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BOFFW 11/9/2018

/ Jenifer / Leave a comment

This past Friday’s Free Write amazed me. Not for what I wrote – my brain was not at all nimble. But my fellow free writer’s pieces were shockingly good – like, something I’d struggle over for a week or two but what they wrote in six minutes good. It was such a pleasure to listen to each one of them read. And then I was jealous. But overall I was inspired. Keep at it and maybe one day prompts will bring out that type of art in me as well.

As I mentioned, my brain just was not clicking. I drank my coffee as usual. I ate my usual breakfast. But the force was not with me. Anyway, the first prompt was my best. We each picked a blank paint chip and then we picked the same paint chip that had the color name on it. I’d picked a blue chip named Bird Song Blue. This was my attempt:

     The clump of trees was just up ahead, the horseshoe shape of mangroves with a tree-dot in the center. The wind was pushing her towards it otherwise she knew she’d already be able to smell it – the earthy stench of hundreds of nesting frigate birds. Finally she reached it and paddled into the calm water beneath the trees. She loved this spot – not at all quiet. But a different type of chaos. The birds making their sounds, all different types of sounds. Lifting off nests, settling down again. Their droppings falling into the clear water turning it milky blue.

BOFFW (Best of Friday Free Writes)

/ Jenifer / Leave a comment

The Rehoboth Beach Writer’s Guild hosts “free writes” in Millville, Lewes, and Rehoboth, Delaware on various days and times. It had been a long time, years actually, since I’d attended one. But I finally went back this past Friday.

For me, the free write is terrifying. But it is such a good exercise. The format is extremely casual. You don’t have to sign up in advance. You can use the prompt or you don’t have to use the prompt. You can read what you wrote or you can pass. It is as non-threatening as it can possibly be. All that said, it still terrifies me, but as the session goes on it gets less and less scary.

So here’s how it works: The leader reads a prompt. Yesterday Fran was, other than the first prompt, using a book of poetry written by RBWG member Ellen Collins. Fran would read a poem then choose one line or maybe the title of the poem as the actual prompt and then give us a time limit. It is amazing how long one minute can be when you are holding a plank pose yet how short it can be when you are writing a paragraph for “until the danger passes”.

The free write is so good for me because I am a slow, slow, sloooooow writer. I ponder, I stare out the window, I doodle, I write a sentence, I scratch it out, think, stare, doodle… So it truly amazes and surprises me when I can, in one or two measly minutes, write an actual paragraph. Of course it also gets the creative juices flowing, and I’m always inspired by the other talented people in the room, and it is helpful to practice reading my work in front of others. So it is all good. (I have to keep telling myself that!!)

Here is my best writing from 11/2/2018. The prompt was “until the danger passes”. We also were supposed to incorporate other prompts in the form of typed phrases that we had picked from a bag that we passed around the table (rectangle of light; utterly beautiful trees; tumbling through a gate). The actual writing time for this exercise was six minutes.

     She woke up and saw the rectangle of light coming through her open bedroom door. Had she left the hall light on? No, this light looked too silvery. Then she remembered it was a full moon. The clouds had cleared. The storm had cleared. How had she fallen asleep during that lightening – bright, spreading across the sky with branches like dangerously beautiful trees, the thunder crashing? She had curled tight under her blankets waiting for the danger to pass. The danger of the flashing and crashing, yet also the danger of her thoughts. Now it was so silent. She felt raw though, and, slowly at first, then suddenly as if tumbling through a gate, all of the terrible news of the accident came back to her.

Far from perfect but a definite starting point!

(Click here for an essay Ellen Collins wrote about the RBWG Free Writes.)

The Abominable Snowman

/ Jenifer / Leave a comment

I see the abominable snowman in my window. It is only October and we haven’t had any snow on the ground since last February. The temperature outside is in the mid-50s. Yet there he is, watching me, framed by the yellow leaves of the gum tree behind him.

I’ve stared at this particular window in my office many days, many hours. And although this is the first time I’ve seen him, I think he’s been there all along.

The window is in terrible shape. It’s one of those plexiglass, bulging-out types that looks more like a skylight. It opens and closes with a crank that never opens or closes it completely. At its widest angle it fails to catch a breeze in the summer. Yet in the winter, the ever-present cobwebs in its corners shimmy in the icy draft.

The abominable snowman doesn’t look angry. He has an icicle beard and beady eyes. His mouth is open but it doesn’t appear that he wants to eat me (do abominable snowmen eat humans?). I think he is saying, “Hey, do you have any guacamole?”

As I look closer his ice-beard seems to be melting making little icy rivulets on the plexiglass. That makes me sad. I should go check to see if we have any guacamole in the fridge.

But wait. Over his head – is that a cloud or a halo? I squint, tilt my head, look down and back up quickly. Well this is just great. Now I’ll never be able to replace the stupid window. The abominable snowman has turned into Jesus.