Creative Writing Class 6

[totembird.livejournal.com]

[[Better late than never amirite]]

*The donut incident hasn't deterred Xatu from teaching his class in the slightest, even though a stubborn maple glaze or two have been cemented to the ceiling classroom by their frosting. Xatu chooses to ignore them, and simply begins class with the simple two-note song and flaring of wings.*

Welcome back, class. Let's get right into things, shall we? Your prompt for today:
There's not a force on earth as powerful as emotion. Describe a situation that evoked a strong emotional reaction in you. How did you feel and what made you feel that way?

Twenty minutes, class. You may begin.


--

...Alright, class, pencils down. Pass your prompts forward, please.

Today we'll be focusing on imagery. Clear, concise sentences are the cornerstone of good writing, but if you sacrifice creativity for clarity you've got nothing more than an encyclopedia entry.

Think of writing like... hm, let's call it soup. First, you need to start with a base. Think of the theme as the broth of your piece. It needs to be able to compliment and support all the ingredients of your soup, but still be appealing in and of itself. You could add the finest ingredients in the world, but if the broth is terrible, then the soup will be entirely inedible.
Of course, nobody wants to live on broth alone. That's where imagery comes in. Your potatoes, your carrots, your chicken and noodles... the ingredients you add are what set your creation apart and beckon to the reader. There's no limit to the combinations you can create, but exercise some self-control. Whole potatoes and half a cow chucked into a pot do not a delicious soup make; nobody likes to slough through purple prose. The idea is to beckon in the reader, not to club them with your ladle. Appeal to their senses. Tantalize them. Make their mouths water.

There are a few basic of imagery you can employ:

Visual: appealing to the sense of sight. One of the most common varieties of imagery. Picture a sunset, or the distorted rainbows thrown by a prism in the sun.
Auditory: appealing to the sense of hearing. Birdsong. Windchimes. The purr of a sports car's engine.
Gustatory: appealing to the sense of taste. Go watch any fast food commercial, and you'll see what I mean.
Olfactory: appealing to the sense of smell. A forest after a rainfall. Popcorn.
Kinesthetic: appealing to the sense of touch. Sandpaper, silk, a longhaired kitten. You get the idea, I'm sure.

Your assignment for this week is to partner up with somebody in the class and write a paragraph describing a part of them. It can be a physical attribute, like their hair or their smile, or it can be something more abstract. A nervous habit or an aspect of their personality. Something like that. I would like to remind you that I will be marking these, and feel no great urge to read about my students' more intimate body parts. Please, keep your writing school appropriate. If an uneven number of students are present, then I will be willing to partner up with the odd man out if need be... but I'm quite sure you would all much rather form a group of three.


[[Again, writing is optional hurrhurr :U Don't feel obligated to do one or the other or both.]]

Comments

ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[totembird.livejournal.com]

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[iwannarawk.livejournal.com]

Present as always!

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[starved-sword.livejournal.com]

Here. *lol avoiding Xatu*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[pkloveomega.livejournal.com]

*Guys Duckbutt is here because MUNSTERBATION IS COOL. Also to help make sure everybody gets a car partner. :D*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[not-a-tadpole.livejournal.com]

Here! *And, for the meantime, not BAWWWing over his lack of Froggy Stick*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[pudgy-purple.livejournal.com]

I am here. *Fidgeting slightly in her seat because whoooo these donut things are good but they sure do make you feel like running around*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[swordsdancerox.livejournal.com]

Guess who. *sneerity sneer sneer*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[milewidesmile.livejournal.com]

*taking Latias' advice and checking out Creative Writing even though oshi psychic Pokemon. keeps quiet since he's not on the attendance list yet and sits there patiently*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[mailcalltime.livejournal.com]

Present!

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[umbreon-blacky.livejournal.com]

Mind if I join in~?
*Compleeeetely innocent finger-wave in Lucas' direction TEEHEE*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[painting-beagle.livejournal.com]

Hiys Mr. Xatu~
*heeere because she isn't going to get sick juuust yet*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[manaphyofthesea.livejournal.com]

*AAAA THIS TEACHER CAN MINDRAPE HIM WTFFFFF I HATE YOU KYLEE*

Re: ATTENDANCE // Find partners for the assignment here olol

[miracleprayer.livejournal.com]

((Let's pretend Paula is in this class, yay!))

I hope you don't mind if I start attending in the middle, Mr. Xatu. If it's a problem, I promise to make up any and all work that I might have missed.

[iwannarawk.livejournal.com]

She grabbed my hand, and gave it a tiny squeeze. Her fingers felt so tiny around mine. I felt like sighing. I never felt like sighing. I squeezed back, and turned up the charm. The wind picked up, so I pulled her into a hug. Her body heat mingled with mine, I swear I could feel her heart beating. She rested her head on my chest, and I shut my eyes as tightly as I could. I sniffled a little bit. She said something. I opened my eyes. I couldn't see right, everything was blurry. She asked if we could go dancing. I gave her my best smile. She deserved more.

[swordsdancerox.livejournal.com]

*Oh God, why'd he have to use a prompt like that.*
...
*grips her pencil til it nearly snaps in half*

......
Fuck.
------

There was this party where a boy asked me to dance. I'd never danced with anyone before. Never for someone else, only myself. I didn't know what to do, but it came to me naturally. I'd never had a boy ask me to do anything, really. It was...nice.

Poetry critique.
...shouldn't have ripped up the paper.

[[Strikeouts = poorly scribbled out or erased, probably mostly readable lol because drama and angst.]]

[pudgy-purple.livejournal.com]

There was a time that instead of feeling happy like usual I felt something very bad and very strong. When the combat teacher put us on the island to kill hurt each other I did not want to hurt anybody until I went to the sandy part near the water. The floating boy was there and I remember he was a person who made it so that people had plants on their heads and I had to hurt sister and Leader at that time. I wanted to hurt him because of it even though that is a very bad thing to think. But I did not care that I was not supposed to think that. I wanted to hurt him a lot and then kill him and then he would not make me ever hurt sister again. But he was the one that fake killed me instead.

[not-a-tadpole.livejournal.com]

I get really emotional a lot of the time. Most recently it was just the other day when I lost the staff my Grandpa gave me. I promised him I'd take good care of it but it just vanished without a trace. I cried a lot even though a lot of people complained about the storm. I couldn't help it. I still haven't been able to find it and we looked everywhere in the room.

He's going to be so disappointed that I can't even take care of one thing.

... *SNIFF. Oh hello there sudden cloudy weather. Cheer up, emo puff.*

[pkloveomega.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you get hurt so bad that it never goes away.

It just turns into a monster and sits on your back and digs its claws in until they find your heart. Then it squeezes and scrapes with its needles until your not sure if your heart wants to explode, or bleed itself dry, or just crumble into a zillion little specks. All you can do is try and bear it, no matter how heavily that monster rests on your shoulders or how tightly his claws clamp down. Sometimes... sometimes you think that you're just a hair away from the breaking point, and the tiniest little ripple will crumple you like paper.

*stares down at his paper for a moment, frowns... then crumples it and starts over.*


My brother hugged me for the first time since we were kids and promised he wasn't going anywhere.


*...Lucas can't think of a way to make it any more powerful than that, so he puts down his pencil and quietly waits until time's up.*

[umbreon-blacky.livejournal.com]

*Writes supaa-fast*

Curiously enough it is the simplest things, I find, that evoke the most complicated of emotions. Or perhaps it is the springtime itself; when the cold and unwelcoming landscape melts away to reveal blossoming beauty. Such it is with the heart.

It was many years ago now, I still young and timid, awkward in my human form but still retaining a sandy-brown mane around my neck - a telltale sign of what I was. Even so, I didn't stand out much: meek and fragile, shrinking to the furthest reaches of any room, perhaps quite the opposite of how I am now.

There was a boy. I didn't know his name - I didn't know many of my peers, despite having attended the school for two years now. I often stuck by to the few who were familiar to me, but they did not share every class. Those were the ones I felt most afraid in and shunned my classmates before they could do it to me.

This boy - even today I couldn't tell you his name - he would always pass my desk and smile. I pretended not to see him and kept my gaze fixated on my desk. For several months this persisted, until one day the boy did not show up. I noticed. For someone I never spoke to, his sudden absence struck such a blow it was as though I had been forced to part with those I loved most. I couldn't focus that class, and instead kept watching his desk as though expecting him to appear. I longed for his smile, to be acknowledged in a friendly way by someone who hardly knew me.

He returned the next week, having recovered from the flu. I had never felt such tremendous relief before then. Even though we never so much as said a word to each other, I always smiled back after that.

[mailcalltime.livejournal.com]

I was chatting with a girl under a tree. She had recently joined our group for a journey. I don't remember what either of us said during the entire talk. I just remember how her pale skin shined under the specks of sunlight coming through the tree branches. Her ribbons danced when ever she laughed. She was like no girl I ever met before.
She was quick tempered and brutally honest. She held nothing back and wasn't the least bit shy. An air of confidence radiated from her. She was the exact opposite of me.
Blood rushed to my cheeks and my heart began to beat rapidly. I felt so flustered. My feathers stood on end when she gave me a sudden pat on my shell. My head was spinning and my chest tightened. But at the same time, a fuzzy warmth flowed through my entire body. I felt like I was going to fly away to the heavens.
When she floated away to speak to our other companions, I realized that for the first time in my life, I was in love.

[painting-beagle.livejournal.com]

*Hey look, a prompt she can do correctly without bawwwing*

When I was younger, I was blessed to meet a young Chimchar. We were both in our youth, so innocent, we didn't know a thing. I was just coming out of my shell from my accident, and I was still so very shy, I thought I was never going to show such emotions around him as I did. He showed me I could trust other people other than myself and my family, he spoke of great adventures and trials that I'd possibly never see, my Smeargle clan was so peaceful.

We were truly becoming great friends, I really did like him, even though I was so young..It just felt right. It had been a month, and he said he was leaving to further his strength. I was devastated by what he had said, I wanted him to stay around forever. Chimchar just made me feel so alive, like I had before my accident. I cried so much when I heard he was going to leave, but the day he left.. He hugged me, I had never had a hug from anyone other than my relatives until that day, he hugged me, and he told me these exact words. "This is not the end.."

I dare say that I didn't know what he was talking about, until this year...when he came back to me, I was just so happy to be back with him. The feelings I held for him returned when I discovered he was still alive, and that he was here. I hadn't known it before, but I was still in love with him since the day he came to Johto, and the day he made me feel as if I were normal..and not just judged because of my scars."

*Wait..No, this is making her bawww, but in a happy way*

*PROMPT ONLY BECAUSE FFF LAZY*

[manaphyofthesea.livejournal.com]

Quiet tension always bothered me. I do not love the mistrust some people have on others...it is a blizzard that hinders so many from interacting with the warmth that comes with companionship.

I know my friend had her heart broken by a boy. But she is strong and somehow...she still returns to the person who hurt her. Is that what love is? Hurting yourself and then coming back for more? When I loved, I relished the warmth it gave back in return...not the bitter cold.

Ah, only time will tell.

Prompt

[miracleprayer.livejournal.com]

It was all over. All of our hard work had finally proven successful. It was a relief that everything was peaceful again. Everyone was returning home to their everyday lives.

I'll never forget that overwhelming feeling at such a small action. Never before had I been swept up in such emotion. And it was such a silly little thing too. Normally I wouldn't have even thought about it, but after everything we had went through, it just felt... right. I felt comforted, safe, and most of all, happy.

Sometimes if I close my eyes, I can still feel my hand within his as he walked me home that day.

[loudflowerpower.livejournal.com]

When I found out the man I had fallen in love with, the one whom I loved for years, was in love with another man, I felt my heart shatter into a thousand pieces. I cried, I raged... I couldn't get over it, and a part of me still can't. I wanted to be his lover, his future wife, the mother of his children. But he doesn't understand all that. All he knows is that I loved him. And now... ever since I told him I never wanted to speak to him again (due to an unrelated incident), I feel so guilty. Even though he didn't reciprocate my emotions, the way he reacted towards me told me he still cared deeply about me. I've given up on love mainly because of this man, so I wouldn't be hurt again. But, thinking about it now, I suppose I don't deserve love, not with the way I can hurt others. I see it now.

*Daisy stops writing, pushes away the paper, and puts her head on her desk to silently cry*

[monotreme-101.livejournal.com]

For the last seventeen years of my life, I've been the last Echidna. For fifteen of those years, I was without any sort of civilisation except the dead culture of my fallen race. For the last two years, I've done the best I can to fit into a world that has left me and mine behind.

When Sonic told me that there was another Echidna attending this school, I didn't believe him. I couldn't. Not until I saw her face and heard her voice. She told me the tale of her clan - and she isn't the last. There are more besides her, even.

When she took my hand and told me I'd no longer walk alone, I cried. For the first time since my infancy, I shed tears. This time, however, there was someone there who was able to wipe them away and make me smile. I felt so much relief, it was almost painful. I don't believe there to be any shame in tears - some of the strongest people I've ever met cry readily. But for me to stand there and weep...

I'm Knuckles the Echidna, and I'm not the last one any more.