Today’s exercises are about personification of inanimate objects. I’m the first of two exercises a verb has to be swapped for a phrase, and in the second exercise I had to personify a piece if furniture in poetry or prose.
Exercise 1
The KITTEN miaowed when I left for work.
The kitten cried, careless of my career but needing me, when I left for work.
The tree branches SWAYED in the wind.
The tree branches reached up there fingers, dancing, caressing the bullying winds
.
The cursor MOVES across the computer screen.
The cursor traces a trail, treks tirelessly across the computer screen.
Exercise 2
Personifying the television:
Smug screen holding court, flashing, demanding
You Watch Now
‘I am here, I am here,
Pay attention to me!Don’t abandon me,
Aren’t I a beauty?
I’ll keep you happy
Pay attention to me!’
Everything Is Better With Dragons 
Just asking. Is that the way they gave you the exercise or did you misspell meow? I might give these exercises a shot myself. I’ve been reading a lot of Conrad’s writings: he’s a genius that does this sort of thing often in his prose.
I was given meow spelt that way.
Joe was in such a state of drunken agitation that his cursor seemed to take on a mind of its own, for it moved about his screen and clicked, as if by its own will, sites that Joe knew he ought not to be looking at. In the morning both and the cursor would not only be ashamed of themselves, but would be long-time enemies. Joe was the kind of guy who would blame the cursor and not himself for his misdeeds.
That’s really good! I got the exercises from an ebook I’m working through called ‘Back to creative writing school’ by
Bridget Whelan. I saw it recommended on a blog before the New Year and thought I’d have a look at it. The exercises are proving useful.
I think it is neat that you are placing your assignments on line. To me, doing that sort of thing is what having a blog is all about.
It’s a way to motivate myself, to actually work on some of the exercises rather than just read the book. In addition, when I review the book at the end of the month I want to be able to point to examples.