Writing Exercise 3: An Imagined Journey

This is an exercise that may be enjoyable if you are unable to go out or travel as you wish. However, when you have written it, you will be asked to edit it so that it might appeal to someone else.

 Stage 1. 
Think of a place where you have been happy (or imagine a place where you might be happy).
Now start responding to the following questions as if you were in that place and the only human there:
What does the air feel like? What is beneath your feet? What do your hands, arms, neck and face feel?
If you open your mouth and close it again, will there be a different taste on your tongue?
What scents and smells reach you? Do they bring back particular thoughts and memories?
What can you hear? Are the sounds loud or soft? Are they near or far away?
You may be the only human in this place but are there any animals or insects?
Write down three things you can see - one may be big but the others should be small things or little details.

 Stage 2. 
You now have a strong sense of this place. While you are there, although you are alone, you have a strong sense of another person, real or imagined. This is a person you like, even though you may not know them very well. Although that person is absent, you still feel as though that person is in some way present with you - and this is a feeling of comfort. 
Write down this experience. Keep it rooted in the same place.

 Stage 3. 
After that strange but happy encounter you have to journey home. When you reach home, home seems or is changed in some way by the place and the encounter. Write about your arrival.

 Stage 4. 
Read back what you have written. Now you’re going to edit what you have written. You may wish to turn the main character into someone who isn’t you. You may wish to try writing in third person (using he, she or they) or second person (using you) instead of I. What you write now may be a short story, poem or monologue. It can take any starting point (for instance, starting with the return home and writing in flashback).

 When you have your complete story, poem or monologue, read it aloud. Think about one other person who might enjoy reading or hearing it. Is it clear enough for that reader or listener - and will it give them pleasure? Keep editing until you feel you have done as much as you can for the moment. It’s fine to put work aside and return to it later.

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