Write Bravely / Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

In the September 2010 issue of Writer’s Digest, Ellen Hopkins said, “Write bravely,” and “Don’t be afraid to experiment.”

Well, writing bravely and experimenting are two things I haven’t been doing much in my blog.  I’ve been playing it safe, trying to write posts that will appeal to a universal audience, staying away from the “personal stuff.”

As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of writing, but very little creating.

Today, just for a change of pace, I’m going to share a short piece I wrote in a fiction class recently in response to the following prompt:

Write  a scene (250-300 words) in 3rd person about a character who experiences a desire that has been activated within him/her by another person.  What is the newly activated desire?  Who is this person who activates it within the protagonist?  How does the protagonist respond?

Here it goes.

Write Bravely – The Mouse Totem

He noticed the way she cupped the stone in the palm of her hand as if it were a precious gem rather than a rock she’d probably snatched from the side of the road somewhere.

When she held it up to the light, nothing happened.  The only sparkle he could detect was in her eyes, which puzzled him.  In his experience, women only looked like that when they were holding something valuable, like a diamond–or a baby, maybe.

She called it her mouse totem.  Mouse?  Now, that was a stretch, though it did faintly resemble a scrunched-up lab rat.  Claiming it to be her “Spirit Helper,” she smiled as if she knew something the rest of the class didn’t.  No surprise there.  She was the teacher.  She was supposed to know things they didn’t.  But he also knew a thing or two.  Like how to spot a wacko.  And she was wacko, no doubt about it, the type usually attracted to after- school programs like this.

If plain rocks made people that happy, he could make a fortune, sell them on e-bay for ten bucks apiece, make hundreds a day, thousands a week.  Suddenly he forgot about the hundred dollar Nikes he’d been eyeing at the mall.  What he wanted most in the world right now was her rock, to feel it in his pocket, rub its smooth surface, experience what it was she was experiencing.

She was passing it around.  Fool!  When it got to him, he’d slip it into his pocket.  No one would know.  She probably had a spare anyway, and if not, she’d find another.

The intense yearning he felt surprised him.  He didn’t know happiness came this easily, because that’s what he saw on her face, happiness.

Beads of sweat ran down his temple, along his spine; his fingers itched; he tasted something foreign in his mouth.  But he wasn’t about to be diverted.

Her voice came from a distance.  “Next week, you’ll search for your own totems, because not just any one will do.  The stone must feel right to you, and you must ask for its permission.”

What he needed was a distraction.

The bell would be ringing any time now.

Bingo!

Kids swarmed the teacher with their questions.  Kiss ups.

Today was his lucky day.

Actually, I hated these in-class assignments.  But to be quite honest, they always produced some interesting results.

Go ahead and give this assignment a try, and see what you come up with.

Let me know how it went.