I started reading the beginning of my course book this morning: notebooks and free writing. During assignment 2, I have been sporadic in my use of these as I was concentrating more on character sketches. These are fundamental to my writing. Today’s attempts felt different than previously. I felt an ability to let go. I felt there was growth in my attempts. I wrote about the moon and sitting on a bench with David Bowie. It came from nowhere and was really exciting. Makes a change from the boring free writing that I have been doing some times.
I also did an exercise from Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I wrote a list of 10 things I could see (mug, desk, pig, etc.) and wrote a three line poem on each word (only spending 3 minutes per poem). It was like free writing because there was little time to think about it. It loosens me up. I will repeat this exercise. Here are the poems I wrote:
A blanket is a pink mermaid
It is warm
Like the sun is warmer
Tea warms a china mug
Is it like your china mug?
The one you face?
A pig in the mud is worth
Two more than a bird
In the bush or hand
A book is dusty
And read from cover to cover
The reader is clean
Obtaining a library book
It fell open at page 24
“She fell in love…”
By six it could be chilly
It could
The BBC Weather channel
Serious Wool-Gathering 