Writing Exercises

01-02-2009

At a recent meeting of The Silver Scribes writing group,  a retired pathologist and I were the only two to arrive at the library. We found out later that the schedule was incorrect. We should have been there the following day. The library was kind and admitted us to the conference room where we didn’t allow the size of the group to hinder us. We each read what we had brought and had a very deep philosophical discussion about our writings.

  One -on-one may have been even better than having the group for critique. The doctor sent me some stock market advice a few days later: “Forget about it! It goes up and down. Keep writing.”

 The same advice is good for us all: “Keep Writing no matter what else goes on.”

 

12-14-08

On Ginny’s writing blog, she suggests that all us introbverted writers, who prefer the solitude of our keyboards, should attend Christmas parties for the conversation which we can turn into viable dialog.

It is a great exercise as we hear the over weight ladies try to explain away their second bit of cake, and all the over-the-hill guys try to be the life of the party. They, and we, could be turned into book characters, if only we’ll look at ourselves and analyze what we say and do and why we act like we do.

June 8,2008

Of course, conversation has to be shaped before you put it in a story, but notice how people basically communicate. Do they have to explain a lot, or is much understood? Do they talk in complete sentences or fragments? How does rhythm come into play in everyday speech? Also pay attention to how little it takes for you to understand what they’re talking about. Your dialogue should operate in the same way, communicating a lot, but spelling out very little. Do they have a vocabulary more than 400 words?

 

 The Tallahassee Writer’s Association had us do a story using these items:A red whistle, a rollof double ply toilet tissue, a procelain toad and a teddy bear.

Here’s my attempt.

                 

              

On The Throne

 

   Now that I’ve reached 95, the kids think I’m no longer capable of looking after myself. They’ve placed me in an assisted living home (prison), where I’m told when to arise, when to eat, and when to go to bed. We’re treated like five year old kids and are rewarded for doing things. The rewards are butter beans which are used as barter at a weekly butter bean auction. I used my butter beans to buy a teddy bear that comforts me. My pendant (beeper) doesn’t function to call for help, but that’s no problem, because a visiting fireman gave me his red whistle when he visited. That awakens everyone when they leave me on the crapper too long. I entertain myself while there like the five year old they take me to be, as I unroll the two ply toilet-tissue in the floor and try to look like a ceramic toad on my throne. The second story, a month later had for its key words: a single engine plane, a butterfly, Sledgehammer, and a fan, Here’s my attempt at that.

Story Two

 The Gossamer Condor hangs in The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. between the Wright Brother’s 1903 plane and Lindberg’s single engine plane. The gauzy wings of the Gossamer are cobwebbed like those of a butterfly, light enough so that human power can be transferred to a fin-like propeller to pull it through the air and prevent a sledge hammer type crash. Could human power possibly supplant gasoline and its high prices?

According to Dr. Russell Blaylock a Nutritionist

FACT: Yes, it’s true that heart disease is the #1 killer in the United States. And men over 40 are particularly vulnerable. But, who else will tell you that 50% of all strokes and heart attacks have absolutely nothing to do with elevated cholesterol levels?

Certainly not the big drug companies.

And probably not even your own doctor . . .

So why are cholesterol-reducing drugs (or statins, as they’re called) becoming as common as aspirin, with commercials running non-stop on primetime TV?

FACT: Drugs like Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Crestor and Mevacor carry serious health risks — destruction of muscle, liver damage, increased risk of cancer, suppression of the immune system, just to name a few. (Drug companies don’t want you to remember that statins like Baycol had to be pulled from the market due to multiple deaths.)

How many of the 12 million Americans now taking these drugs for their heart health understand that they are (often dangerously) treating the symptoms and not the cause of high cholesterol?

My comment: Eat sensibly, drop pounds, and exercise.