I is for Inkletting

I took a Creative Writing course in college. My teacher was very artsy and unorganised. She’d come into class everyday with three big bags and a suitcase and she would open all of them and just dump everything on the table. I remember that she wore flowy clothes and had frizzy hair and spoke quickly and was totally the cliché of a middle-aged, female fiction writer. Ironically enough because, of course, she hated clichés like the plague.

 

I liked her though. She was a good teacher (even though she could never find what she was looking for). She had this one exercise called Inkletting. It’s just free writing. Just writing whatever thought hits you for a given period of time. There’s no subject or right thing to write about; it’s just an exercise to kickstart your brain into writing.

 

And so, on that note, welcome to the randomness of my brain:

 

I have nothing to say. Of course you have nothing to say, you’re trying too hard. I’m not sure this is supposed to be a conversation with myself. Then stop talking to me. I’m not talking to you; I’m thinking quietly in my brain. Stop it you two; you’re not doing this right. I just said there was no right way to do it. No, you said there’s no right thing to write about. Same thing. Nuh-uh. Yuh-huh.

 

Oops. Starting again:

 

Something is hitting my window. It doesn’t sound like a bird. It sounds like a large bug. I wonder how big a baby hummingbird is. I wonder if it’s bigger than a bee. What if I’ve swatted a killed one? Why is that worse than swatting a killing a bug? Cause bugs bug me. To be fair though, so do birds. It’s all thanks to Fred the Dive Bombing Parrot. I really hated that bird. And now I take it out on all other birds. I rudely turn up my nose at them often. Yuck, no more thinking about birds…or bugs.

 

Starting yet again:

 

Twin A and his bushy-haired friend are studying for their science final at my kitchen table. And Giles is wandering around eating lint and stuff. Concentrating is hard. I’ve pretty much given up on the work I’m supposed to be doing. It’s not due until tomorrow anyway. I’ll do it then. Plus I have to get ready for lunch. I love lunch. Breakfast always happens too early and dinner has a lot of pressure time-wise surrounding it but lunch is easy. It can take an hour or it can take all afternoon and it’s relaxed and mostly yummy. Yay lunch! The winner of the meals!

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