POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Passing Time

This room is gray, gray as in dull, colorless non-white. Drab walls and drab carpet, buff colored desks and glass windows letting in the gray light from the overcast sky.

Against one wall is a black metal book shelf holding numerous books of different sizes, colors fonts and genres. There is a space between two books in the middle of the shelf. This space is the exactly the size of another book, which is not in its place. It is missing.

As I look closer a the titles, I see that the owner has kept the books in order by titles in their various series. I wonder which title is missing and where it could be.

This is an illustration of what to write when you don’t know what to write. Start describing a room in as intricate detail as you can. Every single time I’ve done this exercise, I have seen sudden threads of stories begin to show up, and before I know what has happened, I have a plot and a character.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

Nandy Ekle