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Part 6, the last part of The Cube – A Writing Exercise.

What could the items absolute opposite be? 

I´m immediately thinking about lead. It´s heavy, hard, and just one color. You cannot use it in a fantasy to create a story, it does´t makes me feel anything positive, you cannot use it as a piece of art, and it certainly does´t float. It´s lethal if you eat too much of it, no matter how poor you happen to be. Lead hurts if you kick it, and I guess it would be pretty hard and uncomfortable to use it as a mattress.

Well, now I´m done with this exercise and I must say it has given me a lot. I think this is a great exercise when having a problem to start writing, and it makes it easier to look at one single thing from different points of views. I was really surprised sometimes, when I saw what this exercise had made me think. It is exciting to think how you can use this exercise; there is really not a single thing you cannot write about. Some things might be harder, like music (how does music feels and looks?)I will use it more often at home I think. It helps me to form different ways of looking at things, and that way it will be easier for me to write a story with many characters, all looking at the same thing from their own point of view. And most of all – this excersice was fun to do!

Discussion: What is the absolute opposite of your stories? What genre are they not? Why not? What stories do you never tell? What kind of characters would I never see in your stories? Why not? Would you be interested in trying to do the opposite when you write, trying to tell a story you would never tell – with characters you would never have – to see where it leads? Why/why not? What character is the opposite of the main character in your latest story? In what way?

What was your expectations of this writing exercise? What parts of them got fulfilled? What else do you want a writing exercise to give you and your writing? Would you do this yourself again, to improve and get other ideas for your own writing?

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Question number 5 of The Cube – A Writing exercise;

What kind of feelings does the item awakens within you? 

The leaf makes me feel sad, as a dreamer, nostalgic, and romantic. I feel creative and full of fantasy thanks to all the pictures I get in my head when thinking about the leaf. It makes me feel free, without any boundaries. It gives me a small feeling of hope.

Discussion: What kind of feeling do your stories create when people read them? Are they sad, happy, horrifying, amusing, surprising or anything else? What? What kind of feeling do you want to give your readers? In what way can you create more different kinds of feeling in one single story? What are your characters feeling, and what do they make the reader feel? In what way can you make them represent a broader band of feelings?

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Today I´m doing part 4 of The Cube – A Writing Exercise. The question is:

How can the item be used? 

The leaf can be used in many different ways if you have some fantasy. Many leafs together can be a soft mattress in your bed. One single leaf can be used as a boat at a river (for an ant), or maybe even as a canvas used by an animal in a story for children. You can use the leaf as a fan a really hot day, or crush it and eat it with your milk if you are very poor. If you dry it well between two books you can put it up on the wall as a beautiful picture. You can write and draw on it, and put it between two pages in a book your reading so you know where to start next time. You can dry it and put it in your hair as something wonderful and beautiful. And leafs are great in stories, when describing an interment! It gives you the possibility to describe sound, smell, look and touch. In some cases maybe even taste. If you are poor…

Discussion: In what way do you use your characters in your stories? Are they just a way to tell the story about something that happens, or are they the story? Or is it both? What sides of the story do your characters represent, and how many are those sides? How many characters represent many different sides at once, and what sides are that? How many other ways can you find to use your characters in your stories that you have not find yet? What are the stories you write for you – just having fun writing them, or is it a way to get revanche, to get famous, to make money or.. ?

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Today I´ll work through part 3 of The Cube – A Writing Exercise. The question to be answered is:

What item is similar to the item you have chosen? 

I have chosen the leaf. Tis there any item similar to the leaf? I wonder…  The first thing I think about is a piece of paper. It is as thin as a leaf, and it can also be blown around by the wind. They are both very light. They come from the same source – the trees. You can use both the leaf and the piece of parer to do funny things for the children. The leaf gives you a boat, and the paper gives you an airplane. And you would be able to write or draw something on both of them, if you wish.

Discussion: Are your stories similar to each other? Do you use to tell the same story over and over again, just with other characters in other places, or is it entirely different stories? How could you broaden your set of stories? Is there any of your characters that are similar to you? In what way? Are your characters similar to someone else from your life? Whom and why?

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The day before yesterday I wrote about The Cube – A Writing Exercise. I´ve already worked through question number one of the exercise, and today I´ll work through question number to.

How does the item look? 

The leaf can look in many different ways. It is sometimes brown, but sometimes it is also full of colors; read, green, yellow and orange. Some leafs are looking sloppy, as if they just drowned in the rain. Other leafs look dry and hard – there is nothing in-between. They are full of ribs, looking like veins. The leafs edges are uneven. they can sometimes be broken. There is a stem beneath its body, and often there is something at the leaf that does not belong there, looking like some kind of rash. Some leafs are plain, they look dead, and other leafs are formed in different ways and look as if they would be chasing someone.

Discussion: How does your characters look in the stories you write? Are the all look-a-like or is there some difference? What does these characters represent in your stories? Are they all sloppy, or all looking as outsiders, or all looking as if they would be cut out of a fashion magazine? How do your characters look – dress, body language,  shoes (my mother always told me that it does not matter how you dress if your shoes don´t match the rest of you), how do they behave when eating, do they have any lines or birthmarks in their faces? From where did you get these ideas? How would you do to make the difference between your characters look even greater?

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Yesterday I wrote about The Cube – A Writing Exercise. Today I will do the first of the six parts of this exercise. I chose a leaf yesterday, and I will work with that leaf through all the questions. The first question was:

What is the item making you to think about? 

The leaf makes me think about something floating at a river. I can see a clear picture of a child in China. It is a dark and very late evening, the candles are burning, and that child just made a boat out of a leaf. The child released the leaf at the river. It is very fragile. That  pictures makes me think of freedom.

I think about softness. The child, the freedom and the candles are all soft things for me. And warm. But I´m also thinking about the colors of the autumn; red, green, orange and brown. I can hear the scraping sound of a leaf being blown over a street a cold and windy night. There is loneliness sadness, still the softness but also death. The leaf is has fallen off its tree and is now slowly dying, reminding us of the way we all are going.

Discussion: What are your stories usually about? Are you into something special, as horror, fantasy or memoirs? What kind of stories are you not into? Why not? What makes you think of certain topics and not other? How is it with your characters – in what way do they usually think and act? Do they all think the same or do you have a broad band of very different characters? In what whey do you characters not work or act, and why not? In what way could this exercise help you to think in ways you usually do not think?

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While I still was in school as a youth, my teacher asked me to do a writing exercise named The Cube. The exercise is very similar to meditation. You pick any item and write about it from six different perspectives. For example, let´s pick a leaf. Ask yourself the questions beneath and write the six pieces of creative text;

1. What is the leaf making you to think about?
2. How does the leaf look?
3. What item is similar to the leaf?
4. How can the leaf be used?
5. What kind of feelings does the leaf awakens within you?
6. What could the leafs absolute opposite be?

This is a great writing exercise that can be used in eternity. Using this, there is always something to write about. Most people try to find something new to write about all the time, but the greatest writer always find to write from a new perspective. I have been thinking about my next  Project 365 in 2013. Maybe I´ll just write about the same leaf over and over again? That would really put my writing skills at trial! How many blog readers would I attract? How many people would come back – excited – wanting to read about that leaf over and over again? Would you?

Discussion: When you are writing, are you then really focusing at writing about as many things/people/places/happenings as possible, or are you more focused at trying to look at one single story from different points of view (different characters)? What kind of views does your characters usually have at life, at their – your – stories? Are they just looking at the problems, are they enemies of life, do they brake every social rule, or are they nice and smiling towards everything and everyone? What does your characters never do, think or say? Why not? Is that something you could improve by learning how to look at the same thing, place, happening or story from different points of view? What would that do to your writing and ability to tell a good story?