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• Børn bliver tvunget til at forholde sig til emner, som dræber engagement i stedet for at fremelske det

Write about the single funniest thing that happened to you between the time you woke up this morning and right now.

The mysterious disappearance of George

My aunt had contacted me yesterday and asked me for a ride to her work today, her car was for repair and she where going in the same direction as me. I said I would pick her up this morning.

In the car we talked about different family matters and then the conversation topic came across my grandfather’s brother George, who went missing recently.

George is 82 year old man from Canada. He moved to Canada when he was a young man, where he established his own sawmill and started a family. He had come to Denmark for a week to visit my grandfather who recently had experienced two blood clots in the brain.

When I visited my father last week, he told me that George was disappeared and nobody knew anything.

-By the way has there been any new development about George’s missing?

-Jennifer has sent me a very angry mail

-Who is Jennifer?

-She is George’s daughter, she is 60 years old

-What did she write?

-She wrote we were some reckless irresponsible people, who should have a really bad taste in our mouths. How could we fail so miserly in helping her old father? She was completely speechless and demanded an unreserved apology from me and your father.

-Uh-what?

-That was what she wrote

-But my father was there! He stood there 30 minutes before George was scheduled to arrive. There was no George on the train. Then my father searched the entire area around the train station, he waited on next train, he searched on the next train station. There was no George anywhere!

-Jennifer doesn’t know that

-But didn’t you call George’s family and asked if we should call him missing by the police

-We only talked to George’s son Frank, and Frank didn’t want us to tell Jennifer or George’s wife Lily-Marie about his disappearing. There was no need to make them worry. Wouldn’t change a thing about the situation

-uh ok?

-Frank said we should give it some days. George had made this kind of mysterious disappearing before

-Yesterday his flight for Canada was scheduled. Did he come back to Canada?

-Yes he is back in Canada again

-Did he tell his family where he had been?

-Frank asked him in private what happened in Denmark, and he replied that there was nobody to meet him at the train station and he had been so unlucky to lose the phone numbers to everyone he knew in Denmark. So he had to sleep 6 days at the train station

-It’s not possible to sleep on Roskilde train station at nights. There are guards who throw people out at night

-Frank was also not convinced by George’s story. So he asked him if he had been on one of his ladies trips

-What did George answer to that?

-He had said (American with a thick Danish farmer accent): NJOOOV NJOV NJOV NJOV

-What are you going to tell Jennifer now?

-We’re going to tell her that we are very sorry that George had to sleep on the train station for 6 days

Jeg har meldt mig til et online skrivekursus. Stedet hedder Gothams Writers Workshop og er fysisk placeret i New York. Det starter tirsdag 15 maj. Kostede 400 $

Kurset strækker sig over 10 uger med nye øvelser hver uge. Hver øvelser skulle vist tage 5-8 timer at skrive, så det er ca. en dag om ugen man skal sætte af til det. Så kommer der feedback efterfølgende fra underviser og medstuderende.

Det er et kursus i humor writing. Så det bliver interessant at se hvordan de kulturelle forskelle kommer til at spille ind.

Pensumslisten ser sådan her ud:

• Introduction to Humor Writing – The secret formula to all humor revealed. Exploration of various forms of prose humor writing—fiction, nonfiction, and in-between. Where to find humorous ideas. The elusiveness of humor.
• Principles of Humor – Exploration of the various techniques for achieving humor—exaggeration, juxtaposition, shock/surprise, extreme situations, sound/rhythm/wordplay, irony, attitude, absurdity. The various types of humor.
• People – Finding the stupidity in people. Round and flat characters. Showing vs. Telling. Methods for showing characters. Ridiculing groups of people.
• Structure – The basic structural techniques for humor—the rule of three, snowballing.  Finding a major dramatic question. Shaping a beginning, middle, and end. Breaking the structural norms.
• Point of View/Voice – Point of view defined. Exploration of the various types of point of view. Voice defined. Exploration of the various types of voice. Tips for finding your voice.
• Description – Using the senses. Specificity. Techniques for creativity. Finding the right words. Merging description with point of view. Describing funny situations. Bad (but funny) descriptions.
• Dialogue – The importance of scene. Dialogue’s illusion of reality. Quotation marks and tags. Stage directions. Summarized dialogue. Characterization through dialogue. Miscommunication. Not forcing it.
• Point and Pointlessness – Using humor to make a point. Using humor in pointless (but funny) ways.
• Precision – Hacking through the early stages. Zeroing in on the perfect words and achieving economy. Strengthening the humor techniques. Finding the peaks and valleys. Testing out the humor.
• The Business – Proper format for manuscripts. How to target publishing houses, magazines, newspapers, and agents. How to send your work out. Query letters.

Glæder mig til at komme igang med det, og vil muligvis poste mine øvelser herinde, hvis materialet egner sig til det.

mvh

Jakob

Hej Forfatterværk!

Her er lidt inspiration til når i skal have taget forfatterbilledet til promotion.

Fulde indlæg »

David sad og kiggede rundt i køkkenet, rummet så i store træk ud som da han boede der. Det eneste nye var en kalender og en billedekollage af Sannes feriebilleder på væggen. Køkkenet så stadig helt nyt ud, de nåede også lige akkurat at få det på plads før alle problemerne eksploderede i hovedet på dem. Hvilket endte med, at hun havde bedt ham om at flytte ud for at få en tænkepause. Det var nu et halvt år siden.

Mens hun stod der og fyldte vand på kaffemaskinen, iagttog han alle Sannes fysiske træk som engang havde gjort ham forblændet af hende. Hendes nøddebrune hår, de brune øjne der altid strålede af liv, den slanke figur med bløde former. Derudover hendes fyldige læber med de lidt fremstående skæve tænder, som hun selv var meget kritisk over, men som han synes gav hendes ansigt personlighed og charme. Hun havde taget en cowboy nederdel på, og en gul top der afslørede at hun ikke havde BH indenunder.

Hun var meget kølig over for ham synes han, og han kunne ikke helt finde ud af om han endnu engang havde jokket uforvaret i spinaten. Han tænkte derfor at han hellere måtte vise sig fra sin bedste side. Han kunne huske dengang de var sammen, at han tit fik gjort hende ked af det, fordi han fik sagt tingene på en akavet facon.

-Hvordan går det på arbejdet? sagde hun hældte kaffe op i to kopper.

-Det er som det plejer, vi har jo fået det nye computersystem der stadig volder os problemer. I sidste uge måtte vi udsætte en retssag i en måned, så IT-folkene havde tid til finde ud af hvor sagens vidneudsagn var blevet af. Det er fuldkommet idiotisk system.  Preben, du ved ham fra min afdeling, ringede til IT chefen og svinede ham til sagde han og tog en slurk kaffe.

Hun spurgte hurtigt mens han drak sin kaffe.

-Hvad med din disciplinærsag?

-Nåå, ja det er overstået. Pressen har også droppet at følge sagen yderligere. Den ene knøs’s mor insisterer hårdnakket på at sagen skal fortsættes. Men det rager mig en høstblomst, det skal hun helt have lov til! Jeg har rettens ord på at det var iorden at skyde hendes narkomansøn.

Hun rystede på hovedet af ham.

-Du virker mere afslappet. I øvrigt dit hår sidder virkelig godt er du blevet klippet?

Han pillede ved håret og smilede.

-Ja det er jeg

-Jeg kan lide det, det klæder dig sagde hun koket.

Hun gik hen til ham og nussede hans hår.

-Vil du have et stykke kage til kaffen?

Han rejste sig op og begyndte at kysse hende på halsen, så kinderne og derfra til munden. Hun slog arme og ben omkring ham. Han tog fat om hendes hofter med hænderne og løftede hende op på kaffebordet. Han lod hænderne glide op af hendes lår, op til trusserne, som han tog fat i, og langsomt prøvede at tage af.

-Nej det går ikke David

Hun skubbede ham væk hvorefter hun rettede på underdelen.

-Jeg har hørt at du begyndt at se en anden, en fra arbejde, er det rigtigt? sagde hun og kiggede ham søgende ind i øjnene.

David kiggede væk.

-Det er ikke noget seriøst. Det er bare sex.