Writing Exercise (week of May 6-12)

[wordwhacker]

I figured it'd be good to start with a a challenge I got a while back from eternalism to write a drabble (100 words) with exactly one word of dialogue. She gave me this challenge nearly a month ago (ouch) and, herself, responded to my challenge in approximately ten seconds. So it's about time I posted my half of the bargain and stopped looking like such a loser.

Since this is so short, I thought I'd post both the first and revised drafts. Each is exactly 100 words; I think I make much better use of them in the final draft, though the changes are fairly subtle.

This Room (drabble, 100 words, second draft)


He watches me for some time; I watch his reflection in the monitor, framed by my study door. I stop working, shrug my shoulders to rouse them, close my eyes. The room is quiet now, populated by small sounds – my breath, the hum of electricity, the rustle of cloth as my lover crosses the room to stand behind me.

His hands settle on my aching shoulders. The contact is compelling, reminds me how well I am known. It is an offer.

"Please."

He molds into my stress with his fingers. I know them like, eyes shut, I know this room.

---

This Room (first draft)


He has been watching me for some time; I watch him back in his reflection, framed by my study door, in my computer monitor. I have been working for too long. I stop, shrug my shoulders to rouse them to life again. The room is quiet, populated now by small sounds - my breath, the hum of electricity; the rustle of cloth as my husband crosses the room to stand behind me.

His hands touch my aching shoulders. The sudden contact is compelling, reminds me how well I am known.

"Please."

He sets to work, molding my stress with his fingers.

---

It's interesting to look at them side-by-side. The second draft is definitely more focused.

And now, the writing challenge/exercise for the week of May 13-19th, should anybody apart from me choose to accept it:

1) Pick three numbers between one and 999. (Yeah, you heard me.)

2) Go here and find your numbers and their corresponding vague plot outlines.

3) Write at least 500 words, using one of those three plots as a guide. The story obviously doesn't have to be finished (unless you want to keep writing - in which case, go for it!) Focus on something you know you want to work on - dialogue, descriptions, characterization, etc. Feel free to leave the story on a tantalizing cliffhanger, just 'cause it's fun.

Comments

[eternalism.livejournal.com]

It was more like half an hour. :p I mean, what else do I have to do during my shifts at work? :p

I shall respond to that challenge. And hopefully have it written within the week.

[wordwhacker.livejournal.com]

I sorta dropped the ball on actually doing this within any sort of reasonable timeframe myself... *cough* BUT I've done it now. Yay.

Now I need to work on the short story that's currently burning a hole in my brain. Or the novel that I wanted to have mostly edited by the end of this month. *biting nails*

[eternalism.livejournal.com]

I sorta did some ball-dropping too. And now I'm signed up for nanomango for June, so I doubt I'll be doing much in the way of writing that month.

[cassaclyzm.livejournal.com]

Okay, nanomango looks entirely too amusing. X-D What are you going to do for it?

[eternalism.livejournal.com]

You should sign up for it too!

Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I'd better decide soon. I was going to do Branches, but then I remembered that all my old notes for it are on my old computer. Then I was thinking of doing the story of The Silence, but my drawing skills just aren't up to that. Not good enough to do the story justice, methinks. Same thing with a myth I came up with the other night, about the Bleeding God. (Stupid crappy art skills.)

I might just try and do Branches anyway. I think I can remember enough of what I had planned for it to do the 20 pages I've allotted myself, and if not, well, filler material is always fun. :p (Maybe next year I'll have decent enough skills that I can attempt to tell a good story through drawings.)

[cassaclyzm.livejournal.com]

It sounds really fun. I wonder if I can somehow incorporate it into my Script Frenzying... like, draw the storyboards for my own script. X-D