To continue on my journey with Literature, I have attended a Poetry Workshop that is held at Phnom Penh with the other 7 participants. During the workshop, I have learned new techniques to improve my writing skills, specifically writing poems.
One of the new techniques I have learned is “Show Don’t Tell” strategy when the writer does not just tell the story by saying What is It but writing to explain why and how it becomes what it is and show the depth of the objective. To practice this, we did a writing exercise where we have a picture as our prompt. I have inspired a lot from this activity because using a picture as the prompt for our writing is a new insight for me. It has improved my writing piece a lot when having a picture near me to look up to.
The picture she showed us to exercise the concept of “Show don’t Tell” was a scary room that is haunted. This is the short story that I wrote inspired by that picture:
The Haunting Room
The moment I walked into the house, the doors were slowly moving, creating a strange and haunting rhythm that shook my body. The rooms were like relics from a mysterious past that contains countless painful memories. I shivered as the smell of blood reached up to my nose and realized this is horrifying.
Then, Jessica, who is the facilitator in the workshop, gave us a chance to Meditate about a place that reminds us of a memory or our favorite place. Then, we did freewriting activity and here is a piece of my free writing,
The Warmth of Childhood
Sounds of Calmness and joy, the universal rhythm of nature when water and Earth blend together. The picture is fading in and out, The picture through a little girl’s eyes making a strange shelter out of the sand. Not knowing what is happening around her, she built the sand shelter with concentration. It was her world, it was the place where she belonged to and that moment is the moment she feels the most like herself. as a unique person. She started to step out and into the water of souls calling out to her, the peaceful waves smoothing her steps. She was walking to a loving person’s arm, the word “mom” crept in her mind. At that moment, her world was so small, her mom was the queen and das as a king. They are the only people she truly knew, The arms were holding her close she could hear the beat of the mom’s warm heart. In that moment of joy, the waves splashed as though it seems to be enjoying the warmth of this vast ocean of love and pleasure. It was that wonderful single moment, that all mattered.