September 29, 2010

Free Write: Magical Realism burns calories

Let's lure your imagination off the couch, out of its filthy wifebeater, and into the sunshine for some much needed rejuvenation. 

Today's prompt will liberate your mind like few writing styles can.  Magical realism blends the real and the "unreal."  The fun part is that the magical elements of the story mix with details of the status quo. For example, in Kafka's masterpiece "The Metamorphosis", the main character wakes up one day as a giant bug.  He can talk, think, etc; the only minor detail is, oh yeah, he's an insect... no big deal...

Here's our prompt: Along the lines of Kafka's famous novella, let's also play with the dynamic of someone waking up in an unanticipated state.  Except in our example, it's a teenage girl and she wakes to find out that the word "Sad" is written across her forehead.  She's supposed to leave for school in 30 minutes.  Her parents are expecting her for breakfast in 15.  And she's panicking, scared, embarrasssed... because she is sad, but how did it get on her forehead? She doesn't want the whole world to know the truth.

What does she do?  Have fun playing with the cliche "it was written all over her face."  Why has the word "sad" suddenly appeared?

Happy writing,
Josh

P.S. If there was a word mysteriously written on your forehead today, what would it be?