Whispers on the breeze.
Hello dear reader, I thought I would start this blog with a bit of melodrama to reflect my current mood. As somebody who follows the seasons, I look forward to spring. The return of the light and colour to the landscape. As I write this, the cherry blossom outside my window is beginning to bloom, and there are daffodils and snowdrops on my woodland walks. The equinox is approaching and I have been exploring the themes of balance and harmony in my poetry.
A fellow writer on Instagram (@writinggwell) offers writing prompts that I often use for my warm ups when I am feeling a little flat. One of the questions this week really sparked my interest:
If you wrote a story about a world in which each generation , a hero would take in all evil from the world until they succumb to its darkness, and you were the new hero planning to be the last. What would the last line be?
I really loved this. It fit with the themes of my writing this week and it is such a deliciously dark and deep idea to explore. My response was, in fact, three lines. What can I say? I’m a rebel and why use seven words when thirty-eight go so beautifully together?
We were never meant to be just one thing, to hold only darkness or light. No magical sword can cut the bonds nor chalice contain the darkness. It was in perfect balance that the hope for humanity lived.
See, I told you I was feeling melodramatic! There are lots of prompts like this to be found on Instagram and I would encourage you to give them a go if you are looking for a little inspiration. It takes the thought out of planning a warm up exercise and opens up new genres. You never know what it might spark.
In the current module of my writing course we are looking at how to develop your ‘voice’ as a writer. Looking at examples of other authors and also reading my own work aloud. That has been interesting although not entirely comfortable to do. The little writing prompts also give me a change to analyse my voice and to play around with different tones. When I have a little bit more to share I will be looking for readers to give me feedback and that will be one of the things I want to focus on. I’ve almost finished act one of the narrative and plan on using a three act structure. The three act structure is really common and is seen in plays, screenwriting, novels and films. I’ve given myself a lot of work to do by writing in two timelines so keeping to a structure like this is helping me with the flow.
Image Credit: @babybluecat
