Mar. 30th, 2008

[info]sprightly_m

response to exercise one: Focus

Focus

The air, filled with that wonderfully musky old book scent, rushes about in all directions every time feet squeak across the cold tiled floor. Papers crinkle as someone flips through a book. Someone else incessantly beats a pencil on a nearby table. Music seeps through those little ear bud things to the left and to the right. The door creaks open and creaks closed over and over again, and more feet shuffle past. People whisper and talk and almost yell like they’re the only ones there. They unpack and pack their textbooks and notebooks over and over again. You can’t help but watch, and you hear everything.

You move your leg there and your arm here and rearrange your books to get comfortable in that wretchedly stiff wooden chair, but you can’t. Even if you do, every sound pulls you out of your book, and let’s face it, every thing is more interesting than Organic Chem. You can’t help but hear, watch, and roll your eyes at the people taking about God and how He changed their lives at the table in front of you. You watch the birds out side fight over something on the ground that you can’t make out from the third story. You wish you were out there with them. But you’re not, and you have to read your book or you’ll fail your quiz. You have two hours.

Someone pulls out a chair. It sounds like finger nails running over a chalkboard. Two chicks to the left are talking about Bio. Every word comes in as clear as if they were on a loudspeaker. You have 1 hour and 37 minutes left. A Fall Out Boy song comes on over someone’s iPod. It's "Grand Theft Autumn." The door opens and closes again. You have 1 hour and 24 minutes left. Someone folds a piece of paper. You have 1 hour and 11 minutes left. Another person stomps by. You have 59 minutes left. The wind brushes through the trees outside. You have 33 minutes left. Someone drops a book. It goes off like a gunshot. You have 27 minutes left. Those people are taking about God again. You have 15 minutes left, and you haven’t turned the page.

Who in Hell ever said the Library was a good place to study anyways?




These things are exactly why I can't study in the library.
I tired to play with rhythm here as well as second person pov. Let me know what you think. No comments are too harsh for me, especially after my class ripped my first story apart last quarter. I'm always looking for things and ways to improve.

Mar. 25th, 2008

[info]sprightly_m

first exercise

The point of these exercises is to just get you started writing...they also make great starting points when you get lost in stories.

Go sit outside somewhere, it can be anywhere from the coffee shop to the park, and observe what's going on around you for five to ten minutes. Then write about your experience and where it led your mind for ten to twenty minutes.
There are no rules, except to focus on some concrete details about the scene you observed.

Due: by the end of April.

March 2008

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