Writing exercises #1
Of novels, storage, and lightning
A few years ago my wife bought me a book of 300 writing prompts. When I first thought about starting this publication, one of the first ideas that came to mind for consistent material was the writing prompts from this book. I’ve set a 30 minute timer and I’m going to see how many of these I get through with minimal editing. I hope you enjoy a stream of my thoughts!
Prompt: What book do you wish you had written? What would you change in your version?
The first book that comes to mind is Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. This is one of my favorite books of all time. I believe that this is the first book that made me cry as well. I can think of at least two changes I would make. One is the length. Dickens’ descriptive writing is, as always, beautiful and insightful, but those paragraphs do tend to go on and on and on. Unlike Dickens, I would (presumably) not be writing the novel as a serial, so I would want to make it leaner and meaner. The other thing is the character of Lucie Manette. She is referred to as the “golden thread” that holds all the characters together, but she’s not a terribly interesting character. It’s been a few years since I read it but I truly can’t think of anything noteworthy about her except her physical description. I would give her a more active role in the story and try to give her a more unique characterization.
Prompt: What would you like to put in storage?
This is tricky. I really don’t have a whole lot in storage currently, because I like using what I use and getting rid of what I don’t use. I’m going to take the question more like “what do you value; thus would you like to preserve and protect?” I would like to preserve and protect the suit I wore at my wedding. We wanted to find me a nice grey suit that wasn’t all plasticky but also wouldn’t be too expensive. We went into a suit shop at the mall and immediately before our eyes there was a nice grey suit with a woolen texture, and one on the floor that fit me perfectly.
I would also like to preserve and protect my physical media collection. Someday when I have more space, I would like to have a way to display my Blurays and DVDs in a nice presentable way. Right now they’re just in a big plastic bin in the closet.
I think it would be nice to have printed physical copies of everything I’ve ever written that I care about. Basically my college essays, including my senior thesis, and my short film scripts. Unfortunately, I don’t have my essays anymore because they were on an old computer that died without me backing anything up.
Prompt: You are lightning. What will you strike first, and why?
I’m lightning, I don’t have a brain or free will.
Just kidding.
I’m lightning. I only have a millionth of a millisecond of existence. Then as quickly as I arrive, I’m gone. I want to leave my mark. I want to be remembered. I don’t want to be like the millions and billions of my brethren who arrive and vanish into obscurity, never to be remembered. Do I strike a person? Promising. Maybe that one specific person will remember me for the rest of his life, if he survives. But even if he tells everyone he knows, they’ll all eventually forget, and even my victim will die eventually. Do I strike a natural landmark? A man-made landmark? Again, promising, but I fear that the same reasons apply. People will forget, more quickly than you might think. I don’t want just 15 seconds of fame.
I have it! I will strike the sand at the very center of the Sahara Desert. The few hundred or thousand grains of sand I make contact with as I hit the earth will be transformed irrevocably by my millions-degree temperature. The sand will be transformed into glass, a beautiful crystalline structure. If I’m lucky, this bit of glass with sit untouched by man for hundreds of years. Once it is discovered, it will be cherished as an archaeological artifact. It will be preserved and kept safe in museums until man loses interest in such things or himself becomes extinct. Long after I appear and disappear, I will live on. I am lightning.
Well, there’s my 30 minute timer! I’m at nearly 800 words, which is not far off from my typical post length, so I’d say this writing session was a smashing success. Honestly I didn’t think I’d get into the lightning one as much as I did. Thank you for reading my silly thoughts and stay tuned each month for more!
Keep these coming. I love it!