Morning Exercises

My favourite writing exercise learned so far is to write a passage without using the letter e. I picked it up in Kate Grenville's The Writing Book. Considering e is always the first letter I pick in a game of Hangman, you'd think it would be impossible to write proper sentences without it, let alone anything worthwhile. But it actually results in some really interesting stuff. That is, it can transform your writing slant into a most distinct and unusual rhythm. Can turn it cant and out-worldly.

I'm experiencing an enforced such exercise in my life at the moment, as the number 7 button on my phone doesn't work. I spilt shampoo on it, and although it was organic, as my brother pointed out: unless it's special mobile phone shampoo it's probably going to do some damage.

Anyway, writing clear texts to people without the use of p q r or s poses some problems, but I've managed for the last month or so. It forces me to be creative with words (and grammar and spelling) on a daily basis, and I'm considering just living with it. Who knows, it might even be protecting my brain against dementia.

The only words I have trouble substituting others for are 'sorry', 'yep' and 'where', all very useful in text conversations. I have a feeling they will be the reason I get sick of this experiment before long.