>>> Item number 21173 from WRITERS LOG9311C --- (97 records) ----- <<< Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1993 18:00:06 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Thanksgiving Vapors I think Thanksgiving is coming up, and lots of you will vanish, off to enjoy holidays at home. Parades, eating, football, snoring... and the shopping starts up the day after! OK? Here's some little exercises to work on while you're enjoying the spicy steam rising from the turkey and hot cornbread stuffing, with the smell of thick gravy slathered over it, and the deep red stewed cranberries (supposedly a natural remedy for the fat and grease - I just think they taste good). When you dig into the mashed potatoes, corn fritters, and green beans, think about these. And when you take a big mouthful of warm pumpkin pie with whipped cream or icecream on top, or maybe a slice of pecan pie, sweet and crunchy with pastry flaking down home taste, or whatever flavor you like, let your mind drift over these. For that matter, when you find yourself groaning in front of the tube watching the parades and bowl games, trying to decide whether you really want a bite of a crisp, fresh apple, red with the sun and wind, small brown scars signs of the struggle it gave to be ripe for you - well, you could ponder some of these. (GAWD! I made myself homesick and just gained 10 pounds writing that paragraph!:-) 1. Some people may not have a home to go to, a family to share the harvest celebration with. Write a scenario for them - either the loner at the restaurant (BAH! HUMBUG!) learning what Thanksgiving is all about OR the family opening their home celebration to the loner, and relearning the meaning of the time themselves in the process. 2. Pick any of those goodies that are weighting the table down, and use it as a metaphor for the day, your feelings, etc. Write a short "allegory" making the reader taste that food AND feel its hidden meaning(s). 3. (SF) R'gnarl, the Centaurian anthropologist, has decided to observe your family during this ritual. What questions does it have? How does your family answer them? What, if anything, does R'gnarl conclude about the implications of this ritual? (don't forget that R'gnarl's report will determine whether the exterminators are brought in to clear the planet for another attempt at a sapient race or not...) 4. (SF) The colonists are down on planet Skylor. The natives aren't sure whether they want to be friendly or not, but they are willing to talk and listen. The colonists, having brought in the harvest, want to celebrate - with a mixture of old Thanksgiving, some new customs they developed during the trip, and perhaps some native customs. Describe that festival - and how the colonists explain what it is. 5. Kiddy times - we have probably all heard the standard Thanksgiving stories. But suppose your (little sister/brother, cousin, next door neighbor - youngster) wants a story, and you want to tell one, set in the old stories BUT using your own special plot/characters/twists. What is that story? 6. Many Japanese have never experienced Thanksgiving, of course, but often they have heard of it. Imagine that you are asked to describe it for them. Tell them about the food you had, how you spent the time, and what it means - why do you do this? 7. Imagine you're a ghost of a person who never lived (member of the family? friend? Indian who would have lived here?) and you are watching the revelry. What do you want to say to those who are there? Can you, in the very ghostly whispers, tell the reader who you are? Can you make them feel what you feel watching - the thanksgiving you don't have... (hey, spooks deserve love too, you know!) 8. (Always a good one) Dialogue Watching! You may be seeing people meeting for the first time after a separation, or just spending some time with people in a little different mood. Watch and listen carefully. What are they doing with their bodies and language? When some phrase or joke is especially good, keep track of it. Why is this so effective? Listen to the dialogue, the rhythms and patterns, and figure out how you know someone without even looking at them. (If you're like me, you may not want to take notes at the time, but go ahead and make some notes later. Try to run back over the time and write down bits and pieces that stood out, plus some that are so completely ordinary that you might have trouble noticing them.) 9. We've recently heard about "random acts of kindness" here on the list. Keep your eyes open for situations that might allow such "good Samaritan" acts, and consider what might happen if people carried it out. You may either write up the story or, where appropriate, try it! (this is known as empirical writing - do something, watch, then report results...) 10. Have fun! (this, in case you can't tell, was an excellent way to sublimate a bit of homesickness and jealousy for me. oh, well, I'll make myself some cornbread... enjoy your holidays, folks. I'll be thinking about you.) tink