What do you notice?
I know it's been a while, so here are the two writing warm-ups that I wrote today in class and some notes about them.
Warm-Up #1: Tone
Stepping out of the car, a beautiful upgraded dollhouse greets you. The place where it lies is cleared out from the woods, with trees everywhere around it. The regular silence is never empty, it's always filled with a bird chirping or a bubble popping in the river or a tree whistling the wind. The dock is peaceful i the way it floats on the river. The dam is crowded with too many people there to swim. The river slides down it's slimy path, and even when you're floating something still feels wrong. You can see the crayfish swimming beneath you, threatening to pinch. Getting out is a battle, fighting to pull yourself onto the dirty banks. The dirt covers your skin and makes it nearly impossible to get clean. Towels can't dry you off completely and the rest of the water has to go away by itself. Walking back to the cottage hurts your feet and retreating to the attic for a change of clothes is hot, humid and uncomfortable. The showers are small, and it's hard and awkward to get yourself clean. Meals are eaten outside, where the bugs threaten to lift your food away for themselves. The pine sap is everywhere, making your freshly cleaned skin sticky and gross. But the community there is restoring, even if it's only with a few people. The devotions and prayer before dinner are humbling. The crackling camp fire is relaxing, especially with a toasted marshmallow sticking to your fingers. A friendly watermelon rind throwing contest finishes off meal time. A calming, peaceful night is ended with homemade popcorn and a game of 7-up. Then floating up the stairs to drift to sleep is the only thing to end a perfect, relaxing day.
Notes: So, I'm writing about my friends cottage. I've been there a few times and I love it. We had to write about it in a positive tone, and then in a negative tone. I don't actually hate anything about the cottage, but I had to write about it in a negative tone.
Warm-Up #2: Dialogue
"There are so many things I see from day to day," the earth said, rising from it's sleep.
"I've seen more than you, old planet. I see oceans that wave to people, but the people never notice. I see birds flocking around pools of water and bits of bread, but people don't really notice them either. I've seen trees spend their days building leaves and dropping them in perfect places, only to have people move them away and call them bothersome, dumb and annoying."
"Nice building," the wrecking ball said as it tore into the bricks.
The building howls. "It's seen more than I, and yet, humans don't bother to listen to it's stories either. Every crack and squeak in that building has a purpose and a story, but nobody listens."
"Glasses, the clouds are moving to a new story telling spot." The lamp post clicked off.
"Is that so? Well, it doesn't matter. I've heard their stories before. They'll be back because I'm the only one who listens. The people don't care for long enough to notice."
Notes: We watched a music video from Pearl Jam, the song Unthought Known. The challenge was to write a dialogue between two things in the video, and the two things didn't have to be people. I decided to write through the viewpoint of the guys glasses and some other things. There wasn't a light post or a wrecking ball, so I took some liberty there.
Some more notes about that one, and what the rest of this blog is going to be about. You might have noticed that this song doesn't really talk about people not caring about stories that things can tell.
So, what do these two things had to do with each other?
My teacher always let's us to go on and write about things that we feel we need to write about. That's what happened today. I thought about the fact that so many things in nature and in society have stories to tell. So often humans are just racing from one thing to the next that we don't spend time to just stop and do things. I'm even guilty of just running the rat race of life.
But I think it's important to remember that everything can teach us something and that it's important to pay attention tot he world around you. God made is spectacular for a reason, and I think we should try to get everything we can out of it. There are so many stories to be told, so let's tell them.
You'll have a great day whether you know it or not!
Carly
Warm-Up #1: Tone
Stepping out of the car, a beautiful upgraded dollhouse greets you. The place where it lies is cleared out from the woods, with trees everywhere around it. The regular silence is never empty, it's always filled with a bird chirping or a bubble popping in the river or a tree whistling the wind. The dock is peaceful i the way it floats on the river. The dam is crowded with too many people there to swim. The river slides down it's slimy path, and even when you're floating something still feels wrong. You can see the crayfish swimming beneath you, threatening to pinch. Getting out is a battle, fighting to pull yourself onto the dirty banks. The dirt covers your skin and makes it nearly impossible to get clean. Towels can't dry you off completely and the rest of the water has to go away by itself. Walking back to the cottage hurts your feet and retreating to the attic for a change of clothes is hot, humid and uncomfortable. The showers are small, and it's hard and awkward to get yourself clean. Meals are eaten outside, where the bugs threaten to lift your food away for themselves. The pine sap is everywhere, making your freshly cleaned skin sticky and gross. But the community there is restoring, even if it's only with a few people. The devotions and prayer before dinner are humbling. The crackling camp fire is relaxing, especially with a toasted marshmallow sticking to your fingers. A friendly watermelon rind throwing contest finishes off meal time. A calming, peaceful night is ended with homemade popcorn and a game of 7-up. Then floating up the stairs to drift to sleep is the only thing to end a perfect, relaxing day.
Notes: So, I'm writing about my friends cottage. I've been there a few times and I love it. We had to write about it in a positive tone, and then in a negative tone. I don't actually hate anything about the cottage, but I had to write about it in a negative tone.
Warm-Up #2: Dialogue
"There are so many things I see from day to day," the earth said, rising from it's sleep.
"I've seen more than you, old planet. I see oceans that wave to people, but the people never notice. I see birds flocking around pools of water and bits of bread, but people don't really notice them either. I've seen trees spend their days building leaves and dropping them in perfect places, only to have people move them away and call them bothersome, dumb and annoying."
"Nice building," the wrecking ball said as it tore into the bricks.
The building howls. "It's seen more than I, and yet, humans don't bother to listen to it's stories either. Every crack and squeak in that building has a purpose and a story, but nobody listens."
"Glasses, the clouds are moving to a new story telling spot." The lamp post clicked off.
"Is that so? Well, it doesn't matter. I've heard their stories before. They'll be back because I'm the only one who listens. The people don't care for long enough to notice."
Notes: We watched a music video from Pearl Jam, the song Unthought Known. The challenge was to write a dialogue between two things in the video, and the two things didn't have to be people. I decided to write through the viewpoint of the guys glasses and some other things. There wasn't a light post or a wrecking ball, so I took some liberty there.
Some more notes about that one, and what the rest of this blog is going to be about. You might have noticed that this song doesn't really talk about people not caring about stories that things can tell.
So, what do these two things had to do with each other?
My teacher always let's us to go on and write about things that we feel we need to write about. That's what happened today. I thought about the fact that so many things in nature and in society have stories to tell. So often humans are just racing from one thing to the next that we don't spend time to just stop and do things. I'm even guilty of just running the rat race of life.
But I think it's important to remember that everything can teach us something and that it's important to pay attention tot he world around you. God made is spectacular for a reason, and I think we should try to get everything we can out of it. There are so many stories to be told, so let's tell them.
You'll have a great day whether you know it or not!
Carly
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