Writing Challenge # 22

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

The prompts from Bonni Goldberg’s “Room to Write,” are difficult in the respect that they challenge my writing on a more personal level than others. I never admit to myself that I have shields and protections I use in my daily social interactions because that is the point — protections are things that we build and then ignore. I had to think about the things I do when there is just something so surprising I have to pause to assess the situation. It turns out that I smile, breathe, think, and then react. So, I thought of a break-up scene, and how the character just smiles as though the smile is stuck, and it lacks the breath and thought, and even reaction. That makes for a different kind of scene, which you can find in Prompt # 43.

The second prompt of the week had to do with flying. I thought of the possibilities for flight. I ended up thinking of the worst flight, rather than a better one. It is entertaining because the prompt is to write about flying of any kind. I hope the twist is more entertaining than any other possible version. I also hope it’s not a generic twist either. That would mean that my first stages of writing are generic. Like any other writer I would prefer to have original ideas, but alas, too many have written before us. Those that have written, plant the seeds of their original ideas into our own writing. Maybe that explains all the superhero, vampire, and wizard sensations in the world? A question to think on, as you read my versions of the prompts! Enjoy!

Writing Challenge #21

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

Greetings audience, readers and people of all walks of life who might find this quizzical and all together odd work with words on their computer screen. This week is National Appreciation for Writing Week, and though it has nothing to do with this particular post, I thought it would be a good thing to mention. Writing is an important pastime and, attending a gathering for writers this afternoon, I found out that we all have our own individual reasons to write. Whether it is because we felt our voices lost in the mass, or that our overactive brains froth over with so much information that we have to put it down on paper, the thing we all have in common is that we write.

The reason I mention the gathering at all is because it inspired my topics for today. While listening to everyone I was amazed at the kind of writing my peers create. As ever, and with no insult intended, I also thought of the many different ways I would recreate their ideas. The prompts, I think, help me as a writer find that singular perspective that each writer develops in order to create their own work, or methodically tamper and revamp another’s. This is shown in the first prompt, where I have to trick myself into writing something that I had no intention of writing before. The underlined words are the beginning of every line in “my list.” For the second prompt, I figured I would do something a fellow editor suggested, “When you have to write something, there is no reason you shouldn’t have fun with it.” So to make “my fear” more enjoyable for both, me the writer and the audience, I wrote about one of my more ludicrous fears that is regularly depicted in cartoons, “Talking furniture.” Enjoy!

Writing Challenge #20

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

The first prompt for this week took me some time to figure out, so I think an explanation is in order. As many authors know, comparison is a good way to get the audience to relate to a situation the character is placed in. People understand the comparison between tributaries and the veins found in the human body. They understand relating an object or action to a familiar commonality so that the audience has a mental image or sound reference for a scene. This exercise is something that will help strengthen and broaden our perspectives. Once I figured out the request the task became less of a chore, and more of fun twist on a challenge. Hope you enjoy that one.

This second prompt isn’t something that can be shared. I should explain. The task is to resolve a problem by writing it down and then write down all of the possible ways to deal with the challenge of the day. My problems are like a minefield. I try to tip-toe through the maze alone, trying not to trip on them. Therefore as I have done only twice before I leave you with the prompt rather than my own brain problems. With that said, here are the prompts for this week:

Writing Challenge # 19

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda  K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

Hello to the audience, I say as the writer, author, and the challenged in this writing prompt. I believe the best way I could rewrite a project was to show you the current fan-fiction I am working on. The title is “Twilight on Crack,” and yes it is a spin off of Twilight, and I know it could use a different title. To answer your immediate question, “Are there Vampires?” I say, “No there are no vampires, just crack addicts.” I have taken a previous excerpt from the project and my revision I did earlier today for prompt # 37. I put it up on FanFiction.net last semester under the name SlyLilia, so if you feel like taking an adventure away from this blog, feel free to visit.

Prompt # 38 is more to the reality of things. “Everything and the Kitchen Sink,” which reminds me of a cookie recipe, is titled to make the writer look at a kitchen and tell a story. I ended up creating a mess in a kitchen. I thought, at first it would be just about the mess, but found out by the end of the free write it was more about the dog, and the woman. I added in the kitchen sink for good measure. I can only hope that the prompts fulfill the purpose of the tasks. Here they are!

Writing Challenge # 18

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

Bonni Goldberg wrote that, “a writer must be able to describe a character with a detail.” An object that becomes the character’s signature within the story, helps make the character more three dimensional. When I think of this challenge I think of Sherlock Holmes’ Boswell Pipe. You know that Sherlock Holmes smoked a pipe, but the specificity in the type of pipe, makes the detail a paramount descriptor for the character. If you look at a person in real life you can discern their character by looking at their preferences. So to describe a character, within a story, it makes sense to look at their wardrobe. As I had little time to write this exercise out, I chose the sweatshirt I wore today.

The second task was about the future. I could have gone many different ways, as can many writers, when it comes to writing about the future. The future is an open possibility. The problem is, that the future is such an open possibility, many writers don’t know where to start. Therefore, rather than contemplate my own future, or the future of the world, I chose to go with the last suggestion Bonni gave, to write about the future of a story. The choice was easy after that. I am a fan of Anne Bishop and her “The Black Jewel Series.” Anne’s talent lies within her characters. Therefore I concentrated on a character who had recently acquired the task of raising a daughter.

Hopefully, you will find these two prompts as entertaining as I did. Enjoy!

Writing Challenge # 17

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

I have a feeling that, as I was very confused with the first post of this week, my audience will be as well. On Prompt # 33 there are three types, or forms, of writing. There are three distinct and very different kinds of voices with which the challenge wants us to imitate.  As I know from previous classes there is difficulty in imitating someone else’s work, because it distorts your own voice. The task calls for the challenged to choose one of your previous free-writes and rewrite it with one style in mind. I first tried to imitate choice number 3, but as I looked through the newest version I found out that my imitation is far more similar with choice number 1.

The reason I chose prompt # 23 to re-write is the theme. As the second prompt this week tells us to write about kissing, I thought I would use a prompt that had that theme already written in. Look at original prompt # 23.

As for the theme of prompt # 34, the task to describe a kiss, I chose a personal experience I had on Wednesday afternoon. Being stung by a bee is no picnic, being stung on the lip by a bee is agony, unless of course, you are allergic to bees, then you have me trumped. I would have had this post up on Thursday if I did not have to go to the doctor Thursday night to get treatment, so I apologize. With that said, I give you the tasks of the week:

Ekphrastic Blog # 16

From del Toro’s “El Labertino del Fauno”

Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

As my dramaturg research starts to influence my work, there is a movie that I have been thinking about for the past few days. It has been inspiring and haunting and I needed to find all of those qualities to get a poem from it. This poem has been very stubborn, as if it wasn’t in the mood to be written. I eventually had to rent the movie, “Pan’s Labyrinth” or “El Laberinto Del Fauno” directed by Guillermo del Toro. I listened to del Toro’s narration of directing the movie, while I watched the cinematography wiz by, and I eventually found the story that had been nagging at my memory. I cut an image from the film, added the Spanish story and the English translation. The story and picture together I put on our Facebook page (search Jet Fuel Review) under the Ekphrasitc Photo Album , because you can see them better there. While I left the picture of the rose for this site.

The dilemma now, is the poem. Where could I start without recreating the story completely? It was an interesting flip I used del Toro’s comments and the myth of the rose to inspire the story. This wasn’t enough. There was a mood quality that I felt was lacking with just an altered photograph so I went in search of the lullaby. I found a song far more poignant than just the film’s version. A girl, Iris, composed an accapella version and it has everything plus the discord that the movie manifests.

Writing Challenge # 16

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

Bonni Goldberg challenges her audience to write about things they know. It is common that people who do not write, believe that they cannot write and therefore avoid the topic. And yet if another person wrote a free write about water and hunger there would be a completely different story behind the element and the feelings. A person who drowned would write about the element’s encompassing and deathly grip. A swimmer would write about the buoyancy of her body in a pool or an ocean. I wrote about a drowning room, as I have been influenced by the news about hurricanes and tsunamis.

Someone that has starved would write about the gut-wrenching pain that hunger brings. I was reminded of Elie Wiesel’s “Night” not too long ago and his description of hunger still haunts me. As I have never truly starved, I wrote about the topic as a need for something. A life that I plan to live; a life that I am already living, in many ways. I wrote about some glimpses in my memories and the dreams of my future. As always I hope that you consider writing the challenges, and finding your own voice among the multitude. I can already see stories taking shape around my free writes and hopefully you will have a book full of stories too. To the prompts:

Writing Challenge # 15

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

Bonni Goldberg has been keeping me on my metaphorical toes for thirty pages. This week’s posts are no different. I have been battering a friend’s sanity to make sense of these prompts before I unleashed them to the world. She was impressed though preoccupied with her own homework. There is a reason I decided to consult a friend rather than just post this week. I wanted these posts to make a little more sense and have some entertainment value. When I tried to do an “If this, Then this” argument I could only think of something funny, and put it in the perspective of a child’s reasoning. I can only hope that we will not be the only ones to giggle at the write up.

Keeping with the child’s perspective, I created a fairy world in the flames of a fire. This took an interesting turn because I did not know when I started to write this prompt out, that she would get burned in the end. I started writing thinking, “Maybe she will go play in the fairy world?” But instead there was a crash of reality, that had a child’s justification behind it. So here are my prompts, I hope they inspire you.

Writing Challenge #14

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Editor’s Note: This post has been written by Linda K. Strahl, an editor-in-training at the Jet Fuel Review. Her full bio can be found at the end of this post.

This week has been a challenge for me as a blogger. I apologize to the audience for the last couple of posts. My Wednesday post involved a technical issue. This post, “Writing Challenge,” usually a part of Thursday’s scheduled post, was hard for me because of time constraints, which I hope to solve by next week. The prompts for this week’s challenge are difficult. I felt I should warn those who follow the prompts I gather from Bonni Goldberg’s, “Room to Write,” that details were stressed in these two free writes.

Details in one object was not enough in the first prompt I performed because the minute I thought of one object I had to describe the surroundings this object would be found in. I seem to have concentrated on the imagination aspect of the prompt rather than balancing it with the intuition and instinct that is called for in the prompt’s introduction. The question is, “What does this tell me about my writing?” The prompt illustrates for me that I, as a writer, have to improve the foundations of my writing, concentrating on describing instinctual and intuitive thinking.

As with the first writing prompt my mind could not settle on one thing to describe without seeing. “I don’t see,” was first solely looking at a man through my own perspective. This didn’t seem genuine, almost detached, so I instead used something that cannot be seen. Wind cannot be seen, we can see the effects it has on objects but we cannot see it. Wind became a way for me to illustrate multiple ways with only one action. Once I found the idea, it took on its own life very quickly. I suggest to those working through this book, to try look at a larger thing first.

Here are the posts. I hope they jump-start your own imagination.