(Note: This is a unit of "Schreibaufgabe.de")
THE CHALLENGE
Assumed, you have to write 500 words to a certain topic. If you start writing just like that, in the end you might have 500 words, but for sure your text has to be edited several times. So, better first to get an overview and/or some ideas for that topic. One method is to make a
cluster.
Make a cluster for the topic
dust and then write a text, that includes as many words of your cluster as possible.
MY OUTCOME
1. The cluster
2. The story
Dear ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends. We've come here together to bestow the honor on our
beloved family member and friend Alicia.
*short-silence*
I was nine and like every summer I spent my
vacations on Sal's
farm. The first time I met Alicia I couldn't stand her. I saw this little girl and she was playing with MY
dog! Well, I wasn't the gentleman I'm now ... so, for this criminal act,
I hit her. And this sassy girl? Instead of running away weeping, she gave me a fierce expression and
stroke back (=to wallow around)! For sure, she was not like all the other girls. She was a wild tomboy, she mastered every dare. At the end of this summer we had become best friends.
As by a miracle we could rescue our friendship over until the end of school, where we decided to go
backpacking. Well, she decided. While everybody else went to Europe or India, she had to go to
South America (=world travels). And I followed. You all know the stories. Thanks to Alicia we've seen the most wonderful and exotic and strangest places. But, don't mind my words, it scared the shit out me, when we unluckily we found ourselves right in that turf
war. I'm not a fighter, but
I would have fought for her. Blessing in disguise, Mrs.
Adventurer had discovered in her growing years her feminine side. With
Her Dark Materials charm, enchantment and natural beauty she rescued us out of several hopeless situations. At the end of this summer I had fallen in love with her.
In the next few years my biggest challenge were not my studies, but this stubborn girl. She scratched deeply on my ego and some dear friends can tell you a thing or two about my fight against this fierce of nature, this hurricane, this
volcano. But finally after four years, at the end of the this summer we got married.
Our live together was just like our promises of marriage: We had good days and we had bad days. On our bad days we gave it a fierce expression and stroke back. With only one lost cause. Dear Alicia was at daggers drawn with the
house, especially the kitchen. And the kitchen had triumphed. Always! Even the raccoons spurned her meat loaf. But I shouldn't be ungrateful, the good days predominated and we were given with those three fantastic, talented children. With great joy I remember the huge party two years ago. At the end of this summer when we had been married for wonderful 25 years.
And now, our dear Alicia is gone. She's always been strong and stubborn and so full of life, merely cancer was a very strong foe and in the end she lost the fight. But Alicia always believed, the journey doesn't end here.
Death is just another path to
travel. I want to believe in this, too. I don't know, how many summers we've been given, but someday in future they say: "
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust". And then I know, after the end of the this summer I will be united with my best friend, my lover, my mate, my Alicia.
QUESTION
Clustering - Mindmap. I consider them just the same. But honestly, who would write a story with ALL the points of a cluster? You simply can't unite some chain's ends in one story, can you?
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Continue with Exercise 06:
Developing Characters
