Heaven

Today's post is a tad late, as I spent the evening writing a short story for my writers group on Thursday! Lets hope today's post is worth the wait...

Today's A to Z Blogging Challenge is H for Heaven.

My idea of Heaven is: an eternity locked in the Voltaire and Rousseau bookshop on Otago Lane. Seriously, just throw away the key...

1. What's your idea of Heaven? Using your stream of consciousness, scrawl the description as you see it in your head. Now, think of one of your characters. What would their idea of Heaven be? Does a person's idea of Heaven say something specific about them? Ask people what theirs is and you'll find it probably does.

2. Sketch a mind-map using the key word as the nucleus, then branch out in whatever direction you please. You might find yourself going in completely unrelated paths (which I personally prefer). Do a five-minute freewrite incorporating as many (or few) branch words as you like. Here is my mind map (created using the SimpleMind app on my phone).

3. Choose one of the following sentence starts and freewrite for a few minutes, letting the words tumble out without a second thought:

• It was their Heaven, but my Hell...
• He was only allowed entry to Heaven on one condition...
• I couldn't bear to tell her it didn't exist...

I find it best not to read my freewrites for at least a few days. Why not stuff them in a drawer and surprise yourself? It's blatant evidence that our minds work in mysterious ways. Plus, I defy you not to find an array of story seeds amongst your work.

Do you have any writing warm-ups you'd like to share?

Take care,

Catherine x

Note: All photo prompts in the A to Z Challenge 2013 are my own. Feel free to use/copy/share to your hearts content. Help yourself. :)

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Heaven