Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Writing Prompt #1

Following this

Before you read the prompt, make sure you will have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write and please do time yourself. Once you've written it, please leave a link here so we can come over and read it. Here goes:

Write about a sleepover, a slumber party or the time you stayed somewhere overnight.




Many years ago, as children , my brother and me went over to our friend's home for a sleepover. I think it was our first stay away from home.


We were pretty much excited and so were the brother -sister duo friends. We had dinner with our friends, their parents, I think we watched some movie on video and then it was time to crash.


I just could not go to sleep and my little brother was also wide awake. Our little friends though were fast asleep. We slowly crawled out of the sheets, switched on the lights, took out colouring books and crayons and started colouring in the middle of the night.

Not much later, aunty came in - probably woken up by the light in the room and our muffled whispers. She seemed totally bewildered to see us busy colouring away when we were supposed to sleep! She asked us to keep the books and crayons away and go back to sleep. She tucked us in bed and wished us Goodnight.

I remember sinking into slumber long after...but we had many sleepovers at the same house afterwards and never had trouble going to sleep again.

Update: After reading other posts in response to the prompt, I found mine so drab, tried enhancing it, but there is only this much I can do about it:


We had gone out with our family friends that weekend. We had become more closer and enjoyed the company of our two new friends. A sister and brother just like the two of us. Both of them were much younger to me and I enjoyed being the oldest. We used to go for family outings together and enjoyed these occasions to the hilt. Whenever we had holidays coming up , my brother and me would want to stay over at their place and they would want to stay over at our place. As we returned home from our outings we would be pestering our parents to let us sleep over in either homes.

The first time we had the sleep over, I remember we were so excited. I dont remember much of how we spent our times- most probably playing monopoly, scrabbles, word building, reading, story telling. One other thing that we liked about their place, I remember was their home had a bath tub! I liked aunty's cooking too.

After watching some video, we were asked to go to bed. And then it was that I began feeling strange. The room, the bed, the sheets, the pillow- all so different and strange. Our friends went to bed and after some random chatter went off to sleep. I kept looking up at the ceiling. I remember feeling so utterly bored. I had yet not reached the age of entertaining myself with simply my thoughts. I looked around me in the pale light of the bedroom lamp, and saw our friends sleeping soundly. I don't remember if my brother was lying awake, or I woke him up.
Anyways, we decided to tip toe out of the bed and engage in some activity that would keep us occupied. we knew where the colouring books and crayons were. soon enough, we put on the lights and settled down to some serious colouring as if we had some assignment to complete!

I don't think we got much ahead with our self assigned task, because soon a much bewildered aunty came in. She just could'nt fathom why we felt the need to color at that time of night. If there is one thing that I remember clearly about that night, it is the expression on aunty's face.
She enquired with concern why we were not asleep. We assured her that it was simple boredom and then she asked us to keep aside all colouring - get on with it the next morning and tucked us into bed. She sked us to call her if we needed anything. I just did not want to go to sleep. I wanted to stay awake, and most unwillingly crawled back under the sheets. I don't remember how long I stayed awake.

The next morning, aunty called my mother up and told her about our midnight assignment and they found it rather amusing. We had many more sleepovers after that in the same house and afte that first time, I never needed to go hunting for crayons in the night.

4 comments:

Sujatha Bagal said...

When you're doing it for the first time or even the first 50 times, it's hard to organize your thoughts and remember and write. Don't be hard on yourself. :) But I loved the details in the second part. I'm so glad you went back to write some more.

Ardra said...

sujatha, your words mean a lot, I can't tell you how difficult it was for me to post this- It seemed so lack lustre ,I posted it after much deliberation.I seem to have completely lost touch with my need to share, write , something which I used to enjoy immensely.

Tharini said...

uh oh. I lost my first comment. eesh!

Just wanted to say that this reworked one is really good. Were you able to write it all in under 10 min?

I simply love the way you ended it, it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling!

Ardra said...

Thank you Tharini. 10 minutes? No way...I usually prepare a rough draft on paper with the good old pen. The first attempt I typed directly onto blogger and Tharini, that felt so uncomfortable, incomplete... The second attempt, I first wrote on paper as I do usually,and then as I type the words onto my pc, the words keep changing...and I love the exercise.