NaNoWriMo Course 1, Week 1
Assignment Details:
Objective
Artists learn to draw and thereby to learn to see. That’s what this exercise is about. Learning to draw with language and thereby to perceive more vividly.
Assignment
This is a simple exercise with a simple emphasis: writing with your five senses.
Write a three-paragraph description of a person or a place. Show the reader what it looks like, smells like, feels like, sounds like, even tastes like.
Try to put pressure on every word, every phrase. Make every sentence meaningful, sensible, and clear.
Scouting a Forgotten Ancient Fortress
364 words
The ancient fortress’ front gate stood at least three stories tall. I took off my armor and slipped between the solid iron grates. Kelsey handed them over piece by piece, worry apparent in her deep green eyes. As I clasped the last of my armor belts, she told me to be careful. I smiled.
“No promises. I’m the scout, remember? Wading into danger is my job,” I said while readying my pistol. She pouted as I took off to explore.
A huge keep greeted me as I walked into the fortress’ front yard. There were rubbles of stone blocks under the broken bridge connecting the keep and the battlement tower to my right, but the fortress walls looked like it would give a high dragon bruises if one were to crash against it mid-flight. The yard was overgrown with tall grass, small yellow wildflowers dotting the landscape. The first set of stairs leading up to the keep were across the entrance, ageless steps carved out of the mountain’s natural slope, moss thriving in and around the cracks due to years or maybe even centuries of disuse.
Another big courtyard was on the top of the stone stairs, surrounded by centuries-old stone buildings that were built into the walls of the fortress. One had a rusty old sign hanging by the door, the letters illegible as time and weather eroded the engravings. Trees grow neatly on the side of the buildings, the long-gone gardener’s handiwork outliving them by the blessings of nature. Another set of stairs, solidly built like the thick walls of the fortress, led up to the keep’s main entrance.
The gates creaked as I pushed them open, splinters of aged wood falling onto my hair. As I stepped into a grand main hall, the musty smell hanging in the air reminded me of my mother’s old oaken cabinet. Tattered fabrics of once-majestic banners hung from the ceiling. An old ivory throne stood at the far side of the hall, sunlight pouring through the broken tinted glass windows that loomed over the seat of authority.
How a place like that had stayed forgotten in this age of interstellar travel, I do not know.
Notes
The keep is Skyhold from Dragon Age: Inquisition, one of my favorite games. The time setting is from the Mass Effect series, also my favorite.
Key Taps and Coffee Breaks 