One Minute – One Sentence

This exercise is about being a writer and supposedly writing something everyday – not something I’m particularly good at I have to admit.

Nonetheless I promised I’d do these exercises and blog them too, so lucky for me, since I’m really not in the mood today, the exercise I chose at random requested that I spend one minute writing one sentence.

The book gives a list of examples for what that sentence could be about just to help get the brain going.

Obviously, for me this really should be sentences of dialogue, so I thought I’d have a go at writing a few odd lines based on the examples given and see what came out.

Here’s the result:

Write a single line of dialogue…

about an animal:
I buried the cat it in the garden before dad got home, but when I told him he said I had to dig it up again, cause he wanted to cremate it.

about an inanimate object:
Just sit in the bastard deck chair and shut the fuck up, all right?

how you’re feeling right now:
If I tell you, will you let me go?

that’s dull:
What you want?

about sex:
She didn’t want to.

beginning with a name:
George ate it, I saw him.

about the weather:
Well if it was hot and sunny and you was starkers on the beach getting a tan, you’d still be moaning about something or other.

that’s silly:
She said stick it in the tumble dryer, so I did, and it just like all fell apart.

about a place:
Didn’t think you’d want to look at it, so I left it in Swanage.

about a habit:
Well, you will keep biting your nails, love.

about yourself:
I’ve got a rash all over.

beginning with an expletive:
Fuck off out of here you little shit, and don’t for one minute think you’ll ever be coming back!

about water:
Third time this week he’s washed that bloody car of his.

about love:
You don’t know what it means, do you?

beginning with how:
How can you say that now?

about a season:
Then you’ll just have to wait till Spring.

about death:
Did he, when?

So much for one minute and one sentence! I certainly wasn’t expecting to do them all.

–
From The Five-Minute Writer

Plunge-in Beginnings

Interesting this one.

Basically about giving your readers (audience in my case) no choice but to jump straight into your story with your characters.

I’ve been taught this in my Nuffield writing group too.

The exercise lists a number of arresting scenarios from which to choose so I plunged into my scene using the first on list and wrote for five minutes just to see what would happen.

Here it is, obviously (as with all of these exercises) unedited:

JAN and SHELLY, young women in a street at dusk.
 

JAN: He’s following us.

SHELLY: Paranoid.

JAN: I’m not.

SHELLY: You are, leave it yeah?

JAN: I’m serious. It’s the same guy. He was on the bus.

SHELLY: Got off on our own, Jan. Come on.

JAN: He’s following us.

SHELLY: Jan!

JAN: He is!

SHELLY: Come on, will ya. We’ll be late.

JAN: Stop!

SHELLY: No!

(JAN stops)

SHELLY: Jan! For fuck sake. Leave it, yeah? Late enough as it is. You and your–

JAN: Must of got off the stop after.

SHELLY: (Coming back) You’re nuts you are, come on! (Grabs JAN’s arm)

JAN: (Looking back, pointing) See. He’s stopped.

SHELLY: Where you looking?

JAN: There, next to Budgens.

Shelly: I don’t see. (Then) The bald guy?

Jan: No! On the phone. The bloke on the phone. He stopped when I did. Got out his phone.

SHELLY: So a guy gets a phone call. So what? Come on.

JAN: He was on the bus, Shell. He was looking at me.

SHELLY: You didn’t say anything.

JAN: Too busy talking bout Matt.

SHELLY: Great, thanks. And I thought you was listening.

JAN: I was.

SHELLY: Yeah, while you was staring at your lover boy.

JAN: He was staring at me! Like real creepy.

SHELLY: Right, I’ve had enough of this. Come on. (Turns to walk back from where they came)

JAN: (Panicked) What are you doing!?

SHELLY: Come on. We’ll talk to him.

JAN: No! No!

SHELLY: I’ll ask him if he fancies you!

JAN: No, Shelly No! (But Shelly has gone) Shell! No! Shell, come back! (Pause. She thinks for a moment, then reluctantly chooses to run after) Shell! Wait!

Pleasantly surprised.

–
From The Five-Minute Writer

250 Words on Something

Well first I had one minute to write a list of boring things. Not easy.
Ended up with five:

• blue socks
• needlework
• washing up
• holes
• gardening

Then I had to use the remaining 4 minutes to write 250 or more words on one of the items. I chose gardening, then decided I’d write a monologue for a character.

I just typed what came into my head, but I have to say, after 4 minutes I had only managed 155 words, even though I was typing as fast as I was thinking. I had to set my timer for another 4 minutes and continued.

Here’s the unedited 275 word result:

Gardening is boring. Boring as hell. Well for me anyway. I mean I can see it has it’s pleasures, and I can see that, well she like’s it. I mean she’s out there all fuckin day. Time’s I feel like she’s just ignoring me. Maybe I’m boring. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe I am. No surely not. Me? Boring? I mean, how can I possibly be boring? Ok, so I don’t like gardening, and shopping for clothes is a waste of time, and I can’t cook, or make the bed cause that’s boring too. But she does all that so why should I bother? I did fix the hole in the fence though, and she was pleased I did that. Rabbits. I think it was was rabbits, or maybe a fox. She said she’d seen foxes by the rose bushes the other week, after that Bar-B-Que we had for John’s 21st. Probably rabbits though. My dad used to shoot the buggers. I’m not a cruel person though. Couldn’t hit anything. Besides, with my eye like it is, I’d never be able to aim straight anyway. She said I need to get it checked again, but I don’t like that new doctor. Foreign. They’re all foriegn these days aren’t they. She said it’ll be my own stupid fault if it got any worse. But it’s not, so what do I care. She’s got that bloody lawnmower out again. I keep telling her I’ll do it. She never listens. It’s only grass. Let the stuff grow for God sake. Doesn’t have to be cut every other day, for Christ sake! I mean once a fuckin month is enough, surely!

That was fun. Even managed to start developing a character.

–
From The Five-Minute Writer

What If?

I was supposed to take a ‘dramatic situation’ from a newspaper and turn it into fiction using ‘What if…?’ or ‘Suppose’.

Since I was just getting started and didn’t want to hinder myself and give myself an excuse for not getting started by saying something like, ‘okay, where can I find a newspaper’, I just went with something I had written earlier.

I had come across a line, the beginning line for a play maybe, so went with the ‘What Ifs’ for a five minutes…

I may have mentioned the land of the dead, but I never really knew it before now.

What if the speaker was a teenager?
What if the teenager was a hit and run victim?
What if he comes back to find his killer?
What if the killer was his stepfather?
What if the killer was paid by his stepfather?
What if the speaker was an old woman?
What if the play was a ten minute monologue?
What if the speaker was himself a murderer?
What if he actually has to confront his victims?
What if the play is set in the afterlife?
What if the audience don’t realise that till the end?
What if the speaker is a victim and she knows who her killer is, but the killer doesn’t recognise her?
What if the victim can now kill the killer because there is something after the afterlife?
What if the speaker had artificial intelligence and has been ‘decommissioned’?
What if the speaker was actually a laser printer?
What if I rearranged all the words and made a new sentence?

Well that’s the first exercise done. One down, fifty seven to go, lol.

–
From The Five-Minute Writer

I’ve not been writing much lately. The creative juices just aren’t flowing.

Even my blog is suffering.

The plug-in that digests my tweets from Twitter into a weekly post hasn’t been working properly since I upgraded my WordPress, so my blog is even more reliant on me actually blogging; Which has been very difficult in my current mental state. Not a lot happening in my brain at the moment.

Anyway, I’ve decided to rectify that…

It being the 1st of October, I’m setting myself a challenge for the next few months.

I have a book. I first came across it a couple of years ago. And then, a few months ago, I saw it again in Waterstones, and having a gift token from my birthday to spend, decided to buy the book.

It is called The Five-Minute Writer – Exercise and Inspiration in Creative Writing in Five Minutes a Day by Margret Geraghty.

“Just pick a page and begin your writer’s journey…” it says, and so I’m going to do just that.

There are 58 exercises and I’ve decided to literally pick one at random each day (or as often as possible, mental health and event work withstanding) and have a go.

Admittedly, the book is more geared towards the creative fiction writer, rather than the playwright, but it’s all good practise. (I may end up having to slightly change an exercise.)

Anyway, I’ve decided that in order to really push myself, I’m going to have to give myself a commitment, and what better than committing to publishing my results each day on my blog?

Yes, this may look a bit odd, and you’ll not know exactly what the exercise was, though I will give the title in the post.

Anyway, this is my blog, for my benefit, and if you get something out of it by reading it, then as far as I’m concerned that’s a bonus that I’m really pleased about.

Oh well, here goes. I’m not making any promises, but I’ll have a go! The title of each post will simply be ‘FMW’ and the exercise number. My first, just completed, will be FMW19.

And if you’re a writer, go buy the book and play along with me!

Actually, having just thought a bit more about this, maybe I should be setting myself a goal?

Ok, here it is: My goal will be to complete and post all 58 exercises from the book The Five-Minute Writer before Christmas 2009.

There, I’ve committed, and you can hold me to it!

Oh, Fuck!