Synesthesia

The Assignment: Use synesthesia (defined in A Glossary of Literary Terms as a description of "one kind of sensation in terms of another; color is attributed to sounds, odors to colours, sounds to odors, and so on.") in a short scene -- surreptitiously, without drawing too much attention to it -- to convey to your readers an important understanding of some ineffable sensory experience.  Use sight, touch, taste, and smell. 600 words.

My Response:

Music danced through the air, soft and sweet.  Floating across the lake to where she lay on the sand, staring up at the dark sky.  It was going to start at any second, and she couldn't wait.  This was her favourite day of the year.  Better, even, than Christmas, it's cold, harsh winds keeping her locked within her home.  No matter how many family members were by her side, there was nothing in this world better than being outside.   Breathing in light, fresh scent of the summer around her.

"What are you thinking about?" His deep voice rumbled softly beside her, and she turned until she was facing him.  Laying on her side, she laid a hand on his chest, covered by only a single button up shirt.

"Nothing." She told him softly.  Below her she could feel the patchwork quilt that her mother had given her.  Each square was cut from a different cloth, leaving her laying on an orchestra of texture that reminded her of her childhood.

"It can't be nothing." He protested.

She would have replied, but in that moment the crowd began to stir even as the music grew louder.  It was about to start.

Sending him a grin, she settled back onto the blanket to watch the display.

It wasn't long before the first the first of the cacophonous colours lit up the sky.  Yellow, orange, green and red lingered in the darkness before falling to the ground below and disappearing into the mist.  It was breathtaking and beautiful.

The night was alive with the brilliance.  She could smell the dark of the powder used to launch them into the air.  If she closed her eyes, she would swear that the bright colours lurked even on her tongue.  This was it.  This was the very thing she waited for every year.

Before she knew it, the display was over.  The couples around them began to pack up their possessions, each of them talking about what they had just seen.

"Hey, Jess, it's time to go." He said, pulling her attention away from the dark night that had only moments before seemed so alive."

"I know." She muttered, pushing herself to her feet and watching as Anthony folded the blanket.  "Why does it go so fast?"

He chuckled, then threw an arm around her shoulders.  "It's fireworks.  They can't last forever."

She gave him a small smile as they walked away, then glanced back at the spot they had been laying.  In a perfect world, they could last forever.

My Thoughts: This one was hard.  I mean, this was supposed to be posted about three weeks ago, but I just didn't know what to do with it, how to make it work.  But I think I finally got it.  At least, I'm hoping I did, but I suppose you all will be the judge more than me.  I'd love to know what you thought!

Please leave a comment below.  I would love to see what you thought of my response, or even your own response to the exercise.

All exercises are taken from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley

Alarm Clock Dream

The Assignment: Write a short short story in which an alarm clock going off int he middle of the story plays some kind of crucial role.  Half of the story will be dream and half reality.  I don't usually encourage my students to write about dreams (it is very difficult to do it well, and the results are usually clumsy and obvious), but in this case, try to construct a mirror image on either side of this alarm clock sound.  400 words.

My Response:

"Don't touch that." She said.  Her hands were on the body in front of her, tugging plastic over it.  There was no blood to speak of, but she could see him inching closer.  Wanting, perhaps needing, to see it.  To know.

He looked up at her, a crooked smile on his face.  "Hiding something?"

"You said I could take care of my own." She muttered, pausing in her task to make sure that her gloves were pulled up and her sleeves pulled down.  She didn't need him to see.  It was better if no one knew.

The smile didn't fade, if anything it grew.  His uneven teeth clashing with the pristine sheriff's badge that decorated his chest.  "Wake up.  I wasn't going to let you take care of it."

Anger flushed through her, mingling with the fear that left a hard knot in her stomach.  "I..."

"Wake up!" He yelled, the smile gone, and anger swimming in his eyes.  "Wake up!"

She shook her head.  "No!"

"Wake up, Ellie!" The voice was different now.  Familiar, and she pulled her brows together.  The scene around her was fading away, and panic set in.  No, she had to be able to see.  She had to hide the body, to protect herself!

"Ellie!"

Her eyes snapped open and she glance around at the room that she had been staying in for the last few days.  The fear from the dream slowly began to slip away, and she relaxed back against the pillow.

"What?" She muttered, her voice thick with sleep.  It had just been a dream.  Nothing more than a dream.

"Come on.  It's time to go."

Ellie's eyes met her sisters, their blue depths reflecting the mourning both of them were currently feeling.

"No."

"It's his funeral."

She shook her head, sinking back under the blankets and turning away.  "I can't."

"You have to."  Her sister's voice had gone hard.  No longer was the caring sister.  "This was your fault, and you're not going to lay there feeling sorry for yourself.  Now get up and get dressed.  We're leaving in half an hour."

A tear slipped down Ellie's cheek.  Her fault.  She was right about that.  And there was nothing she could ever do to fix it.


My Thoughts: Well, I definitely wrote this one at work, so if it seemed like I was getting constantly distracted, I really was.  But it was definitely fun.  I don't generally do dream scenes.  Mostly because when I read them, rather than seeing the meaning that the author obviously intended, I usually just find them annoying and superficial.  So writing one kind of went against my personal likes.  Still, trying to come up with some way to parallel the dream world and the real world was kind of fun.  Still not something I want in my stuff, really, but it was definitely a good exercise.

I would love to see anything that you might have come up with for this exercise.  Or if you just want to tell me what you thought of my response, I would love that as well.  Leave a comment below!

All exercises are taken from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley

Clothes

The Assignment: Use a particular and fairly vivid piece of clothing to tell a story: a sweater worn by two sisters who sleep with the same man while wearing it (at least initially), or a loud sports jacket someone buys at a Goodwill store before realizing the jacket has three bullet holes in its back.  What does clothing say about us?  How does it select us, as opposed to being selected by us?  Who tells us to buy this or that thing (other than salespeople)? What is the most alluring piece of clothing you've ever seen or worn and why?  why do some people seem to fit their clothes and others not?  What do clothes hide?  What do they reveal? 600 words.

My Response:

“So, what do you think?” Karen asked, presenting herself to her boyfriend.

“About what?” He asked, staring at the TV behind her.

Karen twisted around to see the bright colours of a cartoon that she couldn’t even begin to name dancing across the screen, then down at the red dress she had donned.

It had a wide sweethart neckline, with capped sleeves, and it clung to her curves until just below the waist where it flared out, ending about an inch above her knees. She had loved it the first time she had seen it, and Mark had remembered and gotten it for her.

At the time, he had told her that she was just as beautiful as the dress, and he was going to take her out for a night out on the town to prove it to her. Now she was starting to think that was just another of his promises that he would never get around to.

“Mark!” She cried, stepping in the way of the TV even more. “Look at me.”

He sighed dramatically and looked up at her. “What?”

“You promised that we would go out.”

“No I didn’t.”

Of course he said that now. That was the way it always went with him. He would be all sweet and make all these promises, but when it came time to actually do it, he acted like it was nothing.

“Mark, I need you to…”

Her words were cut off by the sound of glass breaking. She frowned as she looked in the direction of the back door.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” Mark asked, his eyes firmly fixed on the TV again.

“Don’t worry about it. You keep watching your damn cartoons. I’ll go look.”

He nodded, and waved her off, and Karen turned away, making her way toward the back door. She should have known this was going to happen. She should have left him months ago, but she had thought that he was a good guy. That her friends didn’t know what they were talking about when they called him a loser.

Her steps slowed when she saw the broken glass in front of the back door, which was swinging open in the night. She tensed, ready to run, when arms encircled her, a hand moving to stop her from screaming.

“What do we have here?” A ragged voice sounded in her ear. “A pretty dress all ready for me.”

She shook her head, kicking out, trying to get him in the knee, but he just chuckled, and pushed her against the counter, sending a pot clattering to the ground.

“Do you mind, Babe?” Mark called from the living room. “I’m trying to watch a show.”

The man snickered in her ear, and she desperately tried to fight him off, but soon the red skirt she had loved so much was bunched up around her waist.

“You know what this colour reminds me of?” He asked, his fingers playing with the fabric even as she felt him pulling at her panties. “Your blood.”

She felt a sting on her neck and realized that he had cut her, the red of her blood sliding down to mingle with the dress.

Then he was on her. The dress was pulled from her body, leaving her exposed. He threw it in front of her, her eyes focusing on the rips and tears that hadn’t been there only a few minutes before.

“Babe, do you think you could bring me a sandwich?” Mark called, and she let out a groan, trying to block out what was happening to her.

The laughter in her ear didn’t help.

When he was done he grabbed the knife once more. “Thanks for a great night, my Lady in Red.” He whispered in her ear.

Her eyes widened as she felt the knife pushed into her, twisting as it dug deep into her back. Pain flooded through her, and she could see her blood flowing out onto the counter below her, pooling around the dress, until it was hard to decipher one from the other.

Slowly the colour faded away, his laughter getting more and more distant, until she couldn’t feel anything at all.

My Thoughts: So...that went a little bit darker than I originally intended it.  Seriously, I don't know what I thought was going to happen, but it sure wasn't that.  Huh.  Well, there you have it.  I guess I'm all dark and twisty ^.~

I would love to see anything that you've come up with for this exercise.  Or even just a comment on how you think I did.  Post in the comments section below.

All exercises come from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley  

Colours

The Assignment: Write an exercise in which you repeatedly use two different primary colours.  Describe these colours without naming them too often -- and try to find effective synonyms for the colours without being too obvious about this disguise.  Repetition of anything alien to the human elements of a story is bound to influence the way the story sinks into the reader's mind.  How would red and yellow, appearing over and over again in drapes, carpets, clothes, handmade ashtrays, or toilet bowls, affect you as a reader? If you know anything about the meaning or symbolism of colours, choose your pair of hues well to play off emotions against each other (red for anger; blue for passivity).  Apply this exercise to a situation with which you're already frustrated.  500 words.

My Response:

“I have a surprise for you.” My mother said as soon as I walked in the door.

I had been gone for a couple of weeks. My parents had felt that I could use a break from school, and had sent me to my aunts house to ‘work out the stress’. Actually, my psychiatrist had said that after I told him that sometimes I got a little stressed out by tests. I hadn’t wanted to go, but I hadn’t had any say in the matter. My parents had insisted that they knew what was best for me.

Because spending weeks away from school was going to help with my test anxiety.

“A surprise?” I asked cautiously, putting down the cerulean bag that I had picked out just before leaving. My mother hadn’t approved. She kept making noise about the yellow set that was so pretty. I had stood firm, though, and ended up with the luggage I had wanted.

“Come with me.” She said cryptically, heading toward my bedroom.

There were knots in my stomach long before we reached the door. I knew my mother. When she thought that people were upset, she did everything in her power to cheer them up. Except that she didn’t know how to cheer a person up at all.

“Alright, here we go.” She said, standing in front of my door, her face a mask of excitement. I braced myself for what was to come.

The door swung open, and I was instantly blinded.

Yellow covered every surface. The wood desk that I had loved so much had been replaced with a plastic one covered with sunflowers. My bed now featured a golden cover that seemed to reflect the light coming in through the saffron bordered windows. A single mustard lamp sat on the small table beside my bed, and the closet that was partially opened revealed even more amber surprises inside.

I stepped slowly through the door, gaping around the room and wondering how the hell I was supposed to live there.

“Yellow is supposed to make you happy.” My mother informed me from the door. It took all of my control to not turn and shout at her when I glimpsed the lemon backpack hanging off the back of my brand new yellow chair.

“Mom, I hate yellow.”

“Nonsense. It’s yellow! Who hates yellow?”

I bit my tongue and turned toward her. “Mom…”

“Don’t argue with me! I know what’s best for you, and this is it. Now, I had one of your friends bring over your homework.” She pointed to a large stack of papers piled beside my thankfully unchanged computer. The shiny blue of it looked odd on my new desk, but I took comfort in it. “You’d better get to work.”

She stormed out of the room, leaving me in the headache waiting to happen that was my room, and I sighed as I sat down in the chair. That would teach me to ever talk to my psychiatrist ever again.

My Response: This one was interesting.  I was only supposed to put the colours in, but I couldn't help but build the story around it.  So, I ended up with an overbearing mother and a daughter that doesn't quite know how to stand up for herself.  It was fun, for sure.

I would love to know what you thought of my response.  And if you've come up with anything yourself, please share!  Post in the comments section below.

All exercised come from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley   

Canned Film

The Assignment: Write a very short synopsis of an imaginary film, as if writing for one of those video anthologies -- perhaps 10,000 Films in a Nutshell. Concentrate on images as much as you can in this summary of a plot or an interesting combination of images and time. 300 words.

My Response:

 Set on the backdrop of a world controlled by deals with daemons and the price of souls, Fallen Things is a story unlike any other.

When it comes time for Felicity to make good on her contract with Barnaby, she does the unthinkable: Trades her own soul for that of the woman she loves.

Now Lisa is stuck in the daemon realm, forced to play the role of servant. New rules are forced on her, and the world of magic soon reveals itself, tempting her with it’s powerful tendrils, until she finds herself content with the world around her.

Her world is torn to shreds once more when Felicity arrives, intent on ‘saving’ her. But when Lisa refuses to go with her, the mishap with the contract is brought to light, and suddenly her new Master is finding himself on trial with the daemon’s that run the realm.

Will he be able to maintain his position in the daemon realm? Does he even want to anymore? And will Lisa be once more thrust into a world that she no longer wants to claim as her own?

Is the mortal realm ready for the fallout of the trial? Because one thing is certain, no matter what happens, the world will never be the same again.

My Thoughts:  I actually used a friend's novel for this one (Eric A. Satchwill).  Mostly because I was too lazy to come up with a whole new concept, but also because as soon as I started writing, this just came out.  I'm not sure entirely how accurate it is, as I haven't read the entire novel yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing it.  I would love to see something like this, written by a friend, about one of my novels.

I would love to see what you thought of my response.  And if you came up with something of your own for it, please post in the comments section below!

All exercises are taken from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley  

TV

The Assignment: Write a short interior scene during which a TV is on.  Let the words and images on the screen interact interestingly with the activity going on in the room.  Your characters can be watching the TV, or it can be background noise.  Choose your TV show carefully to reflect an interesting aspect of the human situation you're also describing.  You might do some research, taking notes with the TV on (more difficult to do than you might think).  Think about the kind of people who have a TV on all the time and don't seem to know about the mute button on the remote.  Maybe you could play with the notion of TV reality interfering with your characters' reality.  500 words.

My Response:

 The eyes of the alligator stuck out of the water, looking like nothing more than two bubbles. Except that the group of people in the boat behind it were looking excited and pointing. This was what they had been looking for. They had found it, and they were going to capture it.

A rope came out, and the girl stepped forward, ready to do what she had come along to do. Her hand came up and…

“So what do you think?”

My head whirled around to see the entire table staring at me, waiting to see what I thought about the topic I hadn’t heard.

“Um, what?” I asked, forcing myself to turn and sit in the chair properly rather than staring at the TV in the other room.

It was Thanksgiving, and my family had gathered together. In the kitchen my grandmother was holding court. She sat at the end of the table, her petite form leaning back in her chair, and her eyes carefully watching the pots set up on the stove.

At the table with her was my Aunt Helena, her daughter Janine, my sister Carole and myself. This was what we did during family get togethers. Sitting in the kitchen talking was something that had been ingrained in us since we were children. So was leaving the television on. I wasn’t sure that my grandmother knew there was an off button.

I didn’t even like what was on TV. Stupid reality shows that I never found interesting. Unfortunately I couldn’t help what distracted me, and generally the TV was enough.

“What are you watching?” My sister asked leaning back, her long brown hair swinging over the back of her chair as she watched four people with multiple ropes hauling the alligator up onto the bank and give it a shot to knock it out. The girl had apparently been successful.

“Nothing,” I said with a shrug, “I hate those shows.”

“Which is why she didn’t hear any of the conversation.” Aunt Helena said with a roll of her eyes. I ignored her. She had an opinion on everything, and we had gotten used to having to listen to them.

“What is this?” Carole asked, turning more fully and squinting at the television.

My eyes turned back to it, taking in the men picking up the large reptile and throwing it into the back of their truck. I didn’t even want to think about where they were going to take it.

“I don’t know,” I said, forcing my eyes back to the table. “What were we talking about, anyway?”

Carole finally gave up on trying to figure out what was on the television. “Meredith. What do you think of our new sister-in-law?”

I sighed. No one liked her. In fact, there had been a huge fight with our brother right before the wedding. I had tried to stay out of it, but I got the feeling he was never going to forgive us.

“I think that she’s his choice, and we shouldn’t interfere.”

My Thoughts: This one wasn't actually too difficult for me.  I often find myself distracted by a television, even if I don't care at all about what's being shown there.  I don't know why, but it happens more often than I would like to admit.

I would love to hear what you thought of my response.   And if you feel inspired by the exercise, I would love to see what you come up with.  Leave me a comment!

All exercises taken from The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley.