Some more fun from Ionia and Readfulthings!
Exercise #2
My life would have turned out so much differently if only I had not _____________.
Fill in the blank. See if you can write a paragraph, or fit this in to a WIP that you are stuck on.
“My life would have turned out so much differently if only I had not gone to college. That’s a big one, but it is where everything changed. Made a lot of new friends, first time away from the family, and most of my story ideas came about during that time. It’s where Windemere was created through my imaginary and real experiences. Would I even be a writer if I hadn’t gone to college? Would I have an entirely different world without Luke Callindor and the others talking inside my head? It does make one wonder if there are alternate worlds out there that would answer these questions.”
Exercise #3
Come up with five to ten descriptive words. Then use antonyms of them to write a paragraph.
Opposites are a fun and creative way to get your mind working.
Words– Sweet, lanky, friendly, brave, foolish
The sour taste of the cherries made him cringe and throw the rest of the bowl into the festering garbage can. His portly body moves to the bed as he hears his neighbors throw a party. He was always too gruff and cowardly to make friends, so he was never invited to such events. The man closes his eyes and firmly believes that he is very wise for staying away from people.
Legends of Windemere 
But you were writing stories back in high school, I think you would have still become a writer even if you didn’t go to college and meet all of us crazy people 🙂
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Hard to tell. Those old stories might not have gotten me as far as Windemere. Keep in mind how much inspiration I got from all the college crazies. 😀
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You might just have had different voices in your head. I’m a firm believer in the alternate universe theories. Somewhere there is a me who is tall, skinny, and filthy rich from being something absolutely boring…but with great shoes and classic car collection to match her fedoras.
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Probably, but you never know how strong those voices are. I still fiddle with my older characters, but there’s a reason I didn’t lead with them. They’re still being fitted into Windemere since they were extremely stereotypical heroes/villains (no depth) even after 3 years of working with them. I guess my thing with college is that I find out how to go deeper into a character and story during that time.
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Which makes perfect sense…but I’ve read some ‘best sellers’ with seriously one dimensional ‘heroes’ that made me wonder if their author had ever read a book. I think there must be something inherit in you that allowed you to discover that depth when you were ready and perhaps may have happened eventually anyway…or you may have turned into a barrister
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No idea. It might have come up at some point, but I still think a lot of it comes from that college experience. It wouldn’t be good or bad if I never went. It would just be different.
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