Writing Exercise 076

Another busy week; but I still found the time to write a little something. The topic was "a day in summer" and with this poem I wish you such a day. Enjoy!

2017/05/26 – a day in summer (poem)

Roses, lilies, marigold

That's the story summer told

A butterfly flutters by

Up towards the clear blue sky

The black martins are singing

Good weather they are bringing

Over hill tops to a lake

Wanderer, which route to take?

Through long grass, under the trees

Listen to the birds and bees

Enjoy the day; it won't last

Autumn is approaching fast

Writing Exercise 075

Time sure flies by. This week my task is to restart an old project, and a dream reminded me of something back from 2014, which has not been published yet. So I revisited this very story and decided to continue it.

2017/05/15 – restart an old project (fanfiction, Naruto)

Read the first chapter of my fanfiction 'Peach Flower' on AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10913244/chapters/24267126 

Writing Exercise 074

Guess what! It's time for my weekly writing exercise again. :D
This week I wrote a triple drabble; and today is a lovely day, so the topic is 'carpe diem'. Sounds fun?
Here it is:

 

2017/05/10 – carpe diem (triple drabble)

The morning is clear and bright. You feel energized to brimming and ready for action. There are so many things you want to do today. Go for a walk, go shopping, clean your home, meet your friends, call your family, complete the game you recently bought. Study and write, draw and read, set up a cupboard and do some gardening. But where to start? You want to do everything at once. If only you could clone yourself to accomplish that!

First you push the button and make yourself a nice cup of coffee; all decisions are reached faster enhanced by a cup of coffee, you believe. So where to start this lovely day? The weather is nice, but there are so many things to do at home, too. As you contemplate, a whole pot is emptied before you decide you have had enough. The afternoon is gone by the time you realize you have done nothing yet. How odd is that. You have had so many plans, yet you haven't started a single thing.

By now it is too late for shopping or going for a walk or gardening. Disappointed and disheartened you sit down and try to write or draw, but you can't force creativity. So the paper stays as blank as your mind, and you set the idea about creativity aside. The instructions tell you, you need some help to set up the cupboard, and you don't want to bother your friends and family so late. As you sit down to study you feel tired and find it hard to concentrate. So reading is not an option either. You remember why you stopped playing that game, as you are stuck, and you don't want to clean any more either.

Nobody said it was easy to seize the day.

Writing Exercise 073

This week's topic for my writing exercise was the question 'What did you dream last night?'. I waited for a memorable dream and wrote everything down in a hurry, so I didn't forget about it right away. What I made of it is this poem:

2017/05/05 – What did you dream last night? (poem)

Last night I had a nightmarish dream.

On my way to uni I went through the city,

Looking forward to the lecture I felt quite witty.

A lot of people were running about;

Suddenly I could hear frightened voices shout.

Amongst the panicked mob there was gunfire.

A civil war – my heart sank like a piece of lead;

I saw people tumble and fall, they were dead.

So getting out of there was my strongest desire.

But there was no going back; the road was blocked.

A sudden pain – the blood on my hands was hot,

I looked at the barrel of a gun and knew I was shot.

Realising I was dying I was quite shocked.

Then I woke with a silent scream.

Dembelo's discussions

As I've mentioned, I've been to the authors' bar camp at the Unperfekthaus in Essen last Saturday.

The Dembelo team, which I am part of, had a lot to set up before the event could start at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The workshop room had to be prepared, the buffet had to be organised, posters and logos had to be hung up, the reception had to be set up as well as the exhibition desk. But we managed everything on time!

When finally a total of 42 participants, coming from all over Germany, had arrived, the authors' bar camp could oficially start. At first we introduced our project, then explained how the bar camp functioned and collected the topics the participants wanted to address.
These topics were summed up into six workshops, two of them held parallelly each throughout the bar camp.
These workshops were:

• The future of reading and writing
• Writing skills
• Cooperative writing
• Readings
• Selfpublishing
• What to do after the first draft

During my shifts I moderated two of these workshops, Cooperative writing and Readings. I was very excited, but it worked out pretty awesomely. Together with the participants some interesting and intensive discussions unfolded; the important points were noted on a flip chart, so the results could be presented at the plenum at the end of the authors' bar camp and before the midnight writing workshop began at half past eleven.

And in between the authors could hold readings, which were broadcasted via life stream.

So later, when only the participants of the midnight writing workshop were left, we moved to the shared appartment hotel of the Unperfekthaus to write all night.
Well, I wrote until half past three, then I was totally exhausted. At least I managed to write one and a half decent chapters for one of my WIPs.

But after retreating to the room I shared with my fellow Dembelo teammates I couldn't sleep at all. Not even for a few minutes! So many impressions kept me awake, and the appartment hotel was also pretty badly soundproofed.
So the next morning during brunch I felt like a zombie. But still it was a very successful weekend for the Dembelo team, and for me personally. I would totally do it again and am looking forward to next year's authors' bar camp! :D