For my birthday, my boyfriend bought me a creative writing journal. I have been considering creative writing for a long time and I would love to study it properly, however, I also know that it’s expensive and long and might take some of the enjoyment out of it. For the longest time, I have wanted to write. My absolute dream career would be to write for a living and I figured I might as well give this a go and try out writing.
The book has two pages per exercise, on the first page there is a piece of art and on the second page, there is a short prompt and plenty of space to write. I know that I could go on and turn each piece into a far longer piece, but for the sake of the exercise, I am limiting myself to just the one-page space in the book. I am also reading the prompt as a guide but then taking the narrative in whatever direction feels right to me. There’s no point writing in a style that doesn’t feel natural to me and it will only make me feel restricted.
Is the woman at the table trying to convince her date to live in the moment, or critiquing his photo skills? Document their conversation.
“Oh,” I didn’t hear my date initially, because I was so focused on getting that perfect shot. “You’re one of those people.”
I couldn’t quite tell if it was criticism or praise. “One of what sort of person?”
She looked at me again and immediately I knew it was a criticism. “Oh, I, um, I write a blog.”
I began to explain myself and then I stopped. Why should I explain myself? “Do you not think you should spend more time focusing on being in the moment rather than always trying to document it?”
I took a moment to consider my response to the negative reaction that I had become accustomed to. “What if this is the first date of many. In 50 years time, we could be sitting in our beige recliners, looking at this picture and remembering this moment where it all began.”
She looked at me like I was crazy; she couldn’t ever imagine spending more time with me. I knew it – her face gave her every thought away. “You’re right.”
I almost thought that I had made up what I wanted to hear; there was a gorgeous woman across the table from me. She had been chatty, bubbly and had made me feel incredibly comfortable in an otherwise uncomfortable situation. “When we’re looking back though, I’d much rather see more of the table setting. Stand up – you’ll get more into the photo and then you can crop the bad bits out later.”
We both looked across the table at each other and smiled.
This was my first writing exercise from this art based creative writing journal. I would love any advice and feedback that you have to offer.
Love always,
Alice x
Adventuring as Alice 