Prompt progress, week 9

We spent the first half of this week’s workshop doing the exercise that was originally planned for last week. We each picked a piece for review, then paired up and did more extended one-on-one feedback sessions. I chose the last piece I wrote in Week 3. I actually changed my mind about which piece to use at the last minute, but after the terrific feedback I received from my partner, I’m glad I did.

When we came back after the break, Robyn spread out a bunch of pictures on the table for us to look over and then choose from, much as we did in the second exercise of Week 6. She then passed around three envelopes that each had instructions: 1) Take 1 peach colored slip of paper; 2) Take 2 red slips of paper; and 3) Take 1 yellow slip of paper. We were then given the instruction that the main character in our photo (whomever we determined that to be) had to be experiencing/doing the action on the peach slip of paper, interacting with the person on the yellow slip of paper, and feeling/experiencing the emotions on the red slips of paper. From all of that, we had 20 minutes to write a piece that incorporated all of those things.

The picture I chose was of a symphony practice session, taken from just behind a violinist, looking over her shoulder toward the other side of the half-circle of players. You couldn’t see the violinist’s face, obviously, just enough of her instrument to know what it was and enough of the back of her head to assume it was a woman. You also couldn’t see many faces of the other musicians, with the exception of a man sitting across from her who looked to be holding a cello and looking at the conductor. He had longish blonde hair and was wearing green sneakers.

My slips of paper:  peach - “s/he rewrites a letter five different times”; yellow - “her/his closest friend”; red - “elated” and “agitated.

Who invited this conductor? His timing is atrocious, he can’t seem to tell the difference between the violins and the violas, and hasn’t anyone told him that screaming at us in German is pointless?

I’m grumpy, I know. I mean, a better mood wouldn’t make Incompetent German Conductor any less of a moron, but it would make it easier to sit through this session. Having to sit here, right across from Dave…who wouldn’t be agitated? I should’ve thought of that before we started dating, that if we broke up, I’d have to look at his stupid face and his stupid hair and his stupid green shoes all through practice. Look at him over there, acting like he’s paying attention. Like he even speaks German.

Not bad enough that I lost my boyfriend and my best friend all in one go, I had to make practice miserable for myself, too. “Don’t date him,” everyone told me. “It’ll just complicate everything.” But did I listen? Nooooo. Too caught up in the elation of that first kiss. Unexpected, something I didn’t even know I wanted until he kissed me. And then it was all singing birds and endless sunshine.

But then I had to go and write that damn letter and it all went to hell. Five times I rewrote that thing, and it never once occurred to me it would break us up.

We just had a few minutes left after everyone read their pieces, but one of the rules of Prompt is that the workshop stops at 8:30, so if we can fit in another exercise, we will. Which meant that for the next one, we had 45 seconds(!)…

Prompts:  across the bridge                     wait here

Across the bridge is my favorite part of my morning. Encased in clouds, in fog, in damp.