Fantasy Foretold Forum Writing Games/Exercises?

Hey guys!

So my life has been pretty hectic over the last few days (and not always in exciting ways) and I haven't had much time to get onto WC. When I do find time to get on, I don't know whether I should spend it reading others' work or working on my own. It's been a little frustrating. I was curious to see if anyone had any fun writing games or exercises-- that would take less than 20 minutes preferably-- and if anyone would be interested in participating. We would need someone to act as a moderator, who would start a thread in the forums every day and explain that day's particular exercise, and then everyone could post their submissions to that thread.

Maybe no one else is interested in this sort of thing, but I would love to get into a routine of doing a short exercise every day, and reading other writers' takes on them! Let me get some feedback!

Great idea, ML!  I'm not sure what I should say, except that I'd definitely take part in them (not every single one, of course).  Maybe we should start with doing one a week, since some peoples' everyday exercise is working on their book or something : ).  I guess this thread would be a great place to start the exercises.  When a new exercise/game begins, the person who thought of it could type something obvious like:

TODAY'S EXERCISE IS....
That way people won't miss it when a new one starts.  Another tactic could be, as you said, just starting new threads for each game....I guess they'd go on indefinitely and people could post things as they felt?  Not sure.  Anyway, good suggestion.  Hopefully more members will voice their opinions on it.  Maybe you could contact Arutha to have a notice sent out to all the members?

But, in the mean time, if you want a writing exercise, you could try this one:

Write a paragraph about someone taking a walk without using the letter 'e'.  About six sentences, minimum.  (there's an entire novel called 'Void' written without the use of 'e', so this isn't an impossible task).  I'll start:

Max will find that his mind is full of sorrow.  It is a product of what John will do that day. John thinks that today's combination of sky status and his cardio-organ's status fit without any confrontation, so John opts to stamp his daily plan with a notion that is simply: "I shall go on a walk today, at around 3, to Plum Park.  I will not allow anything or human stop my walk, and I will carry many things to solidify my walk's joy.  I shall go on a walk today" .  Is John too dramatic in his thought of walking?  Walking is not a thing humans normally think of with such vigor and positivity.  For most humans, walking is but an activity, a thing that most humans do with Sun and Moon's switch of 12 hours.  It is a simplicity, nothing to find so much joy in.  "You must know this:  John's cardio-organ will not usually contract and un-contract at a normal rhythm for such organs.  Usually, its palpitation is slow--almost akin to a snail's crawl--so doing minor things such as "taking a walk"?  Not so minor for John, no?"  This is what John's sibling, Max, says to anybody who asks of John's odd habits, of his habits to stay indoors, to only transport his body using cars, to stray from horror films or falling into romantic associations.  This is what Max says to 3 humans of law who ask him similar Qs during his walk this morning, who ask why John's body was found on Plum Park’s path.
____

Okay, so maybe that was a bad example, but I already did it, so....Anyway, good idea : )

Morning clouds sang a harmony in brilliant swirls of color, illuminating Woodrock's snowy rooftops, though Adarius Storin hardly took stock. His boots had lost any warmth long ago, his limbs numb, sporadically fraught with jolts of painful pricks. Soon, Garinholt's Six would march right through his shadow wall, probably without so much as blinking. Summoning a wall was difficult for most, but to any son of Garinholt, it was child's play. Still, Adarius could hardly sit idly by and watch as a bunch of sadistic b******s took his city apart. It wasn't much, but his shadow wall might slow an attack and allow King Jodric's Knights to turn this into a fight.

Holy cow, that was tough! I seriously spent like 20 minutes trying to get that just right. I can't imagine writing a whole book like that.

If anybody wants a serious challenge, do the six sentences, without the letter "e," and write the whole thing in... what is that, past participle? Everything was begging me to throw an "ed" on the end, lol. IT'S MADDENING I TELL YOU!

I haven't even started yet, and this is already wracking my nerves.  Does it have to be about a walk, or was that just an example?  I'm going to do the exercise assuming that it does have to be about a walk, and then I'll probably redo it if we change topics.  Deep breath.  Here we go:

Lol, I'm so dumb. I started this morning writing about a walk that started with a description of the day (the swirling colors and whatnot). Then I lost what I had started, went to work, came back, and picked up from the idea of swirling colors. Somehow, I completely forgot about the walk. Ugh, shoulda' had a V8. ;-P

Woah, that's really good.  I wrote in the present tense for exactly that reason.  Props to you for pulling it off in the past (haha, no pun intended).  And you kept it in the fantasy genre, too. 

The book was originally written in French, but there's an English translation.  It's a tad hard to follow because of all the awkward phrasings that become necessary to say the simplest of things.  Like using orbs for eyes : ).

Haha, clever.  Using dialects to omit 'e'.  It wasn't very difficult to understand, either.  Nice job!

I loved this, definitely made me laugh <- arghhh already used "e" like a million times. 

You guys... All I could think as I was looking through y'alls illustrations of what to do in this trial of words was how difficult it is to put a compilation of various thoughts in a paragraph format. As it was going to put up a horrid brain-fight thinking of what to put down, I willing took a stroll down my road, trying to find words in my poor vocabulary to aid my mind on this arduous mission. As I was walking, my two dogs in tow, I was allowing my thoughts to trail into laborious paths of what I should pinpoint in this small paragraph. My vocabulary is not rich, nor is it vast, so I had half a mind not to think at all of how I was going to go about writing. My thoughts slid to a stop as my dogs, only four and a half months old, fought against chains holding my dogs back, yanking against it as an acquintancing dog put up a similar fight. Turning around, I was walking back to my building of rooms and family as I was forming an opinion, trying to slink past this writing mission by "casually" switching how any word was known worldy; this thought was not honorable, so I was not partaking on it as I was writing for this crazy mission.

Soooo... where's your entry?

;-P Jk. That was awesome! And what in the name of all that's good and holy does acquintancing mean? And whatever it is, do you think I could pull it off?

Lol Im pretty sure its not a word, but I had to come up with something. XD I thought it was pretty clever if I say so myself.

Nice job, in the past tense, too, I see...you all make me feel lazy for writing in the present, haha ^^'.  Did you add 'honorable' as a joke so that this paragraph would technically not be an example of your 'partaking on it as you were writing for this crazy mission'? Seriously, though witty paragraph and well done! : )

I... wow.  You win.  That was awesome.

A man was walking down a familiar road, rings of gray floating slowly from his lips toward a starry sky, thoughts absorbing his mind. A particular trial laid down this path, and a bold conviction to look it through laid in his soul. "To walk a path no man has put foot to is an abundant task. To walk a path known to all, but in a way uncommon to most, is fully distinct." His plan was to follow his usual footprints with an impromptu gait. How brilliant it was to find such plain sights in an astonishingly original light. His basic outlook on worldly things was looking simply backward at this point. How invigorating it was to walk this narrow road with a broad insight, and to hold his history, born again, in his hands. His walk was at a finish. His words, total rubbish. A last fixation of his, prior to falling into insanity: "Why, oh why, must no synonym occur in my vocabulary for 'thesaurus' without having in its construct that horrid vow--" Finally, all was black.

[I need some ibuprofen.]

Lol, ibuprofen... tell me about it! That's why I invented a less cranially painful game in the new thread ;-P (Actually, I had more fun with this one, but don't tell anybody).

Oh the irony, I was just thinking 'ML hasn't posted any new writing' and then I stumbled on this new writing four days late.  Great job with the prompt (grr, you past tense user, just joking!) and funny last sentence.  Thesaurus-->Book of Synonyms : )   Sorry the prompt made you desire pain killers....still, nice post : )

*face palm* you make it seem so easy.