Consider the Source

We've assumed that the writing we do will be disseminated in conventional ways: on a website or in a book. Now consider some unconventional ways.

  • Write a story or poem, whatever you want to call it, with a pen or pencil on paper. Then imagine (or actually do this, if you like!) crumpling up the paper and leaving it somewhere. Knowing that you're going to do this, what do you write?
  • In the novel This is How You Lose the Time War, two characters, Red and Blue, send letters to each other using increasingly fantastical means. One of them trains bees to spell out words in flight; another manages to get the lava flow of an active volcano to do so; and so on. Imagine a character writing a letter to someone and having them receive that letter in an unusual way that is relevant to the content of the letter. Is the letter baked into a cake? Why? Is it tapped out in Morse code by a dripping faucet? Again, why? Get as fantastical as you like -- or make it more realistic, if you prefer.
  • Send a postcard to someone across the galaxy. Or write a letter to someone on paper that looks like ancient scrolls and send it back in time to when people really did write on scrolls. What would you write?

 

Comments

  1. Florence LinMay 13, 2022 at 8:31 AM

    All I could think as I tapped the water pipe from inside, was that I really hoped that she would understand. Mallory was my best friend. My only friend, my everything. We had been inseparable since we were toddlers, seeing as our moms were best friends too. Tap, tap tap, tap tap. Tap, tap, tap tap tap tap. Singing in the Rain. Our favorite song. I hoped she remembered. She was my only chance of getting out of here.

    (Change in POV)
    I sighed as I dried the last dish, getting ready to go to bed. I paused, as I heard a noise from the water pipes. It seemed rhythmical. I wasn’t sure I cared enough to check though. I didn’t really care much about anything these days. After Matthew had gone missing, I sunk into a deep depression, and I had yet to come out of it. Sigh. I must be hallucinating. The tapping sounded like our favorite song, Singing in the Rain. Wait, was it? Probably not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Letitia MoffittMay 13, 2022 at 8:38 AM

    Letter on a crumpled piece of paper on the floor: So you finally found one of my letters. It's about time. I know, I know -- how were you to know? It looks like garbage. But I know you, and I know you see beauty in things other people ignore or toss aside. That's why I'm here, or at least this letter is. I want to see the world like you do. Instead of trash, the creases of this paper are a mountain range, the wad a heart, the words folded into each other are huddled together for protection. And now I want to be seen again, and not ignored, but I have to be careful. I can only reveal myself sparingly. And so I reveal myself, just this little bit, to you.

    ReplyDelete

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