Dheera's Workshop of Whimsy

WRITING TIPS III

Hello!

This week we will see animals in all the people around us. By that I mean, if you look long and hard at anyone, you will be able to find a resemblance to an animal, bird, fish, lizard. Try this exercise in a crowded place. A mall, a doctor’s waiting room,at school, at collage, at the park. Write down the particular features,gestures, mannerisms of people which remind you of an animal and why. This is an exercise for your out door journal. You will have a lot of fun but don’t let anyone catch you giggling to yourself. They will think you are loony.

Next, write an ode to anypart of your body. I once fractured my toe just as I was expecting my Bridge group to arrive. It was so painful that it was funny. Here was I all dressed upto play my game and here was this blue, disfigured toe almost making me scream with pain. So after the Bridge game was over, I wrote an ode to my toe. The beginning lines went like this:

O woe

Tall toe

A smashing knock

And you’re laid low.

The toe ring flew

Your moorings askew

A purple hue

You swell and ache

While the ladies at Bridge

Devour Carrot cake…..and so on. It is quite a long poem.

Try it! I hope you won’t have to write about a hurt part of your anatomy.

Since we are on the subjectof bodies, the next exercise can be a short dialogue between two or more parts of your body. And if you feel like it, do send it to me!

Until next week then, happy composing!

Dheera