The second stage is to type up the three 100 word pieces (preserving the originals) and cut them up into very short phrases and single words, then lay out all the words so that they can be scanned easily. Next assemble the short sequences, intuitively, without worrying about commonsensical things like meaning or narrative.
The first night in London was very difficult for me, then on my way home while I’m jammed in the hot sweaty train all I can think of was my fantasy bed that is not like the traditional water bed. It is made of water that I can actually float and sleep on.
The one thing I was impatiently waiting for all day is when I rest my body on the comfortable mattress of my childhood bed.
The new city welcomed me with cold weather and pouring rain. I even put it among the list of things that I would ask God to grant me when I go to paradise.
Though I don’t know what happened to the remnants of the bed, I still wish I can sleep even for just an hour on my comfortable childhood bed.
Write a final 100 words on a fantasy bed, a bed where money is no object, a bed that can be made of anything you like.
I saw a program when I was a child where there was a water bed and since that day I keep on dreaming of sleeping on this water bed.
I even put it among the list of things that I would ask God to grant me when I go to paradise.
But I don’t want my fantasy bed to be like the traditional water bed. I want it to be made of water that I can actually float and sleep on. Though it would be a bed that doesn’t make you drown...you can sleep on it but the water doesn’t touch your ears, mouth or nose while you’re floating.
I also want it to have relaxing sounds like waterfalls, boat in a river, sounds of birds singing or even drops of rain depends on my mood. I want on top of this bed an open ceiling so you can see the sky with the beautiful stars that shin and dim
This would be my place of relaxation and my sanctuary.
Write another 100 words on the bed you currently occupy, what’s in it, what surrounds it, what you do in it, etc. we spend one third of our lives in bed but no one seems to write about it!
On my first day in London, after I got off the plane, the taste of Cairo was still in my lips. The new city welcomed me with cold weather and pouring rain. I entered my bedroom and all I could think of was how what might people call big you consider it small and the other way around.
When I saw my bed that was bought by my in laws, I just didn’t feel right, I thought to my self ‘if this is where my husband sleeps then where would I sleep?’ my bed in Egypt was double this size and I used to sleep on it on my own.
The first night in London was very difficult for me to sleep because I was worried I might fall from the bed.
Few months later I started to use few techniques to overcome the problem of the bed size, I pushed the bed beside the wall so I would not fall and also I would put a blanket under the bed cover to make the size of the mattress from both sides a bet bigger.
Sometimes I wish I can just sleep on the floor and not be on this uncomfortable bed which freezes in winter and makes you sweaty and itchy in the hot weather.
We had a new sofa bed after that and since then I use every opportunity I can to sleep on it and I keep on promising my self every month that we’ll get a new bed and I wouldn’t have to suffer with this uncomfortable bed any more.
Allison Fell presented a very intresting exercise that she said it opens the writers’ eyes, hearts, and minds to some of the essentials of writing. Also, it encourages students to relax their control of language in order to allow a lighter and fuller control to emerge.
1. Write 100 words prose description of a bed you slept in as a child. Write in sentences rather than in a note form, as the verbs will be important later.
2. When you’ve done that, writer another 100 words on the bed you currently occupy, what’s in it, what surrounds it, what you do in it, etc. we spend one third of our lives in bed but no one seems to write about it!
3. Write a final 100 words on a fantasy bed, a bed where money is no object, a bed that can be made of anything you like.
4. The second stage is to type up the three 100 word pieces (preserving the originals) and cut them up into very short phrases and single words, then lay out all the words so that they can be scanned easily. Next assemble the short sequences, intuitively, without worrying about commonsensical things like meaning or narrative.
My Childhood Bed
Everyday at university running from one building to another under the hot boiling sun of Hilwan University, then on my way home while I’m jammed in the hot sweaty train all I can think of is the moment I turn my key in the door and get inside my flat.
The one thing I would be impatiently waiting for all day, is when I rest my body on the comfortable mattress of my childhood bed.
This bed was so amazing that in the hot unbearable weather outside I come home and I just rest on it and it would feel so cool and nice and when its cold outside it welcomes me with its warmth and comfort.
Since I was young this bed was a big part of my life, I used to sleep on it, put all my books on it and do my homework on it, read write and watch T.V, listen to the Radio and cry myself to sleep on it.
Until this moment I wake up sometimes and I feel I’m still there in my old flat and I’m sleeping on it… I even dream that I will go home one day and be able to sleep again on it. Although I know that this is impossible because I witnessed the day it broke when I had a gathering with some of my friends and it just fell to the ground, I know it was very old but it was very dear to me, it was part of me, maybe that’s why I kept the mattress on its own, it provided me a lot of relief from my back pains and it was a place of comfort till the day I had to leave my home. Though I don’t know what happened to the remnants of the bed I still wish I can sleep even for just an hour on my comfortable childhood bed.
Sara Maitland in this chapter speaks about the importance of research for a writer, learning new things, exploring new material, finding out is key to creative writers, for curiosity, wanting to learn, moving into new territory, aligns the writer with the reader.
Finding out exercise
Here is a list of eight somewhat obscure words, each with three meanings- one of these is the real meaning as defined by the dictionary, the other two are tiny works of fiction:
Knurl
1. An ancient Celtic game, still played in some Scottish islands, not dissimilar from hockey.
2. A short, stumpy person; a dwarf.
3. To hit someone from behind; to attack from the rear.
Oeps
1. Some benefit or profit earned by hard work.
2. A Victorian word for an eccentric or nutter – from the initials of the Orgnization for External and Psychic Studies.
3. Boys in the junior houses of Eton, called fags in other public schools (no pun intended).
Jobbernowl
1. A clerk or other lowly worker in the Stock Exchange.
2. To cheat or lie your way into a job; to fake your references.
3. An idiot; a thick stupid person.
Deipnosophist
1. A person who enjoys talking at meal times.
2. A person who believes that the gods are not interested in human beings.
3. A person who studies diseases of the mouth – gums, teeth, etc.
Haysel
1. A native officer in the Indian regiments during the Raj.
2. An East Anglian word for the hay-making season, late May and June.
3. A type of helmet, with a low visor, worn by medieval knights.
Collybist
1. Originally a money lender or banker, now any miser, skinflint or excessively ungenerous person.
2. A species of sea snail, a bit like a cockle but with a whiter shell.
3. A small explosion deliberately set off for scientific experiment.
Myrmidon
1. A wicked and seductive young mermaid, with a particularly sweet singing voice, who lures sailors to their deaths.
2. An ingredient used in expensive perfumes, extracted from the musk glands of minks.
3. A fierce warrior from a tribe in ancient northern Greece, celebrated by Homer.
Ozena
1. An unmarried woman, often a belly dancer, living in a Turkish harem and having many of the privileges of a wife, but whose children do not inherit their father’s rank.
2. Putrid snot brought on by ulcerous diseases of the nasal mucous membrane.
3. A mythical beast, somewhat like a gazelle but with the legs of a bird, which the Spanish conquistadors believed to live in what are now the Peruvian and Chilean mountains.
Now you have to guess which is the true meaning. It will be mainly guesswork actually, after you check your answers then you have to write a short narrative using all seven words.
Key to answers:
Knurl = 2; Oeps = 1; Jobbernowl = 3; Deipnosophist = 1; Haysel = 3; Collybist = 1; Myrmidon = 3; Ozena =2.
I got only 2 correct but take a look at the weird narrative that came out of these words.
The jobbernowl knurl said while he was holding a grape in his hand, ‘ what brought here?’
‘I lost all my oeps because of your actions’ said the myrmidon.
The knurl slammed on the table and said, ‘shut up, I want to hear no more. Can’t you see I’m eating my dinner?’
‘I thought you are a deipnosophist?’ said the myrmidon sarcastically. ‘I’ll keep on talking till I take my money back you little collybist’. He added.
‘alright, then give me your helmet.’ Said the knurl with a smile on his face then the myrmidon obediently gave him the helmet.
The knurl blew his nose in the helmet and said, ‘this is all you can get from me, my Ozena in your haysel, now get out off my face’
The myrmidon unsheathed his sword and cut the knurl’s nose and ran away followed by the guards who started to chase him after they heard their master, the knurl screaming.
Another trial for the previouse exercise....
Gazing at this bottle of water, I can see everything clearly through it, it is strange that the water doesn’t have a colour….actually it makes perfect sense, water is the life fluid, you can live, as scientists say with out food for over 15 days but you can’t live without water for more than 5 days.
It is amazing that this life-giving liquid is colourless, is it because when you see through it you see what’s inside and also what’s behind the glass you are holding?
It gives you a sense of honesty and transparency as if you are part of the game and nothing is hidden away from you.
When I try to describe the smell and the taste of the water, its smell and taste is so unique and nothing ever tastes or smells like it and yet there is no word or adjective that describes it.
What does the water smells like? Hmmmm water, what does the water smells like? Hmmm water the answer would be of course because this heavenly sent liquid is indescribable.
The effect of the water sound on me is strange as well, few months ago I had a horrible feeling of anger and rage, I was so upset at nothing and everything at the same time. I felt that I couldn’t breath, I felt that I’m having panic attack.
I ran and kept running until I reached a cold old bench right beside the river, as I moved closer to the river bank, the soothing sound of the water calmed me down, I cried, I spoke to the river and he spoke to me. I heard the waves promising me that they will scare away all my sadness and the water told me that it will wash away my fears.
