NARRATIVE - WRITING WORKSHOP

Before I get into the more formal part of the post, I just want to start out by saying: this session was a LOT of fun and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to!

This session was a writing workshop, where we were essentially given a bunch of exercises to do and write what we could!

We started out with a word sprint. A word sprint is where you're given a certain amount of time to write as much as you can. In complete sentences, not just random words. In 3 minutes, I managed to write 98 words with the prompt "The Hidden Killer":

Beep boop, it's the hidden killer! Yes, 'tis I. Guess what I do! Seriously, take a wild guess. I cook! Ha ha, just kiddin'. I do the kills. But no-one ever sees me coming. I got that bit from Iron Man 3. You know, that films isn't as bad as people say it is. Anyways, back to me! I love killin'! Killed a chicken once. My bad. JK, LOL, had it for dinner. In my stomach now. But I usually hide in the cupboard.

That's when I ran out of time. I don't know what it means either. But that's the point! No censorship, no stopping to think!

We then did an exercise inspired by the first chapter of Jekyll and Hyde, which spends a decent chunk of itself describing a door. Our exercise was to think of a door we know from our lives and describe it, in as vivid detail as we can.

I thought of a door at my old job in my old high school, the isolation room where misbehaving students would spend the day in silence doing work. I cleaned that room for my job, and it was admittedly a very out of place door.

As you see the door at the top of the stairs, it immediately feels out of place. Placed in the middle of the landing, it's sandwiched between 2 other doors that appear 100 times throughout the school. But this one was different. The handle was dark brass, with edges sharper than the other doors. It made a loud rattle as you try and unlock it... I was one of only few with the key. It's white, glossy paint shone in the artificial light. It was deception; this door lead to where it would not be as pristine as it may seem. Two rectangular windows are on the right side,  seemingly with chicken wire encased inside the glass for support.

That exercise left me with an outcome that made a little more sense.

Our next exercise was to work as a group to create either a monologue or a dialogue using the following Victorian slang terms:

• Gas Pipes
• Afternoonified
• Smiggins
• Maffickin
• Bags o' Mystery
• Enthuzimuzzy
• Skilamalink
• Balloon Juice
• Cop a Mouse
• Mutton Shunter

We had no idea what any of these meant, so we made the best out of what we had! Me, Lewis, Beth and the others in our group got to work and came up with a dialogue between George "Smiggins" George and Dr. Mario. THAT Dr Mario.

Our final task was to come up with a short story outline based around the title Dr Sawbones. We came up with one as a group but it was quite silly and nonsensical, so I've decided not to write it up in detail here. Instead, here's my own take on what Dr Sawbones could be.

My Dr Sawbones is a dark comedy about a doctor who wants to become the most attractive person in the world. He does so little by little, taking inspiration from the song One Piece at a Time by Johnny Cash. As he does his 1 to 1 surgery with private patients, he takes parts of them he likes and applies them to himself. He starts off with small things; an earlobe, a pinky finger, all small enough that no-one would notice unless they were told about it. But as he becomes more desperate, he starts taking bigger chunks of people. That's the dark side! The comedy comes from the casting and maybe it's a musical, a la Little Shop of Horrors. Eddie Murphy stars.