Nearing the mid-point of the semester, we started the week with a really interesting writing exercise. Taken from The Creative Screenwriter: Exercises to Expand Your Craft, we we’re given a random word, then we had to write 15 words related to that word, pick a word from that list, then write 10 new words related to the new word, and pick 3 words from the new list to write a 500-word story1(18-9).
The word I got was ‘crunch’, which I thought would be hard to find words to relate to. But I suppose the whole point of this entire exercise is to really push us to broaden our minds and test how much we can expand our creativity.
It was a really interesting to see how such an exercise could push out the most obscure stories from everyone. Myself included. It definitely tested me in terms of coming up with a story using just three words.
From ‘crunch’, I ended up with the words coffee, cake and dinner. Though I didn’t get to finish writing my story in the allocated time, I managed to push out a story about a cute (somewhat cliche) burgeoning love story about a barista and a frequent bookworm customer.
Here is an extract of what I wrote:
A table meant for two, she took her usual spot in the corner of the cafe after making her usual order. She sat down by the window, facing the wall. She didn’t like facing the rest of the room because she found it distracting from her view of the window. She watched the people walk past her, some rushing, while others strolled leisurely. She knew herself was about to get into deep thought, so instead, she pulled out her novel and continued to read while waiting for her coffee.
He glanced at her every now as he made her usual half-skinny, half-almond cappuccino order. He’s been making the same cup of coffee for her every Tuesday morning, always between the hours 9am-10am, for the past two months. He found her order Interesting, just like her. And every time he made it, he would always create a different design with the milk just to catch a glimpse of her smile when she notices it. Today was no exception.
He approached her table with her coffee in one hand, and this time, with a slice of cake in the other. He placed them in front of her and she quickly looked up, ready to rebut him for the cake. He simply smiled at her and said, ‘It’s on the house.’
Just a side note, this exercise reminded me of how much I miss writing. I’m not much of an aid writer, but I do have ideas stored and waiting to be written out. Although this is just new story birthed from some class exercise, I think it’s definitely worth continuing and possibly writing in a screenplay format in order to practise what we’ve been learning and finding my own voice in writing.
References:
1 Waldeback, Z & Batty, C (2012). The Creative Screenwriter: Exercises to Expand Your Craft. London. Methuen Drama. pp. 10-21.