Saturday, May 29, 2010

Wreck This Journal: Burn This Page.

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(Note: Taken from my Edition of "Wreck This Journal")

Wreck This Journal: Burn This Page.

The German instruction "Set This Page On Fire." gives you a little more space for interpretation:
On Fire - Hot - Sexy - SRK, for all non-India-fans: Shah Rukh Khan, the greatest actor ever!

Wreck This Journal: Make A Paper Chain.

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(Note: Taken from my Edition of "Wreck This Journal")

Wreck This Journal: Make A Paper Chain.

No comment! :-)

Wreck This Journal: Instructions.

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(Note: Taken from my Edition of "Wreck This Journal")



Designs of Person and Cat by Tangram.

Wreck This Journal: This Book Belongs To.

4 Comments
(Note: Taken from my Edition of "Wreck This Journal")

Stefanie! It's all your fault! ;-)
BLOG: Funny's Happy-Housewife-Blog

Wreck This Journal: This Book Belongs To.

This is what I call my "psychedelic graphic-designs" - I used to do this as a student in boring classes!  ;-)

Can you see Om and Ra?

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Quiz: Which Austen Heroine Are You?

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(Note: This is a quiz of "Emma Adaptions")

MY RESULT is Elinor Dashwood:


You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Writing Exercise 05: Clustering

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(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

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Creative Writing: Six-Word Stories

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(Note: This is a finger exercise of "Schreibwerkstatt.de")

THE CHALLENGE
AKA as Flash fiction. This principle, taken to the extreme, is a six-word flash by Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
What Hemingway can, we can already! Go tickle the ivories - at least for six words!

MY OUTCOME
  • Avalanche. Dog found four people alive.
  • Fortune cookie: Tomorrow you will die!
  • She knew, one mushroom was poisonous.
  • Last will: The cat gets everything.
  • Lottery won: Tickets for the Titanic.
  • Cancer. She lived another 60 years.
  • Her last discovery: a suicide bomber.
QUESTION
Wow! Not the most easiest challenge!
What other Six-Word Stories do you have?

Friday, May 07, 2010

Writing Exercise 04: Names Is For Tombstones ...

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(Note: This is a unit of "Schreibaufgabe.de")

THE CHALLENGE
... said in the James Bond movie "Live And Let Die". Is that so? Does it matter what names your protagonists have? Can you chose just any name and start?
Of course, you as an author you can do whatever you like. It's your decision. To pay some more attention to names has quite some advantages. Names can tell something about a character's personality. Every name has a meaning, right?
One last thought: Do you think, James Bond would have been so successful if he had been named Hermann Petersen?

MY OUTCOME
Find suitable first AND last names for:
  1. A six-year-old girl. Father a banker, mother a realtor
    · Hannah Baker (UK)
    · Suri McNeill (US)
    · Michelle Adams (US)
    · Carrie Robertson (UK)
    · Sara Fischer (Germany)
  2. A war veteran from the US. 85 years old
    · Charles Morris
    · Gary Evans
    · Harvey Brown
    · William Lewis
    · Zachary Smith
  3. A dog, rottweiler
    · bad names: Tyson, Brutus, Dozer, Ares, Kali
    · cute names: Princess, Puppet, Teddy,Candy, Fluffy
  4. A salesman on an outdoor market in his middle 40th, Mallorca/Spain
    · Priamo Solis
    · Gonzales Almmanza
    · Maximiliamo Haro
    · Conrad Hernandez
    · Vero Fernandez
  5. A Swedish princess in her middle 20th, anno 1770
    · Luise Ulrike of Sweden
    · Brigitta Alice of Sweden
    · Astrid Sofia of Sweden
    · Anne-Marie of Sweden
    · Katharina Augusta of Sweden
QUESTION
No question this time, only some helping links:
Fake Name Generator
Lexicon of Names
Always a good start for researches: Wikipedia 

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Continue with Exercise 05: Clustering

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Writing Exercise 03: Show Don't Tell

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(Note: This is a unit of "Schreibaufgabe.de")

THE CHALLENGE
"Show don't tell." - What does this mean? Instead of just naming the feelings of a protagonist, you better show your reader the actions that can be caused by those feelings.
Write a half page of text and then edit the text with focus on tells. Where have you written shallowly? Replace the tells with shows.

QUESTION
This challenge gave me more trouble than I'd expected. I realized I'm a person, who likes to orientate on VAKOG. In my opinion, it's (another) good way to express your character's feelings, if you write, what he/she sees, hears, feels, smells and/or tastes in a particular situation. I think, if you describe those things, your reader is not only in the 3rd position of a viewer, but straightly in 1st position of the character. So, the reader could more identify with him/her, instead of just viewing the outside reactions. Sure, these are important, too, to keep the story going on, but in one particular situation - like the challenge was demanding - it's hard for me to stay on plain outside descriptions.
So, I guess this time my outcome is quite topic failed.

MY OUTCOME
Have you ever heard of Pavlov's dog? The Russian physician Ivan Pavlov found out, that he could make his dog salivate when it hears a bell ring.
Well, every springtime something similar seems to happen with Tessa. When the first motorcycles of the year appear on the roads, she automatically has to think of her first lesson on a heavy motorbike:
The good thing was, there were no thoughts about all that practical stuff, she was already used to bikes. For two years she was riding scooters and light bikes, so this moment was familiar and new at the same time.
She mounted the bike. Thank God she was a tall woman, so there she stood, one foot to the ground, the other beside the gear. The heavy bike between her legs, she let it slightly swing, could feel the heavy weight of the engine. One thing was sure, if she ever lose balance and send her bike to the ground, she alone will never be able to lift it up again. Despite, the weight felt good. It was a promise for pure power. A twisting ball was growing in her guts, filled with anticipation and excitement. Her pulse was rising and her breath quickening. With a last check on her leather gloves, she bended over and started the engine. Some little turns on the gas ... Yeah, what a sound! A loud roar of a wild animal. As the cycle underneath her started to vibrate like a big cat's purr, pure adrenaline was poured out. Under her helmet her smile got wide, her eyes became a feverish, glowing glance. Preferably she would have danced for joy, but she knew it was better to concentrate, she had hell of respect of that engine. Now she released the clutch, lifted her leg. A generous turn on the gas and the bike accelerated instantly. Wow! This was better than roller coaster rides, much better! It was you, who had the power, to speedup the engine. She liked the way how the wind pulled on her leather clothes. And as the tank warmed under her body, she felt one with the bike. Together they flew over the streets. Even those nasty gas fumes were now the smell of freedom. Only if you make the experience of riding a heavy bike by yourself, you could truly feel and understand the meaning of a true Easy Rider! She would never forget and always know.

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Continue with Exercise 04: Names Is For Tombstones

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Creative Writing: A Dialogue Story

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(Note: This is a "Creative Writing Prompt")

THE CHALLENGE
Write a pure dialogue story. Make your story move along by using dialogues only. No narration, no description - just dialogues.

MY OUTCOME
»Hello.«
»Hi, darling. Where are you?«
»I'm just entering the park. Where are you?«
»The bench at the playground south of the lake.«
»Okay, I'm coming.«
»See you in a minute.«
»Bye.«
...
»Hi, darling.«
»Hi. I'm so sorry for being late, but that meeting wouldn't have come to an end. Someone should tell that idiot Blake, that he's the only one who likes his endless speeches!«
»It's okay, now you're here. That's all what counts.«
»Thanks! So, what are we doing here, Steve?«
»Oh, haven't I told you? I have a little surprise for you. Would you please close your eyes? Hmmm, I think I better help you. We don't want you cheating!«
...
»Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, my sweet Sara, happy birthday to you! Taraaa!«
»It's a picnic!«
»Yep.«
»This is perfect. How did you know?«
»A man knows, what a man has to know.«
»Claire told you or Mum, right?«
»...«
»Come on, please?«
»A men never reveals his sources. Would you like to start with a glass of champagne?«
»You want to distract me.«
»If it works ...«
»Yes, it does!«
»Cheerio, Miss Sophie!«
»Cheerio, James!«
»Let's sit down, honey. I have some strawberries and little sandwiches and some Brownies, everything you like.«
»Have I told you lately, that you're the best?«
»Not in the last 10 minutes.«
»I love you.«
»I love you, too.«

QUESTION
What do you think: Mission accomplished?
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