The Literary Corner: ”Broken” by Mimi Apostol (ex. 1)

Writing exercise 1

Write a fragment describing the exact emotions when you (or your character) learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life (or your character’s); now try to condense that fragment into a single searing sentence.

 

BROKEN

She was staring at the phone in her hand as if she saw it for the first time. It used to ring daily, a couple of times at least. Now it was dead silent. A silence she wasn’t accustomed to. A deafening silence. Coming from the grave of a soul stabbed to death by a sudden departure of the only man she ever loved and who had sworn eternal love to her more than a decade ago.

A decade she devoted her life to him, to this divine connection he was the first to acknowledge and speak about in terms of ”organic connection”. A decade in which, even if he disappeared for a few weeks on business trips she not always found out about from him, he would always come back to her apologetic, humble, more passionate, more in love.

She believed in it all with all her might, she belonged to him mind, body and soul. He said he did too. Those precious, almost perfect, days and nights in which they would cuddle, kiss, watch a movie, talk, the whole world would disappear. They were the only ones in their world and she was happy. He was so thankful for her love, so… smitten…

Advertisement

The Literary Corner: ”And the Skies Wept that Day…” by Hedwig Silver (ex. 1)

Writing exercise 1

Write a fragment describing the exact emotions when you (or your character) learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life (or your character’s); now try to condense that fragment into a single searing sentence.

 

And the Skies Wept that Day…

            Nothing – not my waking up late, not the spilling of my morning coffee, not my poking my eyeball with the mascara wand, not my forgetting to lock the front door and to charge my phone – could announce the inconceivable events that would unfold that very same day. It was another overcast morning, like the previous three, and the weather reporter had pointed out that umbrellas would be “a must”; “what’s new about that, in this city?”, I thought to myself as I opened the car’s door and chucked all my belongings on the backseat. I was furious with my forgetfulness and spent the entire drive scolding Mr. White – yes, it even had a name – and wishing all bad things happen to him. One of my close childhood friends, Clare, had once asked me why I had come up with such a funny name for such a thing – mind you, Mr. White reminded her of our old Chemistry teacher bearing the same name, who would break in a profuse sweat and burst into a nervous stutter whenever a girl asked a question in class – for which I invented the following explanation: “Clare, dearest, each time I feel I have forgotten something, my mind goes as blank as a paper. If that weren’t enough, I get so distraught and angry with myself that everything around me turns a pristine white, as if caught in a snow-storm in the middle of nowhere”. “Oh Sam, you were always the creative one of the pair. No wonder you write for a living.”

            It had already started raining by the time

The Literary Corner: Writing exercise 1

Writing exercise 1

Write a fragment describing the exact emotions when you (or your character) learned of a happy or calamitous event in your life (or your character’s life); now try to condense that fragment into a single searing sentence.

For this exercise, please do not write more than 3 pages, Microsoft Word A4 format. Please send your work in .doc or .docx formats only.

Deadline: 20th December 2019

Contributions:

”Broken” by Mimi Apostol

”And the Skies Wept that Day” by Hedwig Silver (yours truly)

♥ ♥ ♥

Introducing The Literary Corner: Writing Exercises for Readers

LATER EDIT (JANUARY 2020): I HAVE DECIDED NOT TO CONTINUE WITH THIS ENDEAVOUR DUE TO LACK OF CONTRIBUTIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING!

If this is your first time on my blog, it may be because you are not Romanian and do not read the language. Welcome! I usually write for Romanians, thus in Romanian, about India – language, culture, films etc.; but this time, I thought I should expand my view since I enjoy writing and I am sure other people do as well.

I want this literary corner to become a source of inspiration and of ideas for those who share the passion of writing. I would like it to be made up of contributions from readers of my blog, more than of my writing. Let me tell you about the details:

I intend to come up with a writing exercise every 3 months, summing up to a total of 4 such exercises during a full year. I believe 3 months is a long enough period for people to be inspired and produce original works; plus, I also want to contribute and become better at this wonderful activity.

A few rules to be considered before sending your work in: