MONDAY creative writing exercise because it’s a good way to start the week: a happy exercise
It’s been a grim, grey winter. The longest I remember but today is a holiday in the UK and the sun is shining (two things that rarely coincide) so this exercise is short – so you can get on with the rest of your life – and happy.
One thing you need is a timer — the one on the cooker would do fine or perhaps you have a stop watch on your phone.
Now think about an animal that makes you smile. Perhaps it’s the memory of the cute pet mice you had as a child, the dog who at this very moment is looking at you with loving, snack-hungry, eyes or your friend’s cat who stalks with all the majesty of a dowager empress. It could be an animal you saw at a zoo or watched on television.
Your task is to describe that animal you’ve chosen and the emotions it arouses for exactly five minutes – that’s why you need the timer. This is prose – definitely not poetry.
And that’s it
Except for one small thing – you can’t repeat any word, not one, not even ‘the’ or ‘and’.
Hey! It’s an exercise. It is supposed to stretch you.
And just think how happy you’ll be when the timer goes off.
(What will you get out of the task you ask? The first sentence is easy peasy but after that you will have to think about the way you construct sentences and find new words for happy, lovable and fur…and that’s not a bad thing.)
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BRIDGET WHELAN writer 