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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

O-Week on Residence/Writer's Update

So for those of you who didn't know, I moved in to my room on campus at my university on Sunday, and I am seriously thrilled to be a Deakin student right now. I'm sharing a house with nine other people from a range of different courses and origins, including a girl from Britain and an exchange student from Sweden. Majority of the people in my unit are girls and I have had people in my room till 11:30 for the past two nights, just socializing rather than hitting the clubs; as much as some of us like drinking, I'm not the only one who would rather do it in a relaxed environment at home. Fun fact about Australia: legal drinking age is eighteen.

As well as meeting a lot of new people, there are a few other ressies here who I already knew from high school. On top of that, I've met quite a few people who will be studying Professional and Creative Writing with me. I've also already taken the opportunity to join the Deakin Writer's club, who publish a small newspaper/newsletter containing member's written works on a ... I'm not sure if it's a weekly or monthly basis, but you get what I mean :)

In other news, I've done a huge redraft of the first five chapters of KATHERINE, which I'm really happy about. I feel like everything already sounds much better now that I'm not trying to avoid a maximum word-count of 20,000. In hindsight, the story was too complicated to be kept to the novella competitions required length. I've shot the word-count up to nearly 28,000 again (after re-adding the deleted scenes) and it's still rising. I feel much better about this project now.

Last of all, I randomly thought I'd write a piece of flash fiction. I had the line 'the night is for hunting' stuck in my head. This is the title of the 6th book in John Marsden's Tomorrow series (I'm only up to the 4th book, I think.) So I used the title as a prompt.


The night was for hunting. We wandered through the shadows, our eyes peeled. Mira had her crossbow loaded and at the ready, waiting for Arthur to point out a stray animal; an unfortunate creature that would live no more than a few seconds longer. I lingered at the back of the trio, ensuring that we would not become the hunted. The forests were alive with the howls of wolves whenever the moon was visible. We could kill them if we saw them in time. But if we couldn’t…
“There,” Arthur whispered. Mira aimed and fired. A creature met its end. 
Your turn! Write a piece of flash-fiction, no more than 150 words (mine was exactly 100) based on the prompt 'the night is for hunting'. You may use the prompt in the piece and change the tense to suit yourself. Leave your little creations in the comments below. I'll put them in the next blog post and everyone can vote for their favourite. You cannot vote for your own. The winner gets the choice of: a guest post on my blog; a guest post from me on their blog; an interview (interrogation) which can go on either or both blogs; or to send the first page of their WIP in for a critique on my blog.  So get writing!

How are you all?

- Bonnee.

23 comments:

  1. Congrats on the move and the rousing start to your university experience! You sound quite excited to be there; may it always be so. I know how you feel about the 'relaxed environment', I was much happier for a while hanging out in parked cars, walking the streets, or sitting on a back porch. Outside was preferable.

    Nice little flash piece there. I'll have to think on this. Brevity is not my forte. Enjoy your first week!

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    1. I can only hope it stays this awesome. So far things have gotten even more awesome in the couple of hours since I posted this :) I definitely prefer to sit around a bonfire with a bunch of friends than dance around in a room as full as a sardine tin to music I actually really hate... stupid doof-doof stuff.

      Thanks for your encouragement, JeffO, it means a lot! :0

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    2. Even more awesome? Intriguing. Did classes start yet, or is this still orientation?

      I wrote a short piece a while back about outdoor summer hangouts. I liked it a lot, but no one has seen fit to publish it yet. And I am toying with a flash piece. Maybe give it another day to make sure it's right.

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    3. I went to some orientation thing for my course and met a bunch of people studying the same stuff as me so... yes, more awesome. Classes will start on Monday (when most of the rest of the country will be on the Labour Day public holiday...) and I am so keen!

      Yay for flash fiction and other such short pieces! :D

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    4. What the heck, I'm in. 99 words. Hope I'm not the only one:


      He stared in the mirror, appraising. Made minute adjustments to the tilt of his collar, the knot of his tie. Practiced the smile: indifferent, maybe even arrogant, but with just enough lift at the corner of his mouth to bring out the dimple. Ran his fingertips along the smooth curve of his ear, tamed a stray hair. Perfect.

      He reached into his breast pocket, fingered the cold vial tucked beneath his silk handkerchief. Insurance, in the unlikely event the clothes, the hair, the smile, the attitude weren't enough.

      "The night," he said to his perfect self, "is for hunting."

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    5. Awesome work, thanks for participating :D

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  2. Wow! This is just amazing. I love what you are doing and I think it's got so much potential. Congrats!

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  3. It seems like you're having an incredible start to the university experience! This is going to sound cliche, but truly, soak up every moment, because time will fly. Enjoy it! :)

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    1. What do you mean it will fly? It's already flying! I can't believe it's already Thursday! Thank you, Shari :)

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  4. Nice job. I suck at flash fiction. lol

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  5. You're going to have such a great year!

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  6. Welcome to your new life as a university student. You'll enjoy it. It's great to meet foreign students and learn about their countries. Maybe I don't recall your previous writing, but your flash fiction is well written, like you moved up one step in your quality of writing. I'm too lazy to participate, but at least JeffO joined. My news are that I started my third novel, set now in .... Mexico. So now I'm listening to wonderful Mexican songs to get inspired. But this novel I will write very slowly. Happy next week when the classes starts. Really exciting time for you. Hola !

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    1. Mexico, huh? Very nice :D Best of luck to you, and I don't think you're under any obligation to write fast; you can't rush art. Thanks for your support, Giora :)

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  7. Sounds pretty cool!!! Glad you are doing well! Welcome to college life! We are buried in snow at the moment! lol

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    1. Snow...? I'd give anything for the weather to cool off for a bit. I have neither fan nor air-con in my little room up here... But thank you for the welcome haha :)

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    2. Yep, we could send you plenty!)))

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  8. Congratulations on your writing progress!

    Moving onto campus must have been a big change. Sounds like things are working out, though. :)

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    1. Thanks for your support. The move was a big change, but it was a great change :)

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  9. "Klopp explains Liverpool's approach>> Ignore Chelsea"

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