Friday, September 26, 2008

My first Activity

Well, it's the eve of the official start date for my A215 Creative Writing course, and I started the day off by reading the beginning of the course book, and starting the first few activities.
The first activity was to read an excerpt from a story, and the second was to do some Free-writing, using three or four phrases from a list, and writing whatever came into our minds for a few minutes each.
I've never done free-writing in my life before, but I set to as asked, and was surprised that things seemed to just flow into my head.
The idea behind free-writing, is that it sets the mind working, and so you capture all you can of your thoughts and, among all the probable dross, there may be a nugget or two of gold - or, more likely, a hint of copper! Lol
After we write what we can, we are then supposed to read through it all, and underline any words, or phrases tha take our fancy - in this way we then start to build up a stock of ideas that may be able to be used at some time in the future.

Here's what I came up with:

Activity 1.2:

The truth is . . .
I don’t know what I’m doing with this freewriting malarkey and hope it goes the way it’s supposed to – I never let myself go the way I should, I guess, that comes of liking to be fully in control, and this freewriting thing lets go of it! I’ll just have to try and practice it more – maybe do a bit each day – yes! Even if it’s only for a few minutes each day it won’t hurt! I hate it when my mind goes blank as it seems to a lot lately, especially after I’ve taken my medication – I hate having to take it! But I know the consequences of leaving it too long – it’s a bummer!!

I wish I had said . . .
Sorry the last time I saw her – it would only have taken a tiny effort, but I let stubborn pride stand in my way, and now it’s too late! Guilt is such an awful thing to keep feeling, and I guess it’s something I’m going to have to resolve sooner or later . . .

A long time ago . . .
I did things that made sense to me, only to see later on that if I’d done them just slightly different, the changes in my life would have been even better – but I guess that’s the thing with looking back – it always has 20:20 vision, whereas, when you’re looking forward, it’s as if you are suddenly blind, and have to grope your way into an unseen future – dangerous, but exciting in a way!

One summer’s day . . .
That’s a laugh really! When do we get summer days any more?! When I think back to the summers of my childhood, they all seem to be filled with weeks of sunshine! But then I guess we look back at our youth through rose-coloured glasses – it’s nice to remember the good days – but the rainy days, unless something particularly memorable happens, are a blur that eventually fades away from the mind.


Now, I haven't a clue as to whether I did well or not for my first attempt, but I guess the idea is to free up the imagination - I see I've still got a few shackles to loosen before I can truly say that my imagination has taken flight!