Sense of smell

The course book tells me to sit quietly and listen and write about three things that you can feel, taste, hear, see, smell..  Well I figured I would just blog one example 'live' and see how it turns out!

I smell the delicate aroma of lemons coming from the mug to my left hand side.  I know what is in the mug: Green tea with lemon, and it has me wondering whether I can smell the lemons, or just imagine that I can smell the lemons, which makes my brain notice a lemon scent?  Now that is a brain teaser.  In either case the smell is boldly delicate, enticing me to take a sip.

Hmm, not exactly world class descriptive text there..  Although I do like the idea that has arisen from it regarding whether the smell is physical or a mental supposition arrived at by the pre existing knowledge of what is there already.  To be fair I think that I picked the hardest sense to write about.  Will have to pick a different one next time!

Day school

I went to my tutor groups A215 day school today.  It was well worth the discomfort of sitting in strange chairs as I met some wonderful people who are all really talented.  These tutorial schools are very handy for meeting up with other people who are in the same predicament as you, and spending some time chatting helps to get the creative 'juices' flowing.
It was also nice that there were four tutor groups together.  I got to meet people who aren't in my tutor group but who are on the same course so we all got to help each other a bit in mixed up groups for the morning session which was a nice idea.  Lunch time too was a great time for mingling and chatting - to be fair another hour of that would have been welcome as it was pleasant getting other writer's views on different genre's.
I think that the most important lesson learned today though was that we are not alone.  Also that every action, occurrence and passing scene can be written about in a way that involves the reader by using the senses in the writing.  Whether its the sound of a scratching pen, the feeling of a woolly jumper or the smell of freshly mown grass, they can all be appreciated by someone reading them as it's more than likely that they will have had these sensations at some point in their lives and can relate.

Enough blathering by me for now.  It's been a long day so time for a break.  I will hopefully be putting up some more writing of some form soon!

A 'proper' Freewrite

Here is my freewrite that I put on my tutor forums earlier today - it's the fifth attempt at getting a freewrite right.  I am posting the whole post cut and paste:

After finally getting a freewrite under my belt, I got inspired to try again.  The first effort fell flat due to a crazy itchy hand which stopped me dead in my tracks. This is the second effort which had a residue of that itchy hand but I tried to plod on regardless. Please, let me know what  you think, freewrite or freewrong?

The truth is i never left but hid under the stairs behind a panel. they searched the house and couldnt’ find me but I found a wonderful thing, a crown of spiderwebs floating about my head as I climbed a ladder against a wall to fall would hurt or possibly kill, but the thrill is the climb. A climber can hang by one finger over a thousand foot drop. must be mad to try that stunt, I can barely carry myself about the house. A house in the woods would be nice and quiet, teh river running by full of fish and a ship on the waves seeing a light house go dark just as the storm hits, oh shit! trouble looks like its about the hit like a hammer to the teeth I bet that would hurt.. nevermind evermind to mind a fid an died at the hands of a goat. a goat or a ghost, misspelled and alone in the hall of mirrows i saw myself reflected to infinity which opende a door to another universe of possibly existances. damn an itchy finger put paid to this freewrite if that is what it was and i hope that it is - wow that is a lot of nonsense that I like so much.. ah

So that is what I posted, and my tutor gave a response giving it confirmation that indeed this is a freewrite.  It's not meant to look pretty, it's not meant to make sense, or be joined or even be accurate in any constrained way.  It is just what comes out of the pen or the keyboard when given the freedom that the conscious mind denies it most of the time!

I hope that this helps whoever reads this if they are confused or not sure whether their efforts are necessarily free or not!  I must confess that I have redacted a small portion so that I don't cause any offence to certain viewers of my blog - this has in no way affected the 'freeness' of the freewrite, as the portion removed is not integral to the rest of the writing.

Freewriting - Not as easy as it sounds!

Hi!

Today I thought I would give my thoughts on freewriting.  Over the last two to three weeks, I had thought that I was making some good progress in freewriting, and was relatively happy with my efforts.  Then I posted an example on my tutor group forum.  I am SO glad that I did this as it helped make me aware that my 'freewrites' are more 'freewrongs'!
The troubles that I was having with them can be summed up thus:

1. Although I was trying to not think about what I was writing, I was still trying to keep to the initial prompt.  This is not the done thing.  The idea of a focused freewrite is that you use a prompt (the focus) to start the ball rolling, and then let your subconscious lead you wherever it may take you!
2. When I wasn't trying to keep to the key phrase, I wrote for five minutes on a theme so that I basically wrote a story.  This isn't freewriting either, even if I was trying to let my subconscious tell it to my hand without my brain getting in the way.  Even then, it's still basically writing a story not a freewrite.

So whilst neither of these techniques that I was using is wrong in the grand scheme of writing, in the pursuit of freewriting, they most definitely are a no-no.

My tutor had given me pointers about where I am going wrong, and that led me to try again, so with some frustration I hammered out whatever came unbidden to my fingers, writing words on the keyboard as fast as I could for five minutes without pause and without thought.  It looked and felt like the crazed ramblings of a delirious simpleton when I read it back, and with some trepidation I posted this latest pile of drivel onto my tutor group forum.  Lo and behold, it was freewriting!  The mad leaps and angry grumbling that I had produced was my best attempt to date!  

I think that my, and I am sure other peoples greatest problem when it comes to freewriting is that my/their internal editor is deeply embedded in the brain and it hates to see inconsistencies or crazy leaps, spelling and grammar mistakes, amongst other things.  This editor whilst great, has to be switched off for freewriting, whether by frustration or sleepiness, anger or subtlety, determination or subterfuge the gate keeper must be swamped so that he can't correct or change anything!

In summation then, a focused freewrite just means that you have in mind a key word or phrase when you begin, and then you just let whatever wants to come out of the 'end of the pen' do so without interruption or editing!

Thanks for reading this - it helped me to get this out, and I hope that it helps you in your freewriting efforts.  Please feel free to comment and let me know if I have left anything out that could be useful - or if you have any hints tips or tricks to master freewriting that you would like to share!

Today's Haiku - A bit of Zen perhaps?

Falling petals;
Life cycles continuously -
Harmonious dream.

Sensory perception

Writing about what the senses tell us isn't as easy as it sounds.  Here is my first attempt at writing about the sounds that I hear.  As always, constructive comments are most welcome!  Also feel free to click one of the buttons under the posts, even if you don't wish to comment.  All feedback is helpful to me!

Sounds that you can hear

I sit here quietly, listening to my surroundings. I hear next door's children shouting and playing with the other kids in the street, arguing over nothings and kicking footballs with the abandon of youth. I also hear my laptop whirring, its constant hum adding to the background noise in the room, the sounds that are taken for granted – yet when listened for, roar with life, unexpected noise, the silence shouts.

The final sound that I hear are the other rooms in the house 'settling'. Pipes and floorboards grumbling under their own weight. The old house wheezes with a life of it's own, keeping the ghosts entertained in their eternity.

'First' Cluster

Here is an image of an attempt at a cluster for the word 'first'.  I figured for my first blogged cluster I should use the word first just like I did with the freewriting!  As you can see the cluster was made using VYM which I find a very handy tool indeed for making clusters.  As always, I welcome any constructive criticism but please appreciate that a cluster is unique to the creator so try to be gentle! 

Orchid Haiku, 3 for 2.

Another day, another Haiku but as it's the weekend and the official start of my OU course, I have written two on a theme, and one of those has two derivations.  I hope that makes sense, and more importantly, I hope that you like them:

Beautiful Orchid;
Ever striving towards the sun -
Failure spells death.


Beautiful Orchid;
Ever striving towards the sun -
Failure means death.


And the other one:


Orchid Flowering;
Reaching out to taste the sun -
Engorged it thrives.

My First Freewrite

This is my first free write, that I did a week or two ago.  I think that this is the idea behind free writing, just to let your mind wander whilst your fingers listen and take notes verbatim..  I set myself a 5minute time limit on these free writes - I think that is long enough for now.    I would appreciate any constructive criticism or advice for future efforts. OK, enough introducing, here it is in it's unedited glory:

First

The very first thing that came into my head, I wrote, as now. It's said that by doing this that the subconscious can be unleashed with a fury, a storm of words hammering on the brain like a torrent. If one were to stop suddenly the words would ram into the front of the skull, the momentum stopped too suddenly to contain the velocity change, like water in a fish tank sloshing from one end to the other; The next thing that came into my head from the word 'first' was the first kiss, that special, scary time, then the heart is pumping so manically that you fear it's going to burst right out of the chest, like the alien in the film of the same name. The first kiss, the gleam in the girl's eye, getting closer, her scent, her skin, so smooth, like the finest silk spun from the finest silk worms, her eye's the colour of a clear summers day, the brightest blue sapphires, marred by the dilated pupil's, black pools engorged by the prospect of this very first kiss. The third very first thing that came into my head was the first man on the moon, when he messed up his speech, unsurprising really, the nerves he must have felt.. I wonder what he thought, as he took that fateful last/first step.. Maybe he wondered, or at least part of his mind wondered whether the moon would take his weight? Sure it took the weight of the lander, but what if they got really lucky and landed right on the edge of a big ocean of loosely packed dust? Of course the moon IS made up lots of dust, but rocks as well, millions of years of dormant serenity, endlessly falling around the planet, caught in a perpetual loop of falling at the correct speed. Well, nearly.. Actually I heard or read once that the moon is getting further away slowly bit by bit. They are meant to have put an array of mirrors on the moon, at a certain spot, and every day a man fires a laser at that spot and records the time it takes to get there and back. The time is increasing, ergo the distance is increasing. What will happen to the planet when it interferes with gravity?