Writing Exercise 11

One of my writing rituals involves cleaning. Usually, it’s cleaning my house, my room, or in this case, tidying up my computer files. In doing so, I came across this writing exercise. It is of interest because I messed up yesterday’s writing challenge for the first meeting of COMMUNITY WRITE NIGHT. The prompt was “What have you done this week?” and I was too embarrassed to mention the cleaning I’d been doing. Like, how do you write about washing salty footprints off your wood floor and make it interesting? So, I didn’t even try.

BUT, during my computer cleaning binge, I came across this item and I will share it in its natural, unedited state since NaNoWriMo was mentioned last night.

Writing exercise 11/20/17  Thanksgiving Gone Wrong

The doorbell rang, and I opened the door to find my turkey waiting for me in a white carboard box. This year’s turkey was not frozen, not fresh, not soaked in brine. Something totally new for us … smoked.

I opened the box, as per the urgent instructions stamped on top of the box, and was hit by the overpowering aroma of smoke. Great, I thought, I’ll have a smoky fridge, and no doubt a smoky house for at least a week. It had better be worth it.

I really had no reason to grouse about my husband’s novel selection. I certainly had not contributed my part in the planning of T Day. Other than obtaining pumpkin pie fixin’s. I’ve been too busy with plumping up my NaNoWriMo word count. Lots of things have had to slide by the wayside. Important things yes. Things that will come back to bite me I’m sure. But that’s just the breaks for November novel writing for someone who procrastinates for the rest of the year.

Last year I went to Bettendorf for a writer’s group. I was there by myself some afternoons. This year I’ve stayed home, drank coffee, stared at my notes, and hoped that I could make some sense out of the bits and pieces of the story I was trying to imagine.

I don’t like playing by the rules anyway, so nothing new there. This month is for me and I’ll get by the best that I can.