A Deck of Cards

Good morning, For this article's exercise, the subject is parents. Before I post what I wrote in five minutes (precious minutes indeed), let's talk about this subject for a moment. I can bet you there are a lot of things that you can think of or even say, when you think about parents: -my parents? -my parents in law? -Parents in general? -Parenthood? (If you are a parent, could you write about that?) The options are pretty much endless. But, when that clock is ticking, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Now, let me show you what I wrote: "My parents are polar opposites. It's a wonder they ever got together at all. Thinking back, I cannot think about anything they enjoyed doing together; any hobbies or particular interest to one was loathed by the other.  My mum is probably the more smiling and crazy happy out of the two. But that is the way she is now, not then. My dad used to laugh a lot, be this kind of carefree person that nothing touched...

On the 28th of November the subject was "my dog". To be honest, I love dogs, but I don't have one; instead I have two kids :) This is what I came up with, within the 5 minutes we had: "He sleeps on the floor in the corner of the room, I pick him up and put him on the bed. He loves this space, by the pillows, where he can sit or lie down completely. Hi yellow ears are in contrast to his white body. His blue eyes are closed, or so I imagine.  Where's its twin? I wonder. Maybe under the bed or under the desk? In the wardrobe, hiding away from me or my parents? "Ah! there you are!"as I grab him from behind the door. I carefully put him on the bed, next to its brother. His blues ears look so funny; I love him so.  I leave the room with a smile.  When I come home that night, they are gone.  Both of them.  My parents had to give them away. The doctor said so.  Even if I loved them so much it heart my heart. My little heart did not understand....

Here is another 5 minutes exercise that I made on the 21st of November. "I've woken up to my alarm blazing in the still darkness. I stand up and get dressed, still half asleep. Next, the kids need to be woken up... Z. wakes up on his own, K. takes a good fifteen minutes to wake up, another ten to get ready. Once we are ready we rush to school, then I, to work.  A quick breakfast in the staff room and it's a go! Students come in, sit down and do their work in moderate silence. From time to time I have to repeat the same thing as everyday: "ID on" ,"No drink", "No food". Today is good enough, there is no shouting. A few students need help.  I have a look at the bookmarks. I make a list in my head. There is so much to do and it's barely the middle of the day...  I think about my story as well. There is so much things I think about. Too much stuff sometimes." 162 words. Looking back at this now, I realize that I may need to c...

Hi, So this is a 5 minutes exercise I participated in. I thought about why I'd want to put it in my blog, and the only thing I can think of is that those exercises have been beneficial for me. For my writing and the way I process things. Funny enough, I learnt a new word at the last workshop, it feels quite well here I think: catharsis. Look it up, and you'll see what benefits I'm talking about. Here is what I wrote: Me and my husband went to the hospital, early morning, with the big bag ready: enough clothes for me, new clothes for two newborns.  Next to me, my other half fidgets constantly. "It's gonna drive me mad!" I think to myself. The nurse comes and tells us to get ready.  Morning passes. Afternoon comes when the doctors arrive: "Right, it's time!" The insurance and good mood of the doctor and nurses is infectious.  My husband comes with me in the operation room. Seeing the needle, the anesthetist tells my husband to sit down....

Following my previous post, you'll probably understand that I've been busy. So: I managed to write 50950 words between the 1st of November until the 30th of November. It's Epic for me :) I can safely say that I've never managed to write this much before. But now that the month is done, and I've had time to evaluate what I've done well and what I could have done better, I realise that, although this experience has been great, after a month of writing so much on top of all the other things of life, I felt drained. Like, really drained: near collapse and sleep for a week kinda drained! It's been a week exactly now that the challenge has been passed, and I've not written that much, comparatively. Pros: -I've managed to write more than ever, as I've already said. -The target is a great way to boost me. But the diagram is what really helped. -I felt a lot more enthusiastic about my characters and messed about a little with a couple of side tec...

It's finally november and I've got to say, I love this month! Today, I signed up on the website NaNoWriMo, and for those who don't know yet, it is a fantastic way to get you writing. Let me explain: Throughout November, people all over the world try their best to achieve a target of 50,000 words (from NaNoWriMo) or set up their own writing targets, or both. Signing up is pretty easy. It's the commitment that's harder. Personally, I'm not looking at the 50,000 word as much as getting back into the habit. I have had a lot of things to do outside my writing, and I let it slide a little I'm afraid... So anyway, if you are looking for me, search on the website my name: Lolita Parekh. Until next time.

Hey everyone, This morning I walked to the bus stop from my house without my phone in my hand, or music in my ears, nor kids holding my hands. And I noticed lots of little things, thing that I probably would not have if I'd been doing any of the above. What things you say? Things like my neigbhour shouting at her silent husband (boy was he in trouble). Or things like the man walking on the other side of the street finishing his beer like it's a race he intends to win first place. Also, I started thinking about how to use those everyday tid-bits in my novel. Did I tell you my story takes place after an apocalypse? So, I started thinking about a street - much like near where I live- with lots of litters on the sides of the streets as well as the roads. Then I thought about that man drinking and thinking that we use a lot of medicines nowadays for pretty much every problem we find. But in my world, there wouldn't be any pharmaceutical companies, because everything has b...

Hi, I'm sorry that I have not been able to post updates and such lately. I have been dealing with my kids being ill, then being ill myself (still not 100%). On top of this, I was revising for my theory test. So I will be glad to say that I passed it -this morning. Now onto writing: -Well, I went to a writers club recently, and although at first I felt a bit out of place, I think that I learnt a lot, and that it may be a good place for me to get some help. -I am currently working on my issues with tenses and verbs. Because English isn't my first language, I tend to see things differently, from what I have been told. But you may be familiar with this tense issue: you write the MC (main character) point of view in the present, but then, the MC thinks back on something that happened in the morning. Then he thinks back to something that happened a few days ago... And then my page looks like a war zone because I used three to four different past tenses.... So that's taki...

Has it ever happened to you to say: Character A is tall, dark hair, dark skin, green eyes, handsome Character B is short, blond with long her in her back and pretty. Character C is etc.... So you have a list, somewhere. On paper. in a folder. So well tidied in a drawer... Do you see where I'm going with this? And then when you read your story draft you find out that Character A who had dark hair now has bleach hair, and Character B has dark skin and is full of tattoo's. So. Does that seem familiar? Well, I did a small- that expended mind you...- excel document to catalogue all the things my characters were like. From their appearance, to what they like to do on their free time, to what they excel at, or that they suck at, to what they fear, etc... And that really helps. For now at least. I only wrote one chapter today, plus I looked at other writing pieces that I have from before to see if anything needed to be modified. So there we go. I mean, it has been a d...

Birds. Huh? Well that's what it felt like yesterday afternoon when I was walking around and saw some birds in the sky. I felt really dumb for a moment as I realized that I was missing the small details in my descriptions. My thoughts at the time went along those lines: Birds. huh. Interesting. Pigeons. Mouettes ( since I did not know the right word to translate that one).  Vultures. They can be details to a specific area, a specific place or event.    Duh. That is kind of obvious, no? Clearly not. So that is something that I realized and observe for any writing genre, because no matter what, description is important. Not too much, and not too little. But important nevertheless.

Hi everyone, Well I don't know if you know this author: Marc Levy. I really love his books. The way he writes is just amazing: in pocket format, they are easy to take everywhere as well as easy to read. So I went to France this summer with the kids to visit my family. And when we went to the book store, I saw the latest books from Marc Levy, the ones that I did not have in my collection yet :) So I bought a couple... or three. And I read " L'horizon a l'envers " (the horizon upside down). At first, I didn't particularly like any of the characters. Too much scientific for my taste if you like. But 3/4 of the book later, I was in tears. And I thought: "How did that happen?", "How did I get in this state for average characters?" I highly recommend for anyone to read this book. So. On a writer's side note. I wonder: How does Marc Levy do it? How does he make the readers care so much in such a short amount of time? For me, it feels li...

Here is a little something I wrote yesterday, and typed today. I am planning to expend on the idea to get it in my book somewhere (Maybe). Let's see :) If you want to comment any constructive critic, I'll be happy to listen. Thanks. Please bare in mind that this is free hand and may not be the same later on. It's like a first draft: this is the skeleton. It's missing the muscles, tendons and flesh at least... 'You shouldn’t have done that!' The lithe goddess says in lieu of greeting. The once imposing figure of the God snaps to the side, a frown on his face. 'What.' 'You know what! Get involved!' ' La petite needs all the help she can get,' he says, taking off his cloak. 'You of all the Gods should know that!' 'Of course I know that, but... you know the rules. Already, remember what happened to you the last time… She was not impressed. And she ripped you apart. If this gets out…' The God brushes his hand in the ...