I wrote a 9-sentence short piece about a tree’s birth as part of a recent writing workshop. Author Pam Houston taught the More Than Human World online course.
In class, she gave us the following prompt. We had to complete it in about five minutes.
Nine Sentence Writing Exercise
Sentences 1-3 Describe a natural object’s birth. It can be an animal, plant, rock, etc.
Sentences 4-6 Describe what else is happening at the time of the object’s birth.
Sentences 7-9 Put the birth in an ancestral context.
A tree’s birth short story
Here is what I wrote…
A Tree is Born
By Siobhan Sullivan
I am emerging from the sand of the High Desert. The first thing I do is send a taproot down, seeking water. After that, I send a stem up, covered with sharp, scaly leaves on its branches. I feel the earth trembling beneath me. In the distance, I see dense clouds forming over a sharp peak. I smell a powerful scent, like rotting eggs. Above me, my great grandfather shifts his branches to shelter me from the ashfall. He has lived on this hilltop for 5,000 years. I am a juniper, grateful to be a part of his family and a part of this developing world.
Generative writing
When you do generative writing like this, you’re forced to think fast, sort of like an improv actor. I usually type everything I write on my desktop computer or other device. However, when I take writing classes with prompts, I often use longhand. Why, you may be asking. It uses a different, sometimes more creative, part of your brain. I can write and cross things out quicker in longhand.
Here’s a picture of the first draft I created in class. It includes a quick sketch of a tree. Yeah, it’s messy!
Is this short piece about a tree’s birth the best thing I’ve ever written? No, but I can see how something similar could be incorporated into some of my other writings.
I was inspired to create this piece by western junipers growing on my property in Bend, Oregon. I often use the tree in the first picture as my muse. Can you see why?
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