Creative Writing, Exercising my writing muscles

March 26, 2010
Exercises in Creative writing

Beginnings: Exercise 2: The History of a Story
“I’d never given much thought to how I would die- in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight is the line I have selected for this exercise.

Before this line was written Bella Swan would have left her mother and moved to Forks to live with her Father. Her parents would have been married, had Bella and would have already been divorced for quite some time. Bella’s mother had moved away and Bella’s father stayed behind in Forks. Edward, Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmet, Jasper and Alice would have already been turned into vampires, would have moved to Forks, and had been living under cover for a least several months. The Volturi empire would have been built. The werewolves and the vampires would have already developed their treaty. The werewolf culture and the reservation would have already had a long history. Bella’s dad had already purchased her a car therefore letting the reader know that Mr. Swan would have been sharing with people that his daughter was coming to live with him. Bella’s dad got her a computer and prepared her a room.

When I started thinking about everything that would have had to happen before the first line of the book I was surprised. Though I always read books and understand that I am often thrown into the middle of something, I never deliberately have stopped to think about just how much happens before a book begins. Wow.

Beginnings: Exercise 3: Opposites

Birth and Death
Staring into those bright blue innocent eyes, for the first time Lily understood what unconditional love truly meant.

The early October day was cloaked in black and heaven’s tears flowed with my own.

Love and Divorce
I heard the unmistakable chords of, “Can’t Help Fallin’ in Love,” before I opened the door to find him down on one knee, a velvet box balanced gingerly in his hand.

Happily ever after was three kids, a thirty-year mortgage and a thousand flimsy excuses ago.

Autumn/Winter
“On three, one, two, three!” McKail launched himself off the porch and squeals of laughter echoed in the crisp October air as he landed in a blanked of leaves.

Reid slowly accelerated and could feel the wheels of her Dodge caravan spinning in protest. “Come on,” she urged and she turned on the wipers on high to battle the white monster that rendered the world outside her windows almost non-existent.

Journals and Memoirs

Exercise 8: People from the Past; Character in the future

She was like a tornado, able to tear a path through a room, throwing angry words and biting insults like cloud to ground lightning. I held my breath around her, waiting to test her mood like I would test food before taking a bite. If she was angry I would look for any excuse to get out, or do anything I could to appease her. The dishes would always be done, the clothes folded, the floors vacuumed. But there would always be something that was not done correctly. Then she would come for me. “You are just like your father. Why don’t you just get out. Leave. I don’t want you here.” One day I came home to find my belongings in the driveway. My sister was always good enough, but then again, she wasn’t blind.

Now my mom calls, but asks to speak to the kids. She buys her way into their hearts, makes them promises for fun weekends away, for big surprises, leaving me to dry their tears when she breaks their hearts time and again, just like she did to me. Someday they will learn that Nana’s gifts are just material things, guilt has a hefty price tag. Love costs nothing. She asks how I’m doing, but can’t remember that I’m getting my PhD, not my masters. She plans a baby shower for my sister on the weekend that we will be in Florida, a trip we’ve had planned and for which we’ve been saving for two years, and this is my fault that I won’t be there. I am the traitor. That is my mother.

In the future she will die too young, a victim of her own addictions to beer and cigarettes. Maybe one day she’ll be sorry that she told me I was a freak. Maybe she won’t She’ll continue to have excuses for why she can’t come to our house, the other kids have games/jobs/driver’s ed/camp/etc. What she really means is our house is too chaotic, three kids and a cat are too much for her. Our family-centered lifestyle is everything that her life with us was not. Maybe it makes her feel guilty. She’ll tell my daughter of the fun times she used to have with me when I was a kid, most of them lies, things she knew she should have done, things I actually did with my grandma. In my dreams I want her to apologize in the future, to say she loves me, and mean it.

Exercise 9: Mining Memory
10 things that made me angry
-The principal told a fellow co-worker that her, “presence in the building ruins my day,” and she meant it!
-The incompetent DI trainer did not have her act together and blamed all of her mistakes on the innocent volunteers
-I spilled hot coffee on my hand after someone walked into me after not watching where he was going
-Our text for this class considers blind people and paraplegics as absentee dwellers. The Nerve!
-I needed a white sweater to wear over a dress and the store had every size except the one I needed
-The school talent show is tomorrow and no one is helping me so I need to make the program, burn the master CD, find costumes and put up the set AND teach tomorrow. That’s okay everyone, I’ve got it! Don’t do a thing, that’s fine.
-Instead of putting his pull-up in the garbage, McKail put it in the laundry and it crystalized all over a clean load of laundry. Ugh.
-The husband made me tell the kids it was time for bath and bed so I had to be the mean parent while he got to be the nice one
-I got a migraine headache and couldn’t sleep for three hours last night
-A student told me he didn’t give a Sh—about this Sh---- place we call school because he’s not going to do sh—for the rest of the year anyways.
-There were nine kids in in-school suspension of Friday afternoon and 41 minutes took about 3 hours to pass by.


10 things that made me happy
-Nadirah signed please without being prompted when she wanted a cracker.
-The chicken and dumplings turned out perfectly
-My grandma sent me a package in the mail, just because
-Someone from church donated money to our child’s tuition. Thank you fellow St. James person I don’t know.
-Our daughter won drawing for $500 off our Catholic school tuition next year. Thank you God!
-Macaroni and Cheese, the good Kraft kind, was on sale for .25 cents this week. Bonus.
-A good friend stopped in to see me at school and invited us out to dinner to celebrate our departure from our current positions.
-Nadirah, McKail and Nevaeh slept through the night two nights in a row. Whoohoo!
-I took a nap on Saturday afternoon and said no to everyone and actually had three hours to relax.
-I found a gift card that I thought had gotten thrown away so I didn’t have to pay for my new pair of shoes.

Characterization
Exercise 13: Funny, you don’t look seventy-five

Suggestions
-If older, has an AARP card, sets senior discount at restaurants, stores
-Condition of vision, bifocals, trifocals, reading glasses
-Health conditions, high blood pressure or heart conditions
-hearing, “what” a lot might indicate an older person, hearing aids worn
=Still gets carded might indicate that a person is, or looks like they are close to 21, when people LIKE to get carded are after they are 30, then it is like a compliment
-Talk of retirement, Social security, Medicare, then the person might be older
-Teeth, wearing of braces might mean the character is a pre-teen or teen, if dentures are present then maybe they are older.
-Age spots of older people
-Movement, more stiff with age, slower, more aches and pains, might need mobility aids like canes or walkers and wheel chairs possibly.
-Older people might tire easily, take naps each day, go to bed earlier.

I personally don’t feel very comfortable with this list because I believe these are almost all stereotypical things projected on people of certain ages. Like, for example I can think of young people that have vision and hearing problems, health issues.

Exercise 19: Deny everything

Misty’s heart raced as she waited for just the right time to corner Chris. She knew she’d been quiet all night and he’d asked her more than once if she was okay but she brushed him off but she couldn’t wait any longer. She took in a shaky breath and asked, “So, who is Nicole?”

“Nicole? Nicole who?” Chris asked nonchalantly.

“That’s what I want to know,” Misty voice wavered as she went forward with the questions she’d been rehearsing all afternoon since reading the text. “I found your phone.”

“Yeah, so. What are you saying?”

“Don’t play innocent. Who is she?” she was yelling now and tears stung her eyes.

“Misty, you’re crazy. I don’t know any Nicole.” His voice contained a trace of something, was it fear?

“That’s funny because she certainly knows you.”

“Oh my God. This is so stupid, you’re overreacting.”

“Hey sexy. Can’t wait 2 c u again. Tell Misty u have to work late. I’ll b waiting. What am I supposed to think about that?” She read from the text through heaving sobs.

“It must have been a wrong number. You know I would never cheat on you.”

“Right, the wrong number to a man whose wife is also named Misty.”

“Misty, I’d never do that to you.”

“Huh, liar!”