Monday Creative Writing Exercise — FORBIDDEN
From the archives: this was first published in 2013.
The focus in this exercise is on creating atmosphere and a convincing sense of place. The subject is ‘Forbidden Place’ – perhaps because it is dangerous, or secret, or for any other reason.
You can use a place from your own life – it might help to think about your childhood when so many rules hedged us in.
Or use the photograph above for inspiration
Visualise it. Walk around it in your imagination.
Then describe it from the point of view of someone who has never seen it before – every detail should convey the forbidden nature of this place and how your character feels about it.
What can you hear?
What can you feel?
What can you smell?
In Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë describes ‘gaunt thorns’ stretching in one direction as if ‘craving alms of the sun’. Inside the house, chairs ‘lurk’ in the shade; dogs ‘haunt’ the recesses.
USE VERBS to bring your writing to life.
For example
the wind blew rubbish across the street
could become
The wind knifed across the street driving the rubbish before it.
or
The wind waltzed with the rubbish, sashaying it up and down the gutters
photo credit: Hide and Seek via photopin (license)
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