Whale Bones and Hopes and Pirate’s Treasure

We had our second workshop on Saturday and one of my favorite writing exercises was one that I “borrowed” from Chris DeLorenzo, who runs the Laguna Writer’s Workshops. I love making lists, and I love hearing other people’s lists, so it’s no surprise that this was one of my favorites. Below, I have posted the prompt and below that, the story I wrote during the ten minute freewrite.

This prompt begins by asking everyone to generate two lists: “Things that are buried” and “Things that float or fly.” We  gave everyone about three minutes to free write as many words, phrases, or sentences as they could under each of these headings. Then all chose three  from each list and read them around, out loud, allowing a short pause in between each person to let the others write down anything they heard that they liked. Then we chose one or more of these as prompts, wrote them at the top of a blank page, and used them as a place to begin. We wrote for fifteen minutes.

Here is the story I wrote during the  freewrite. Can you guess which words or phrases were inspired by the others in the group and their lists?

I lived on the beach in a house built of whale bones, hopes, and pirate treasure. I had lived on the beach for a hundred years, and my day to day life rarely changed. It was a good life. Predictable. Protected. Safe.

 In the morning, I would take my pack into the woods, I would cross over the creek that led to the closest settlement. They knew me, trusted me, and so it was easy to collect the secrets of the villages.

In the afternooon, I would walk home, stopping to collect butterflies and candy cap mycellium along the way. From these, I would make my dinner. After eating dinner, I would spend time in silence, staring out at the sea, dwelling in the heart.

But all of this changed with the arrival of the red balloon. It floated across the sky one morning, and in the distance, I heard a child’s voice yelling, “Fuck you! Let it fly!” The balloon was followed closely by a dirigible, manned by two children. One held onto the balloon by a long string, the other jostled his hand, trying to get him to let go. It looked like a fight was about to break out. And then, the children began to land, and I knew then that my peaceful life was coming to a halt, and I walked into their direction, a candy cap and butterfly pie in hand, for they would be hungry.

*All photos taken at Marcia Donahue’s utterly whimsical and artful garden on Wheeler Street in Berkeley, California. Here is a link to a some information and a video about Marcia and her garden. I had the privilege of going to the garden on the day after the Petals and Bones workshop on Saturday. And I swear to god, the garden looked like it was made of whale bones, and hopes, and pirate’s treasure. Not joking.

–Leilani