Style Training With Ursula K. Le Guin, Exercise, 4 (part 1) Issa Dioume

I lifted my head and looked upwards. Clouds of all shapes and sizes were congregating; showing entryways for nuances of light-grey and dark-grey and grey-grey all over the sky. And soon,
towards me, a mizzling came tumbling down. And I let it. Droplets tinkled on my face in explosions of fertility, and the sound of their plops appeased me. Then it was a bucketful of water that the clouds spewed, and still I stayed beneath. Laughing and dancing and crying. I danced to my mother’s death, to my brother’s, to my father’s, to my grandmother’s. I danced to our fears, to our sorrows, to our lost dreams. I danced to cleanse them. I danced to happiness and life, smiled at life, and from somewhere behind all the grey, grappling through the unrelenting thick vest of clouds, a line of light fell on me, and life smiled back.

In this part of the book “Steering the Craft” Le Guin talks about the effects of repetition and argues that they can be quite effective! She then asks to write 150 words with at least three repetitions (verb, noun, adjective) Not words that are invisible like and, the, be, say, said, do, but words that can be seen and yet that serve to great effect in your prose. I employed the word ‘dance’, and let whatever comes after, come. Other author’s might find it interesting! Charles Dickens for one, used repetitions to great effect. They can truly help generate a flow! Do try, and always Have fun doing it!

Smiles,

Issa A. Dioume