Book ideas and Writing Tips

Writing exercise 1

This will be a series of writing exercises that will improve your writing. Disclaimer: doing these won't make you a Shakespeare but they will help you improve. 

Writing exercise 1: Imagery 

Write a short story about someone going somewhere. Try to make it as detailed as possible and use your imagination. Your only limitation is that its a story about someone going somewhere. 

My example: 

The red dust flew into the air as my havy boots hit the ground. I was running. Running out of time. My oxygen tank screamed at me. The red flashing lights trying to catch my attention. I knew that I didn't have the time to go back to get more. The night sky engulfed everything in darkness, only allowing my vision to see what was illuminating by my flashlight. I was getting tired. My boots dragging me down from the weight. My lungs were burning from all the oxygen I was wasting. But this was my only chance to change everything. I could see the building in the distance. My legs ached and the dust was imparing my vision but I was almost there. At this point, my body could feel the effects of not having any oxygen in the tank and I was forced to shallow my breath to preserve it. I ran up and down the halls of the building calling her name only to be met with silence. Did she leave without me? I ran though the white halls mutilple times before discovering a note on the main desk. I laid down on the floor, letting the tears run down my face and just stopped. My body didn't want to go anywhere. I have no mission left and my time was up. No more oxygen left me to a laobored breathing until I took my final breath. I died on Mars with a broken heart. 

Let's break this down. My story is about an astronaut that got left behind by his lover and ultimately died due to no oxygen left in his tank. Let's see how I used imagry.

1. the dust on the ground

2. Flashing red lights

3. The sky and the flashlight

4. Heavy boots drgging him down

5. White halls

6. Overall: his breathing

I will admit, I could have added a lot more. I could have gone into more detail about the building he was running to, the inside of the building, the suit he was wearing, what the main desk looked like the path he was running on and the sky. I decided no to include all of that because that would have really messed up itht pacing of the story. Imagine reading an adventure book but the author spends a whole chapter writing about breakfast. Wouldn't be very fun to read. 

I would say that imagry is only used when you want to write a lot about a specific point into the plot. 

Good uses for Imagry:

1. fight scenes 

2. Moments of high tenion

3. Use to draw out time ( ex. Using imagry to show a character's boredom in jail).