Writing Exercise #56
INGREDIENTS
1. One of the worst decisions of your life.
2. Three selfless acts you have committed.
3. Something you used to love when you were little.
- - - - -
Now, read this amazing poem.
Write an alternate universe poem about one of the worst choices you've ever made. The best way to do this is to write out as much as you can remember about #1; try to get down to the smallest details of that day. If you don't remember, make it up.
Your reader never needs to know what it is, because we're going to journey with your alternate self. Choose a setting opposite of where the bad choice was made. Make sure elements of that day are still around you, but this time, they are not as they'd been, originally. If a broken windshield was involved in the actual version, have a waitress drop a tray of drinking glasses. If you were bruised after the real events of the bad decision, make the neighborhood you're alternate self walks through be filled with nothing but blue houses.
Have your alternate self complete a selfless act for a stranger. Make sure that stranger is a metaphor for something from the original event. Make sure this act has a snowball affect for the stranger. Something good or grand that is able to happen due to your generosity. Allow yourself to still love #3. Allow it to still be there for you. If it is a place, have that be where you go to sleep. If it is a toy or pet, carry it with you everywhere you go.
If you want, let the narrator announce a few things that didn't happen. "Rachel did not cross the street today / she instead stopped at an ice cream truck / as the birds above her fought for worms / and a big blue car did not run a red light."
It might be best to keep this in third person. Second person if you're daring. Allow yourself some sweetness. We can't drag our mistakes around with us everywhere we go.
1. One of the worst decisions of your life.
2. Three selfless acts you have committed.
3. Something you used to love when you were little.
- - - - -
Now, read this amazing poem.
Write an alternate universe poem about one of the worst choices you've ever made. The best way to do this is to write out as much as you can remember about #1; try to get down to the smallest details of that day. If you don't remember, make it up.
Your reader never needs to know what it is, because we're going to journey with your alternate self. Choose a setting opposite of where the bad choice was made. Make sure elements of that day are still around you, but this time, they are not as they'd been, originally. If a broken windshield was involved in the actual version, have a waitress drop a tray of drinking glasses. If you were bruised after the real events of the bad decision, make the neighborhood you're alternate self walks through be filled with nothing but blue houses.
Have your alternate self complete a selfless act for a stranger. Make sure that stranger is a metaphor for something from the original event. Make sure this act has a snowball affect for the stranger. Something good or grand that is able to happen due to your generosity. Allow yourself to still love #3. Allow it to still be there for you. If it is a place, have that be where you go to sleep. If it is a toy or pet, carry it with you everywhere you go.
If you want, let the narrator announce a few things that didn't happen. "Rachel did not cross the street today / she instead stopped at an ice cream truck / as the birds above her fought for worms / and a big blue car did not run a red light."
It might be best to keep this in third person. Second person if you're daring. Allow yourself some sweetness. We can't drag our mistakes around with us everywhere we go.
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5:37 AM
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