Sunday, May 28, 2006

More writing

I went back to Bonnie Neubauer's website, bonniebauer.com, and found her online story spinner. Here's what she says about it: "Click on the Story Spinner to the left and you will get a starting phrase, a setting and four words that you must include in a story. Set a timer for 10-minutes... and then write!" So, being a good rule follower, I clicked and this is what I got:

Setting for your story: at a flea market

Starting phrase for your story: My intention had been to ask politely

Four words/phrases you must include in your story: Ad nauseam , Unearth, Web and Weekly. Setting my iBook meditation timer widget for 10 minutes as suggested, I was off and typing. Drumroll please!

My intention had been to ask politely, but first I had to locate the emporium owner. I had just unearthed my prize: an english porcelain teacup that matched one I'd smashed to smithereens eons ago. I had checked online web sources and been to eBay ad nauseam, to no avail. So I found myself devolving to old twentieth century behavior: going to garage sales and roadside flea markets on a weekly basis. I'd spotted lapsed treasures and grotty garbage. It amazes me what people will keep and keep and keep for years which suddenly turns up on a table across from ubiquitous trolls and beanie babies.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Liberating my writing

It has probably been just a little short of forever since I journaled/blogged or wrote. Today's impetus is a new book, The Write-Brain Workbook, by Bonnie Newbauer. She takes Natalie Goldberg's famous precepts of writing and encapsulates them in 366 "exercises to liberate your writing". The first, entitled Circle Game, invited me to choose one word from each of three groups of five and then use those three words in a story that began: "Sometimes I feel like a gerbil running around and around on his wheel." The words I chose yesterday were "banister", "jambalaya" and "keepsake". I really only thought about the exercise yesterday - which isnt' a writing practice to speak of. Here's today's fingers to keyboard entry:

Sometimes I feel like a gerbil running around and around on his wheel. Sometimes I feel like a nut, but most times I don't. I wish I had had a banister to slide down when I was a kid, but I doubt I would have, being too consumed with "appropriate, good girl" behavior. And if I had found one to slide down, and had slid, with my lack of coordination, I would most likely have broken a bone and had a cast for a keepsake. I'd have hoped many friends and acquaintances would come and sign it for me. What kind of a keepsake would a virginal cast be? There should be a pastische of signatures and other graffiti embossed on it. A spicy, personal jambalaya of a cast.

OK. So I wrote and then went back and finnagled and finetuned. I don't really think that's cheating. Maybe I'll even post this effort on my blog.