Luna’s Prose Ramblings

An exercise in microfiction. All credit to my writing tutor Amanda Rackstraw.

This exercise has to be followed along and not pre-read or you will spoil the clue of the exercise for yourself. So don’t read ahead ! Okay, here we go. Draw three medium-sized circles on your paper. Place eight markers around each circle. In the first circle write Setting and think of and write down eight settings for a story. It can be actual locations but also less tangible things like events in general. Then write Emotions in the second circle and choose eight emotions and link them to the circle markers. Last, think of eight animals and ring the third circle with them. In the last circle write Characters.

Now from each circle pick one listing that appeals to you most. Once you have all three, realise that the animal you chose represents the traits of one of your characters. So for instance if you have picked a lamb, your character can be very innocent and naive, if you’ve picked a mouse, your character can be very shy and so on.

Now write a complete story in exactly 150 words. Note ! It’s microfiction so I’m going to repeat it – it needs to be a completed story in 150 words.

Luna writes;

The sniffing sound was distracting. She was always like this, but it still took effort to get used to it. Her profile took time to get used to, too. Her straightness was inhuman, her gaze astonishing. She had worked in the lab as long as anyone could remember, she was there before I was. She was good at her work. I mean, how could she not be ? At first I was afraid of her, always looked disapproving as if what you were about to do would be the biggest mistake in your life, and she knew it. The sniffing turned into a tongue click. She was at the UV-box and stared at her gel. It was not so much disapproval that I heard in the tongue click this time, but more… surprise. ‘Everything okay ?’
‘My gel didn’t work…’
Well… that happens to us all.’
She turned and stared at me incredulously.

I know… bad girl. I didn’t listen to my own assignment. But then again this was my first shot at microfiction. Having read some examples of microfiction, I realised why mine didn’t make the cut. It’s not a completed story. It’s a scene. A scene that might be part of a bigger story even, but just a scene nonetheless. Next time I’ll try and do better.

The wasp by LunaLouise is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

This is a great warm-up exercise to writing that we did in class. Not for the ambidextrous.
All credit to Amanda Rackstraw, my writing tutor.

Take some time to clear your mind and I know that is about as easy as it sounds. If you are not the meditative kind, it may still help to close your eyes and focus on your relaxed breathing. If you have a thought, recognise it and try, literally, to push it out of your head. Acknowledge your thought and decide this is not the time. It may take some practice (and if you become accomplished at it may also work to calm your thoughts and fall asleep better).

Clear your mind and take your favourite writing utensil. Take that utensil in your non-writing hand, yes, you heard me, your non-writing hand. And draw. Don’t set out to draw or think too much about it. Just put utensil to paper and form a shape. Don’t think what that shape should be or what the shape is becoming. Just make a shape. It can be as small or big as you want it to be. It can take up a few lines of paper or a whole page. Just draw. When you’re done, look at the finished shape and recognise what it is. Still with your non-writing hand, write down next to the shape what the shape is. Then keeping the shape and its name in mind, and also still with your non-writing hand, think about where the shape is and why the shape is interesting in context of its function or location or circumstance. Keeping your utensil in your non-writing hand, write a descriptive sentence that has to do with your object.

Now you can take your utensil in your writing hand and write the scene or story that started as a shape on the page and turned into words or scene in your mind.

Luna wrote;

It was a noise like crackling.
These hands were not my own, but they had an urge to cover ears. The noise was eerie and did not seem to accompany the swaying movement that my eyes saw. It was a narrow path that we walked along. The sun was out, but could only manage a watery light with hardly any warmth. The warmth that we felt did not come from the sun. It came from the direction of the crackling.

The crackling by LunaLouise is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.