[James Freethy]

Maz,
I disagree about it not being something of interest to the reader. If done with a clear yet furiously observing and processing mind, I think this could result in an interesting development of images that might reveal some subconsious insight for the writer and help create what might be images and ideas for later work.

It wouldn't really be meant to be a "piece", just some prose to analyze.
But it could certainly become the core/seeds of a piece if it was a good writing session.

And of course it couldn't become anything in verse because that would be against the rules.

I think writing a poem in seven minutes would be a good excersise too, but since a poem requires things like form, verse structure and line breaks, it distracts the writer from the flow of images and would bring a different effect.

[Michael Cantor]

James -

Instead of writing gibblegabblegibblegobble for seven minutes - which is lots of fun, and very easy, and of absolutely no meaning and interest to anybody except you - why don't you try to write and post a poem instead? A limerick or a tailgater on one of the other threads on this Board will give you a structured task and challenge.

What Maz said about not posting free association or rough drafts is 150% correct. It's not that the exercise is useless - it's that it's your exercise. Take it, learn from it, extract the good stuff, put it into a poem - rewrite it and work on it - rewrite it again - sweat - and then post it.



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited May 12, 2006).]

[Julie Steiner]

If a particular challenge does not appeal to you, I suggest that you ignore it. Even in the old FunExcise days when only moderators could post new topics here, there were occasional duds...no, wait, that's a critical remark...um, there were low-traffic threads...um, there were challenges that many members chose to decline. That's the ticket! Those who did choose to participate had fun, and the rest of the members simply avoided the thread in question.

"Drills & Amusements" is not a critical forum. Part of the fun is that we are free to post dashed-off, unpolished work without fear of critique. In this same vein, I think ANY member should be able to post ANY challenge without fear of critique, so long as it doesn't violate the ad hom guidelines.

Julie Stoner

[David Anthony]

As this has turned into a discussion thread I'm moving it to General Talk.
I'd be grateful if everybody would note Julie's comments above. You're free to ignore any challenges you dislike, but please don't debate their merits on this forum.
Thanks