Writing Experiment 1 - Excitement and Fear - WindStrike - 03-09-2014
Welcome to Writing Experiments! I'm starting this up cause I miss my creative writing classes in college, and trying to meet various people in real life for the same purpose has proven ineffective due to jobs and school and stuff. So now it's up here. I know there's a few of you that are either writers or just really like writing, so... you'll probably enjoy this.
What is Writing Experiments? Essentially, every two weeks, I'll put up a prompt that's experimental in design - you probably wouldn't think to write this way normally, and it's designed to see how well you can adapt to the prompt. It's not a prompt about "oh, do a story about this and this", but rather, a style that alters your writing, and ultimately, it's intended to improve your writing skills.
In response, simply write up a short story, or heck, even a poem. It does not have to be related to ZURPG or even the Zelda universe at all. It can be anything you want it to be... just so long as it isn't NSFW. It can be as short as a page, could be longer, just try not to go too long, unless you really want to. Again, it's mainly experimental, so you don't need to go off on a tangent and create a novel out of it. Anyone that wants to enter, just do the above and post it as a spoiler or as an attached document or however you want to do it.
A note - there is no judging. This is simply something that could potentially improve your writing skills, and a way for us to share our writings with each other. If you haven't done anything of this sort before, you'll realize real fast that there's a lot that everyone can learn from each other. Doesn't matter how inexperienced you are - anyone can learn from anyone.
The prompt this time is... write a story about anything, and any time you would normally write an emotion, replace it with a physical response. Replace "love" with "a hug". Replace "fear" or "excitement" with "he started shaking crazily". Stuff like that. The idea is that instead of blatantly telling the reader the emotions of the characters, you're showing it, but at the same time, you can also mislead any readers.
I ran this experiment a few years ago, and it was my first attempt at a horror story. The people I read it to liked it for the most part, except now they hate me because I ruined "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" for them. Here it is below in the spoiler:
I awoke to the sound of a bunch of things falling. Putting on my slippers, I opened my bedroom door and slowly waded through the hallway towards the kitchen. More things were falling, the sounds of cans and bags from the pantry. I crept my way to the wall and flipped a switch, revealing a demon. It turned its head towards me as saliva bubbled from its mouth, slobbering over the floor. It bore its fangs at me and ripped the nearby counter to shreds with one swipe of its arm, destroying the one obstacle between the creature and myself.
The pulsing of my heart drummed throughout my head. Its percussive rhythm stunned my legs as I found myself unable to move. My body started turning white, as if my blood was running away from whatever this thing was. The creek of a door was heard behind me. No… don’t open the door… please don’t. I turned my head to see my six-year old daughter standing before me, her smile stripped by the sight of the creature, which seemed to be satisfying its hunger with any nearby food, even my daughter’s pudding that was left out.
Soon the only food left for it to eat was us. I turned to cover my daughter, but she wasn’t there. She stood before the creature, looking up at it curiously. I went to dive for her but was pushed out of the way by the creature, slamming me into the wall. My strength faded. My vision faded, and the last thing I saw was the monster leaping onto my daughter. It’s just a nightmare. It’s not real. If I could just wake up now…
…
“Mommy? Mommy are you alright?”
It’s my daughter’s voice! I lifted myself, ignoring the pains my weakened body felt. I looked up to see my daughter eating pudding from the stomach of the creature’s corpse, its head ripped apart over the floor. She turned towards me with pudding and blood dripping from her mouth. My expression went blank as she smiled at me.
“All stuffed!”
She skipped around a bit and then over to me. She stopped in front of me with a little dance, the creature’s blood stained into her clothes.
“Mommy? Mommy, would you read me a bed time story?”
More blood poured from her mouth onto me. It’s my daughter. I can’t resist her. I won’t resist her. “Sure… honey. What… what do you want… me to read to you?”
“One Fish!” She clapped her bloodied hands above her head, sending out an explosion of bloody droplets. “Two Fish!”
My legs continued shaking as I rose slowly. She skipped in front of me to my room, lightly singing, “London bridge is falling down. Falling down. Falling down.” I turned my head to the gruesome slaughter of the demon. It paralyzed me.
“Mommy? Mommy, are you coming?”
Forced by her voice, I turned back towards my room and crept towards it. The floorboards creaked as I unsteadily made my way to my room. It is my room, right? This is my house, right? The door opened before me, and before me was my daughter on the bed, stretching out a book to me. It read, “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”. The blue fish was no longer blue as some of the creature’s blood was dripping from my daughter’s mouth onto the book’s cover. I collapsed onto the bed next to my daughter.
“Mommy? Mommy, it’s not bedtime yet! Story first!”
She incessantly prodded my back with the book until I rolled over and gave in. I know this book. I’ve read it to her many times. It’s her favorite story. Yet… I don’t know the story this time. The fishes’ teeth were covered in blood. I opened the book to the first page.
‘One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish’
The words began to change.
‘Black fish, Dead fish, Old fish, New fish
This one has a little scar
This one has a little char’
I continued onwards, my heart continuing to beat faster and faster, until…
‘Some are fast. Some are low.
Some are high. Some are dead.
Not one of them is like another.
Don’t ask us why, go ask your mother.’
With that, I heard a little snore. My daughter was fast asleep next to me. Finally, my heart calmed down. I put the book down. And I recited to my daughter…
‘And now, good night.
It is time to sleep.
So we will sleep with our dead Zeep.
Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.
Every day, from here to there.
Bloody things are everywhere.’
Hope you all enjoy writing like this! FYI, even when I start up new experiments every two weeks, you're welcome to come back to any of these and write 'em up.
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