Continuing a summer Writing exercise series, I'm jumping over a couple of Spellbinding Sentences exercises that I believe I've already covered in the first three posts—one of them being reflecting on your practice, which I've done throughout the posts.
For this post I want to practice to make a few words my own. Besides learning the definition and thinking about what the words mean to a writer, the main way you "own" a word is by using them in sentences.
First I bring over a few information from the prior days. The three words that I focused on yesterday I'll try to use in sentences today. The Keith Duvall writing, inspired by the Kevin Durant NBA Warrior finals loss a few days ago that I wrote in the freewriting exercise, can serve as inspiration in writing these sentences. Some of the Word Mind: Word Frequency words that jump out at me, I'll maybe use as well—to either use, avoid, or alter.
Source Material
3 Focus words
symbol, captured, life
Freewriting Information
Keith Duvall a heroic, an African American former Union soldier who fought in the US Civil War.
After the war, Keith settled and built a cattle ranch in the expanding Western Frontier.
Several outlaws had ravaged the area in recent days and made off with several head of cattle.
a western gunfighter situation.Word Frequency
his ranch
shouted to
ranch hands
the bandits, outlaws
his rifle
his cattle
war
barn
bullets
soldier
hands
I had only heard about African Americans fighting in the American Civil War.
Here is a link to a History Channel short video
Black Civil War Soldiers
Symbol
Yin and Yang
Keith Duvall has only seen the Yin and Yang symbol once in a newspaper article, though he doesn't know what it is called though.
"It looks like two tadpoles trying to chase each other," he said a slight deep chuckle made him shake a little.
In those two paragraphs, besides trying to use the word symbol, I was trying to use my own selected symbol through the eyes of my fiction character Keith Duvall. I figured he might have only seen the symbol in a newspaper—the main form of news media for that time period. The first way that I though I might be able to reveal his opinion was through dialogue to someone. I don't know who he was talking to or with. His opinion however is that the image is a little humorous. That reveals a little of his personality, which differs from my own. I think it is a cool image. Keith Duvall can only relate to tadpoles which maybe he saw or collected in some pond as a child. Collecting or playing with tadpoles was probably fun and made him giggle as a child. I've actually collected tadpoles as a child and it was fun as well. That is probably why I used those memories as Keith's opinion of Yin and Yang symbol.
Captured
For captured, I'll just use the tadpole incident. I quickly research when mason jars were invented—just before the American Civil War. Perfect!
I'll also bring in a sidekick friend, David.
"Got em!" Davy said his breathing was fast and erratic.
Keefy looked over to see what Davy had found.
What Davy held in the mason jar high above his head was dirty pond water with two large captured tadpoles swimming about. He watched them swim about. At one moment, the two started to chase each other like a whirlpool circling around.
Keefy's eyes went large and his mouth opened round and large.
One of them broke out from this chase and wiggle down to the bottom.
Keefy smiled and then chuckled.
"I'm going to chase you like a tadpole, " he warned Davy.
Davy's head went side to side, his missing tooth grinned. "Not if you can't catch me," he said.
He took off running. Davy followed in pursuit.
That was a longer passage that I just wrote. When writing, I first thought that Keith and David probably would go by nicknames at this younger age. All of this writing was first to use the word captured in a sentence, "...two large captured tadpoles..." I also wanted to develop the Keith character and begin to develop a David character. This also serves as background material possibly for a flashback, first chapter, or prologue. This experience can also somewhat mirror how Keith would later chase or go after the bandit outlaws.
Life
To me, freedom during that period was a life worth fighting for.
In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.
--December 1, 1862 Message to Congress
Keith looked across the battlefield.
He then looked to the clearing sky
"The best life we can have is fighting for the freedom and right to have our own possessions," Davy said, his voice steady and felt some tightness in his arms and neck.
Davy looked off into the corpse littered battlefield. He took in a deep breath, held it, and then slowly released it.
He turned back to Keith, adjusting his gun back slightly. "What do you want to do... if we make it through this craziness?"
"Cows. I'd like to have me a big-old ranch full of some cows."
"Moo," Davy said. "Keefy's going live the life of a cattle rancher."
I set this in the Civil War. I'm not sure where this is or what specific battlefield. I used life twice in this passage. I also brought in the idea of getting his own cattle ranch. I was a little torn about either having the sky clearing or darkening. I could have done either. How the story goes, I might change that image to use as a foreshadowing or thematic imagery.
Summary
All of these writing exercises have been beneficial. I do feel a different appreciating for these three words. symbol, captured, and life feel more like my words now.
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