existentialhell

[existentialhell]

“If you were my student, I’d have you make a list of all the quick, wordless gestures you make every day.

The thumbs up. The thumb and index finger OK sign. Knocking your fist lightly on your forehead to recall something. Clutching your heart. The hitchhiker’s thumb, indicating ‘get lost.’ The index finger held vertically against the lips for ‘hush up.’ The hooked ‘come here’ finger.

I’d make you list at least 50 hand signals, that way you’d always, always be aware of the variety of gestures you can insert into dialogue.”

From “Consider This” by Chuck Palahniuk

[existentialhell]

A way to study, practice, and appreciate adjectives, fine-tune descriptions, and invent worlds (longer description and typed examples are at A study in adjectives):

Collect adjectives from an atmospheric book. (Or make your own themed list, but it’s very interesting seeing what’s distinctive in a particular book or author. Here, I used John Dickson Carr’s 1932 The Waxworks Murder, and then words associated with e.g., cats, oceans, fabric.)

Invent or borrow a template sentence, with blanks where adjectives could go. Here’s mine: A ___, ___ cafe, down a ___ alley, the light ___ and ___ through ___ leaves, and ___, ___ customers in a ____ mood, this ___ establishment is a ___ haunt of ___ locals.

Drop the adjectives in at random. Notice what they do. Try again with a different list and compare.

Bonus: If you illustrate, try to draw it.

(Also my short story collection Kindling, the first story in which is extremely adjective-heavy, is out now from Small Beer Press.)

[existentialhell]

Six Waiting Room Writing Exercises

These are short writing exercises you can do in waiting rooms, on the bus or train, between tasks, or whenever else you have a moment. All of these are doable on your phone or in your head.

Descriptions

Write down 1-2 sentence descriptions of the people around you. Instead of police sketch accuracy, focus on capturing their vibe.

Pick a still object around you and write a short description of it. Then write another description of the same object, but with a different voice or personality. How would a kid describe it vs an adult? An artist vs an actuary?

Dialogue

Transcribe a conversation happening near you.

Take a two to four line exchange or make one up and then revise it with different emotions. (Your exchange can be as simple as "How are you?" / "Fine. You?" / "I'm good."). What if the first speaker is worried and then relieved? What if one speaker is afraid of the other?

Characterization

Imagine backstories for the people around you. Why are they where you are? How did they get there? What do they want? What is preventing them from getting it? What is hurting them? What makes them happy?

Write a short 1-3 sentence description of a person around you. Now pick a personality or trait for that person and rewrite their description to highlight that.

[existentialhell]

The saddest girl in the whole entire world

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I GOT THE BLOG BACK I’M SO HAPPY I COULD CRY

Everything is gone which is a heartbreak but at least I can access it again

[existentialhell]

BUCKY BARNES + legs (requested by anonymous for 10k follower celebration)

[existentialhell]

Get this man a script