here are some observations that I wrote (quickly) the other day. I'm thinking this is NOT what you have in mind. But i'm posting so that you can tell me how I can change this up, if you don't mind.
10 observations
1. The tulips sitting on the ledge in front of my bay window. They are not cut flowers, they are planted in dirt and so I have to decide if I’m going to allow them to die or if I will repot them somewhere. So much pressure over a simple gift.
2. The tulips have grown strangely tall. One is beginning to fall to the right, away from the others. Like a group of friends and this one is a slight outsider.
3. The clumps of camellia flowers, pink, white, and rust, on the ground and sitting on top of the other shrubs.
4. Spider webs in the cracks of the porch ceiling.
5. Black dirt under my fingernails.
6. The soles of my sneakers, worn away. When I look closely, I can see the words “designed in Seattle” etched on the soles.
7. The sound of some animal on the roof, scraping.
8. A jar of pens on the coffee table, probably 20 of them, as though I’d ever need all 20.
9. Floyd on my computer screen, looking at me and waiting for me to say something anything.
10. The shine on my keyboard where my right thumb presses over and over on the space key.
Mary--thank. you for writing! I love hearing from people. I wonder why you're dissatisfied. This is exactly what I mean, and the details are wonderful. I think that people get easily disappointed by this exercise because it seems so mundane. But it's in the mundane that we often find our material, our voice, our subtext, and even plots and characters.. I remember that when I talked about this exercise to a friend, I showed her what I had written. A lot of it was about the way food looked on a plate. "This is boring." she said.
Without being sure I was right, I told her it was just the point. And food began to show. up in my work.(Not often, by the way. But in a couple of key scenes.) And when I think about it, so much of our life involves the mundane--what we don't even think we'll have to deal with during the day: Wrestling with an engine that won't turn over. Looking at tulips. The details on your sneaker. This is great. You could use some of them to write flash. Thanks again.
Thanks for the reply. I'm not dissatisfied with these. But the thing is--they were hard to write! (Hard to think of what to write.) And so I thought perhaps i was doing it wrong. I do these each day and the good news is that I find myself paying more attention to the world during the day now--so that i can record my observations later. It's amazing how NOT in the world I am most of the time. Instead, i am inside my head. So this exercise is good for people like me (maybe everyone is like me).
here are some observations that I wrote (quickly) the other day. I'm thinking this is NOT what you have in mind. But i'm posting so that you can tell me how I can change this up, if you don't mind.
10 observations
1. The tulips sitting on the ledge in front of my bay window. They are not cut flowers, they are planted in dirt and so I have to decide if I’m going to allow them to die or if I will repot them somewhere. So much pressure over a simple gift.
2. The tulips have grown strangely tall. One is beginning to fall to the right, away from the others. Like a group of friends and this one is a slight outsider.
3. The clumps of camellia flowers, pink, white, and rust, on the ground and sitting on top of the other shrubs.
4. Spider webs in the cracks of the porch ceiling.
5. Black dirt under my fingernails.
6. The soles of my sneakers, worn away. When I look closely, I can see the words “designed in Seattle” etched on the soles.
7. The sound of some animal on the roof, scraping.
8. A jar of pens on the coffee table, probably 20 of them, as though I’d ever need all 20.
9. Floyd on my computer screen, looking at me and waiting for me to say something anything.
10. The shine on my keyboard where my right thumb presses over and over on the space key.
Mary--thank. you for writing! I love hearing from people. I wonder why you're dissatisfied. This is exactly what I mean, and the details are wonderful. I think that people get easily disappointed by this exercise because it seems so mundane. But it's in the mundane that we often find our material, our voice, our subtext, and even plots and characters.. I remember that when I talked about this exercise to a friend, I showed her what I had written. A lot of it was about the way food looked on a plate. "This is boring." she said.
Without being sure I was right, I told her it was just the point. And food began to show. up in my work.(Not often, by the way. But in a couple of key scenes.) And when I think about it, so much of our life involves the mundane--what we don't even think we'll have to deal with during the day: Wrestling with an engine that won't turn over. Looking at tulips. The details on your sneaker. This is great. You could use some of them to write flash. Thanks again.
Thanks for the reply. I'm not dissatisfied with these. But the thing is--they were hard to write! (Hard to think of what to write.) And so I thought perhaps i was doing it wrong. I do these each day and the good news is that I find myself paying more attention to the world during the day now--so that i can record my observations later. It's amazing how NOT in the world I am most of the time. Instead, i am inside my head. So this exercise is good for people like me (maybe everyone is like me).
Thanks for this!