Characterization exercise: Mother of a murderer

Carol sits at her dining room table, her right forearm resting on the table, hand wrapped around a tumbler half full of merlot. She’s leaning forward, elbows supporting her, almost oblivious to the cigarette in her left hand. Her expression is fixed, and she moves only to take another sip of wine, or a breath of her cigarette, or to tap ashes into the crystal bowl that other people might […]

Bob (characterization excercise)

Bob had worked in sales for years. He and his three co-workers had kept the organization going, kept it moving. They were the ones who enabled the company to reach its goals, each and every time. The city was divided into four sections and together the four of them covered it all, out on the road, always working together. Sometimes they might rotate, to keep things fresh, but like pallbearers […]

Writing class assignment: Characterization

Honestly, the class is not very challenging. We’re covering basic-basics and had very limited “improvement” oriented feedback on our first assignment readings. I know it’s a first reading and we’re all beginners, but I dunno if anyone’s going to improve very fast until people start to suggest things to work on, things to consider changing. We’re a little too polite, too supportive. Anyway, assignment two is characterization. My job; to […]

Setting exercise

First writing class assignment. My hands are wearing a thin layer of cold so I wrap my left around the cup as well, interlocking the fingers with the right hand and and laying my thumbs one atop the other. The cardboard sleeve protects me from getting burned but the warmth that still escapes is nice. Using both hands to lift the cup I take the first sip. A bit of […]

Writing class

First assignment from a beginners class for creative writing; describe a place using the 5 senses. Sigh. I knew it was going to be a basics class, but I wanted review of some basics. “Write about a place that you love. Describe it using the 5 senses, or as many as possible.” Then it’ll be read, and critiqued in class next week. This falls under the topic of “settings”. Even […]

Review and thoughts; Memoirs of a Geisha

I don’t read a lot of books when they first come out, I don’t see a lot of movies in theaters or even when they first arrive in DVD format. It could be that I don’t like being part of a crowd, or that I like things to stand a little test of time before I spend the money and time required, but more likely it’s just that I’m lazy […]

Review/reaction: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Haven’t seen the movie version yet, but I read a reference to the book in an issue of the New Yorker a few months ago and realized that I should read the book. I requested a copy from the library but it took so long to arrive that I forgot my request until the book arrived last week. For me it’s an odd little book, very well written, with characters […]

Reactions to watching “Brokeback Mountain”

Recently we bought a new DVD player and with it came a month of free DVD rentals. The first movie that we chose is “Brokeback Mountain”. I’m sure that everyone knows what separates this movie from all other mainstream successful movies; gay cowboys. I don’t think that I’m a prude, for the most part at least. I have gay and lesbian and bisexual friends, co-workers, associates, though no family members […]

Creative writing 101

I’ve registered for a continuing ed night school course in creative writing. The class doesn’t start until the end of September but I’m looking forward to it. I expect it to be fairly basic, but basic is what I need to learn. I haven’t done creative writing that was reviewed since, oh, 9th grade or so. Any writing  for assignments since then has been either critical/analytical or research oriented during […]