Writing challenge
1 Comment »19th March, 2008; Category: Writing Hints
Last week one of my lecturers challenged the group with a fascinating warm-up writing activity.
The challenge: we had to write a paragraph without using the letter “e”.
Now e happens to be the most used letter of the alphabet in English. Mmm… we all rose to the challenge and started scribbling. Below is what I came up with:
I am going to swim all night in the dam for it is so hot. I will wallow and splash all through the long dark hours. I will try not to swallow any of that putrid liquid.
I was feeling very pleased with my effort… until… Just as I was about to share my brilliant piece of writing I realised that I had used that inoffensive little word “the.” Not once – but twice.
Now I could correct this little aberration in this way:
I am going to swim all night in
thea dam for it is so hot. I will wallow and splash all throughthethis long darkhoursnight. I will try not to swallow any of that putrid liquid.
It is not as easy as it sounds.
Try it as a warm-up activity.
Good writing.
More writing hints can be found here.
The problem with writing poetry
2 Comments »18th March, 2008; Category: Picture Books, Poetry, The Writer's Life, Writing for Children
“There is no money in poetry, but then there’s no poetry in money, either.” Robert Graves.
I have heard that there are some countries where poets are highly regarded and appreciated, even revered and some even make a living from writing poetry. Australia is not one of those countries. Probably only two or three poets in Australia actually make any decent income from their works.
Publication of poetry is having something of a resurgence in recent years here. More magazines are publishing poetry and individual poets are getting their works into book form. Sadly, most of these books can only be published with government grants and most volumes are bought either by other poets or a few libraries.
I am generally an optimist. One thing I am hopeful about is that one day I will make some money from some of my poems. I have a number of poems written for children. I believe that they would make excellent picture books for young children. This is going to be tough. My lecturer at college advises not to write picture book texts in verse because very few ever get published.
That is just a challenge to me to prove everyone wrong.
Good writing.
Writing prompt #6: Crossroads
No Comments »17th March, 2008; Category: Writing prompts
Time for another writing prompt to help you with your writing.
Crossroads:
Imagine you are out in the country. You are standing where two dirt roads intersect. There are no trees, no shelter of any kind and you cannot even hear a bird calling – except for a lonely, mournful raven in the distance. You cannot see a house or any sort of building.
In the distance you see a cloud of dust. Eventually a bus comes into view. It hisses to a stop right at the intersection. One person alights, and the bus heads off down the road and disappears from view.
Writing idea:
Describe the person:
- Is the person a male or female?
- What ethnicity?
- How old?
- How is the person dressed?
- What is the person carrying?
- Are there any special or noticeable features about the person?
What happens next?
- Does the person start walking?
- Or does she or he wait for someone else?
- Is this person relaxed, confident, anxious or confused?
- What is their story?
Now let the character tell his story.
Good writing.
More writing prompts can be found here.
And you can find dozens of short story starters here.
Or you might like to read some of my short stories here.
My brain is overheating
No Comments »15th March, 2008; Category: The Writer's Life
My brain is in melt down mode.
I’m overheating not because I’ve been very busy – well, actually I HAVE been very busy over recent weeks with the studies I am doing.
No – the reason my brain is dribbling out through my ears and eyes (or so it seems) is that we are having a late burst of summer here in South Australia. Actually, according to the calendar it should be autumn (hey – that’s Fall for all my North American friends). But here we are in the worst heat wave in recorded history of our state.
Our state capital city Adelaide has broken all sorts of records over recent days. Today is the thirteenth consecutive day of above 35C (95F) temperatures. The previous record for Adelaide was eight consecutive days in 1934. The Australian record for a capital city was ten days in Perth, Western Australia in 1988 so that one has been broken as well. What is even more depressing is the news that there is no relief in sight until at least Wednesday, so we could end up with 16 consecutive days of extreme heat. Whew.
My wife and I usually go for a walk at 6am every morning. On Thursday it was 30C at 6am with a hot north wind blowing. Most uncomfortable – no wonder I’d woken up saturated in perspiration. After our walk we were so hot we put the air conditioner on to eat breakfast in some sort of comfort. That was a first – and I hope the last time I ever have to do that.
Happy Second Birthday to my Blog
Oooops!
I forgot.
This blog should have celebrated its second birthday last week. That just indicates I was too busy last week to remember. This blog has now been going for two years and one week.
Wow. Nearly 600 articles, poems and stories later it is still going strong. You can check all my earlier articles, poems and stories by going to the archives or checking out the various categories – see over on the sidebar – hours of interesting reading, as well as hints for writing and short story ideas.
This blog is getting more and more comments (“keep ’em comin’ folks”) and its readership continues to grow every month. As I’ve already stated recently, my blogging will, of necessity, need to take something of a back seat over the next two years as I complete my MA in Creative Writing. On the plus side, I’m getting heaps of writing ideas that I am just bursting to share here. I’m also heavily into some serious poetry writing in one of the units I am studying, so some of those will find their way here sometime too.
In the meantime….
Good writing.
PS: I’d love to receive dozens of “Happy Birthday” comments.Â
Dozens and dozens of them!