A Little Exercise...

I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10.

It happens to be the number 3.

Now, this number 3 is about as tall as I am, 5'7", and is heavy like a rock, but it looks like there are tufts of fur on it which are pink and kind of like shag carpet and they hang in the air below it because the number three doesn't havwe any legs and so it moves around like it's hovering so when it moves the shag-like hair of it would fly behind him like he wsa riding a corvette or something - it makes a buzzing sound when it flies like a bee or more like a beetle or maybe a electric shaver - and it smells like chocolate milk chocolate but the number three feels like sandpaper even though it looks like carpet and if you ever lick it it would taste like dried up dirt.






I just freewrote the image of a number three, which was inspired by the number eight that Stephen King wrote about in On Writing. The exercise itself was inspired by my conversation with Goldberry Long with regards to freewriting.

You see, I came to her office because I didn't feel like I was doing the freewrites in her class correctly. One of the stipulations on these freewrites is that I write concretely, yet I always wrote in the abstract. I freewrite like I talk, and I always talk abstractly. When I told her this, Goldberry suggested that the reason why I freewrite in abstract terms is because I think about the words when I write. What I'm supposed to do is think of images to write about. When I come up with an image, all I should do in the freewrite is report what I'm seeing in my mind - using the five senses and using all the words that come to my head. This will allow me to write concretely, with the benefit of the speed that comes with freewriting.

As I think of this, I feel a bit silly. I remember when I first started writing stories I would lose myself in the events in my story that I would forget that I'm typing them up in a computer. That's not how I write stories now. Essentially, I had forgotten that writing a story is about conveying images in my head. I was so worried about diction and syntax and other craft elements that I had completely forgotten, what I think is, the core element of writing. It's what drives a person to write in the first place.

Anyway, I haven't finished my little freewrite/writing exercise yet. I have to ask the question, what do I make of this number 3? Is he sad, happy, lonely, or whimsical? Is he something else? Well, since I'm forced to answer, I think this number 3 is sad because it smells like chocolate and tastes like dirt. I think it desperately wants to taste like it smells but it hasn't reached that goal yet.

So what do you think about this number 3? Of course, it's open to interpretation - mainly because I only spent about a minute to freewrite the thing. I'm sure if I spent more time to freewrite I'll have the chance to put in more detail and lock in this number 3's character.

Moving Forward

I've attended UCR's Writers Week the past four weekdays so I wasn't inclined to update. However, in hindsight, I realize that I could have used this blog to give you a daily account of the event. Oops.

I thought about retroactively posting my thoughts on Writers Week so they look like they were created "as it happened," but that would be cheating. I'll just accept my mistake and make it up to you by inserting my reflections on that week in future posts, where relevant.

This will happen starting tomorrow (I promise). Today isn't a good day to start because I'm currently at my job. In fact, the only reason why I'm posting this "transition" entry is because I have a strong inclination to finish a written task today.

Hmm. I think that will be the topic of tomorrow's entry...