What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter was first introduced to me first semester of my senior year of highschool in creative writing class. I fell so in love with it that I begged my parents to buy me a copy for Christmas.
So now here I am, trapped by the shackles of writer's block once again. Yet, having this resource around lessens the pain of not knowing how to write. This being said, I have decided that whilst I have no clue what "writing" is nor how to do it, I am going to go through this book page by page, exercise by exercise and do the best I can to defeat the many headed hydra that is writer's block. (There are a few exercises that involve elaborating on pre-existing novels that I'm going to omit.)
Exercise One is about beginning in the middle, (now...since I don't have permission to blah blah blah about what goes on in this book, I can't give too much away. I'm just going to briefly state what it's about and then delve into how my brain responded. I highly reccomend that all authors have a copy of this book. They give you an exercise, state the objective, and most of the exercises are accompanied by student examples.) I've had to omit and change some of my examples because I curse....a lot.
Writhing in pain, I knew that I was going to die.
Stabbing at the mashed potatoes, I wondered why I had to eat; the food tasted like dirt anyways, and I had better things to do than pretend to stuff my face to appease my mother.
Hitting the wall, and falling to the cold cement floor I could smell the blood before it ever began to drip from my nose, that was when I knew that the b****** had to die.
Staring at my toes and the cool, green grass, I began to wonder when I'd learn what love is.
Exercise Two is one of the ones that I'm omitting. Exercise Three is about pairing beginning sentences...birth and death, falling in love and filling for a divorce, and a pairing about seasons that I didn't do because I was stuck on it.
Birth and Death
Pain blossomed through my body and I knew it was time, I wasn't ready for the new arrival, but it was time.
I imagined that there had been a lightness, that after going through so much pain in life, death brought relief like asprin to a long lasting migraine.
Love and Divorce
My head was swimming, and I couldn't concentrate on a damn thing; when I realized that his smile was the cause of these dangerous symptoms I realized that this must be love.
The clicking of my heels on the courthouse tile was as cold as my heavy heart, I wasn't sure what had happened, just that I needed to sever the ties after ten long years.
Exercise Four gives you a first line to use and expects you to keep going with it. I'm torn on whether or not I should share this one because I think it is going to turn into something great.
...here, I'll share a preview of what is to come.
"Where were you last night?"
I choked on a response. I had figured that my return home the night previous had been a stealthy one and wasn't prepared for a confrontation. I stared into my Cheerios, trying to think of a response that didn't begin with, "but mom."
That's all for today, but stay tuned for our next Adventure in Writer's Block.
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