A murder of crows gathered this past weekend! Yes, it was the Central Region of Oklahoma Writers (CROW) retreat weekend. There were 6 of us (Alicia, Anna, Jon, Krysta, Tianne, and me) spending the weekend at an Airbnb rental in Oklahoma City, with Mark joining us on Saturday for the day. It was a weekend filled with fun writing exercises, merriment, and camaraderie after dinner both Friday and Saturday nights, sitting outside around the fire pit.
I think the most interesting exercise was when one of us wrote an opening line for a story, passed it on to the next person, who wrote the second line on a different slip of paper, then passed the line they wrote on to the next person, who wrote the third line, and so on until the person who wrote the first line has the last line written. The story is then read aloud, starting with the person who got the original first line. The story started out sweet and innocent and ended up deadly! Here is the story that was BEAST!
Line 1: The
light and airy scent of lilacs wafting through the old wooden screen door
filling the gallery was a sure sign the quiet streets of Wisteria would soon be
bustling with people.
Line 2: The
train arrived and the circus was in town.
Line 3: Stacy
watched the doors open whispering under her breath “No clowns, no clowns.”
Line 4: She
entered the tent; it wasn’t what she thought, it was much worse.
Line 5: Targo,
the geek, his head on the dirt packed ground next to his body; bloods spewing
from his neck, like so many chickens that had been a part of his act.
Line 6: The
irony of it all hit him, and he smiled, it would have been a full-blown laugh if
he’d still been in one piece—but without his heart or lungs, the weak grin was
all his severed head could manage.
Line 7: His smile quickly turned to a horrified grimace when he realized where he was—on the 10th yard line of the high school football field. THE END
We also practiced Drabble Writing. In our folder were two pictures to choose from to write a story about with a beginning, middle, and end that was 100 words long. It really makes you tighten your writing, that’s for sure. I feel like this would be a great exercise for use in the classroom.
Saturday night was Crowtionary (our version of Pictionary), and as always, it is a blast to watch authors draw while their author teammates try to guess the book title. There are always CROW published author titles mixed in with the likes of Mary Poppins, Water for Elephants, etc.
Now that the fun is done, it’s time to get down to business. I have a new book to write!
I can never thank you enough for continuing to read these snippets into my life as an author. I hope I have not bored you too much with them. 😊 After all, other people's lives are never as glamorous as we may think.
May your ereader or bookshelf overflow with delightful
books to read!
Maxine
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