11. First thoughts
Think of the person you are closest to in the world, the person whose life you know the most intimately. You are going to write for fifteen minutes, describing in detail what you imagine that person to be doing (and thinking and feeling) at this very moment. Write in the present tense, and address it to ‘you’ - e.g. You are humming to yourself. Standing on tip-toe, you are scanning the top shelf of the cupboard for the pistachio nuts I hid there last night …
The rules are these:
You are free to write illegibly and ungrammatically.
You are free to be clumsy and clichéd.
You are free to repeat or contradict yourself.
You are free to write rubbish.
You are free to write anything.
You are free to go completely off the point.
But you must write without a moment’s pause for exactly fifteen minutes.
No one is going to read what you write - not your teacher or your classmates, and especially not the person you’re describing.
