Secretly, Bud had collected postcards from the garbage left at the dump. He would never be so bold as to read a personal letter or check the bank statements of the residents in town. But he thought that there was no harm in taking and keeping picture postcards. After all, these were meant to be read. He would look at the pictures on the front whild he sat up on his stool at the dump. He would imagine what it must be like to visit someplace exotic and warm. He often wished he could show the pretty photographs to his wife. He wished that he would have taken Linda to one of those places before she had gotten cancer and died at the age of 44. The postcards made Bud feel happy and sad at the same time.

Exercise 95, writing outside the story.

I decided to describe events preceding the story. While I had an idea of who my characters were, I liked how this exercise really carried some details home for me. It was fun letting myself go and the words really poured forth.

When Tina was last home, she stayed for one week. She had planned on staying longer; she actually had good intentions on staying with Bud, her dad, for maybe a couple of months. After living in Florida for a couple of years and not finding decent work, she wondered if life in Grayling Michigan really wasn't so awful. At least during the summer. She could party anyway with some of her friends who had never left. The winters were far too bleak for Tina and she felt terrible after the first gray days of November and tumbled into some kind of moody stanglehold for the rest of the winter. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly but knew that Coco Beach was better for her in the winter, regardless of not making any real money.
Bud hadn't expected to see Tina that dark sopping wet March afternoon. But when he returned home from the dump where he had worked since being laid off from the lumber mill 15 years before, he found her sitting on the stoop. She had grown her hair out long and wore only a t-shirt under a thin black leather jacket. She looked cold and cupped her hands around her mouth to catch some warm breath between drags on her cigarette. Bud found her looking masculine and hard and was glad that his dead wife couldn't see her looking this way. But still he was glad to have her home again. This was his only child and they had had a deep attachment , as least for the years before she went to high school.
The two of them sat together at the kitchen table over coffee and talked about what Tina had been up to since Bud had last seen her. He asked about the rose tattoo on her shoulder. She explained that it meant nothing really, it was just meant to look pretty. Bud thought that the blue black ink with the splotch of deep red petals looked ugly. He was of the generation when only sailors and bums got tattoos. He decided not say anything. He decided to be quiet about many things he was thinking. Maybe if he was gentler with his daughter she wouldn't be in such a rush to leave this time.
Bud Bud couldn't be quiet for long. She drank too much, smoked too much, swore too much, stayed out too late, and didn't get up early enough. She didn't help around the house and he was tired of seeing her "ass" parked on his couch all day. He announced after 5 days that if Tina couldn't live by his rules she would have to go find a place of her own, in town.
Tina decided that it wasn't worth the B.S. and packed her duffle bag. She was going beck to Florida that night. She told him that she would need money for the bus to get out of his hair. Bud had moved the cash he kept in the house from his sock drawer to just inside the crawl space the evening she appeared on the stoop. She had taken from him before. He had exactly $185 and gave it all to her. She took the bills awkwardly and left.
Bud didn't realize it, but he fell into a deep depression after this for several months. Though no one noticed.

Week 4 - dialogue

As he pushed open the glass door of the post office, Bud saw Marilyn behind the counter sorting pieces of mail.
"Well, hello you." Marilyn called out. "How's every little thing with you, Bud? Things okay down at the dump?"
Bud thought about what to say to this woman who he'd hoped to bring home someday. He decided to tell her about the garbage bag of dead racoon babies he'd found and how the stench was still stuck up in his truck. Marilyn told Bud she'd seen some new skunks around her woodpile.
The door opened and Bud saw that it was Della Borden. She and Marilyn had been school mates. He knew a conversation between these women may take awhile so he decided to take the newspaper from his back pocket and settle in at the end of the counter until Della collected her mail and moved on. They grew up in this small town and never left, never thought otherwise.
"Della, how's every little thing?" Marilyn askced.
"Oh fine, the doctor told me I got high blood pressure and when these pills he got me on settle in'a my system , I think I'll feel a lot better". Della shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Della noticed Bud. "Hey Bud, I heard Tina's come back to town. That right?"
"Uh huh."
"She got her husand with her?"
Bud hung on the word husband for a moment. "No," Bud replied, never looking up from the paper.
Della raised her eyebrows, swallowed a belch, and snapped her attention back to Marilyn. "Okay, let me see what bills I got today."
Marilyn handed over a small bundle. "There you go, Della."
"All righty, I better go, I gottta git home, 'fore it gets too hot. See ya, Marilyn. See ya, Bud." Della shuffled out with beads of sweat forming over her lip.
Bud watched her leave and folded the paper back up and slipped it back into his pocket. He walked down the length of the counter toward Marilyn, sucked his breath in hard, and asked her if she would like to come over later for dinner with he and Tina.

Week 3, character development

Through the bright pink drawn shades of his eye lids Larry could tell that the afternoon sun had begun to finger its way through the heavy yellowed curtains of his room; the hot rays resting heavily across his abdomen, inflated from years of grease and alcohol. He resists cracking his eyes open just yet, choosing instead to remain in the semi-conscience state between wakefulness and sleep, putting off the inevitable protest his body carried out every morning. He knew that once he moved, his muscles would baulk and his stiff joints would object. His lungs are thick with tobacco paste and Larry will have to dislodge it with a series of deep hacks and coughs. With each propulsion from his lungs would come a hammered blow to his already aching head.
Larry decided to move forward toward the day as he came to realize the strong pressure alreadybulging against the silky seams of his bladder. Mustering his strength, he sucked up a deep breath of humid air and heaved hard with his left shoulder and rolled out of his gamey bed. Larry let out the growl the other residents of the hotel had come to anticipate daily and headed toward the shared bathroom at the end of the hall.

Story ideas, week 2

My first idea would be to continue the story I began about the policeman from exercise 54. My main character is the policeman, Wayne. The conflict would have to do with the struggle Wayne has with guilt over the death of his mother and the loss of his girlfriend as well as his divorce... which he can't really get over. Feelings of inadequacy. After the end of his relationship with JoAnne he will call his ex-wife. He wants to reconnect with her due to hes fear of ending up like his mother, alone. The resolution could be he gets back with JoAnne but first he may reconnect with his ex which will lead to Wayne discovering his flaws and how they are so similar to his mother's. Epiphany!

Second story idea. a man in his 50's lives in a hotel for men called the Cleveland. He's poor, has stuggled with addiction in the past and has thrown in the towel essentially. The conflict arises when his only child, a daughter enters into his life again... needing help. She is divorced and has a young son. She is lonely and asks the main character to live with them. Make a go of it together. The main character now faces the conflict of living in this comfort of little responsibiltiy or to get his life back together for the sake of this daughter he barely knows and the grandson he wishes to know better. Perhaps the daughter has a secret... that she is dying and is looking for a person to leave her son with. Maybe they move in together and deal with the stuggles that brings. I'm not sure.

Week 2

I chose to do exercise 54 mainly because the others called for stories I had on file and I just simply don't have any stories tucked away right now. I began the skeleton exercise and worked a little with an idea of a man needing a drink, but decided to flip over to From Situation to Plot and settled in nicely there.


I decided to work with the policeman with ten cats and was surprised at how quickly my policeman "Wayne" began to develop.



Wayne's mother died six months ago. She had a heart attack and lay with her face in a bowl of Rice Krispies for 4 days before the mail lady became suspicious enough to make a call. The officers on the scene not only found Wayne's mother Vera, but Vera's hoard of newspapers, piles of rotten food decaying in the kitchen and living room and enough cat shit that as Captain Matthers remarked "could pave a highway from here to Greenville."

Wayne got the call from the Fulton P.D. which was about 20 west of Wayne's town of Wemptuckaa Alabama. He knew one of the sergeants from the late season bowling league he was on 3 years before. He quit the leagues after one of the guys made smart remarks about his then girlfriend JoAnn. "Geez Wayne, your lady there sure can shine those balls up real nice can't she? Would she show me her rack if I asked here?" Wayne would sit quietly hoping the conversation would turn to something else and before long it usually would.

Wayne had met her there. JoAnne worked at the Fine Time Bowling Alley serving watered down drinks and making change for the cigarette machine. It had gotten serious enough Wayne to ask JoAnne to move out of her mother's trailer and into Wayne's ranch on the east side of town.

He knew that she was not the kind of girl his mother would approve of, but JoAnne filled the house will laughter and he welcomed the sex. JoAnne was uninhibited, and though he felt guilty about it, Wayne couldn't help but tell the guys at work about what a wildcat she was in the sack. After being alone for 13 years after his divorce for his wife Janet it was a guilty pleasure he had found hard to resist.

It was after those sessions that JoAnne would invariably ask Wayne the same question. "When are we going to settle down and get married Wayne?" She had a whine in her voice when she posed this question that Wayne found irritating.




I can see how with tension and conflict my story could continue to move forward and develop.


Character/Situation

A single mother who lost her job.
A doctor realizing he has Alzheimer's
A child witnessing abuse.
A traveler lost.
A couple looking for a new home.
A drunk pilot.
A woman who's only sibling died of a drug overdose.

Week 2