is that I wait for?"

Okay, so now the thing had become a terrifying Yoda. "Nope!" I turned to escape what I was sure was my imminent doom. I got about fifteen feet before something landed on my back. Something. Right. Terrifying Yoda, I mean.

"You it is! Food you carry!" Terrifying Yoda tore at my backpack with its teeth.

I scrabbled at the old wooden planks. Nothing doing. Cool breath blew on my neck. Suddenly a tearing sound.

"Found! To the ship we go!" The T-Y grabbed my foot in its huge mouth and, breaking the skin only slightly, proceeded to drag me down the pier, turning right down a path were a bunch of ships were moored.

And now my time is up.

Interesting. Might have to pursue that one.

So that's a good writing exercise for any creative writer who's just trying to get things going. Devise a way that you can get several random words, then give yourself ten minutes to free-write something. The activity is uncontrolled enough that your imagination is given free rein to roam (alliteration!), but there is enough structure to keep things civilized.

You might have noticed I didn't use 'pirates' in the free-write. I was getting there. I didn't have a way to put it into the narrative that was taking shape without it being forced or artificial.

This writing exercise was adapted from one I found on http://www.ofb.net/~lisa/exercise.html, which is one of the many handy writer sites out there.

Wasn't that fun? Go do it yourself now. No, really, go do it. This kind of activity is refreshing and somewhat liberating. It can help you overcome writer's block, get you out of a rut, or just kick start your day.

If you love this post, or even if you don't, pass it along. Share the link for this blog or this post on all kinds of sites. Digg, reddit, delicious, Facebook-- all of them work. Come back soon!

Friday night lights?

Maybe not so much.

Actually I have only see the movie with this moniker, not the TV show. I like the movie somewhat. But truth be told, I number among the hordes who wonder why Friday Night Lights doesn't come on on Friday. Of course, maybe their network caught that error and has rectified the glaring problem.

Shows how in touch I am.

I have just sent off the two first chapters of The Mars Betrayal to my editors and am filled with self-doubt. If they hate it again, I am not sure what I will do next. So here's to hoping that they don't think it's crap and excoriate it again.

I think it's good. <-- (this said in a small voice)

Before I get back to writing, I am going to do a writing exercise: I will freewrite for two minutes on a random topic. Today's random topic is: Cannibals.

I begin now.

Cannibals really may have had it right. Think about it. They left no waste of their kills and they left no man behind. It's like a combination of Marines and Nader-ites, a totally unheard of combination to date, so it really makes sense.

What if I wrote a story about a cannibal boy who somehow got separated from his family just before the big tribal feast and then was transported to a modern society such as in LA. He could meet a girl and fall for her, but be so hungry that he kills and eats her parents. All the while she is a vegetarian.

But what would be his motivation and chapter and scene-level goals?

Maybe he's just hungry.

Okay, now I'm done. Hehe. Pure silliness.

So I shall now get back to work on The Mars Betrayal, but will soon be interrupted by a fellow named Luis. This is not precognition; Luis has an appointment for a company overview, and I have to do that overview.

Any readers who are reading this (I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of the redundancy in that phrase), por favor spread the word of my little blog. I know I had originally planned on just doing this for a year, but the writing thing is picking up and I am sticking with it for good. Now I just need people to read this, comment on it and give me validation.

Writers are needy. If you didn't know this already, file that eternal truth away somewhere safe. Maybe in your fire safe. Or your icebox.

Gotta run. I'll be back later. Oh, I want to hit 7000 words on The Mars Betrayal today.

carpe somnium