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Writing Challenge

That’s Absurd

For this week’s writing challenge, add a dash of magic and a touch of surrealism to your writing.

Tiny Yellow Flowers

Any time we read a book, we’re transported. A good author will develop the characters in such a way that we identify with them automatically. We see their flaws in ourselves, as well as their happiness and desires. We follow them through their lives, the climax and the denouement of the tale, wishing the best for them, or the worst, depending on the type of book we’re reading.

When it comes to absurdity or surrealism in literature, there’s something extra. It’s like when someone adds nutmeg or chicory to brewed coffee — it tastes like coffee, it’s caffeinated like coffee, and yet there’s this subtle undertone that hits us as we take each sip. As with any other book, we’re transported by the storyline and the characters, but we’re also enraptured by the possibility of magic.

I often think of Gabriel García Marquez’ scene of thousands of yellow flowers falling to the ground in Love in the Time of Cholera. As the landscape is blanketed in these small flowers, we readers can picture the real version of such petals falling and more closely imagine ourselves in his magical scene. In fact, we may come to desire such splendor in our day-to-day lives and find ourselves fantasizing about flowers, and romance, and magic.

The Challenge

For this week’s writing challenge, introduce a sense of magic or absurdity into your post.

  • Write a fictional piece that incorporates the everyday life we’re familiar with — work, family, errands — and add a surprise twist through an imaginary character, absurd turn of events, or Sci-Fi-esque setting.
  • We all know that sometimes life itself is a bit nonsensical. Tell us a story when you were going about your own business and something completely ridiculous or inexplicable happened. What did you do, and how did you react?
  • Tap into your inner child and conjure up some of the magic you experienced in your childhood. When I was a kid, I was convinced that I could fly and wouldn’t let anyone tell me otherwise. What improbably hopeful dreams did you have?

We’re looking forward to hearing your absurd tales!

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  12. Very well written, that’s so true that, we picturize ourselves into the characters we read in books and stories, that happens if and only if , we like what we’re reading…thanks for such a wonderful note 🙂

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  23. I absolutely LOVE this! Sometimes I wonder if I do this too much though, because there always seems to be a little absurdity in my blog posts. There’s a lot of truth to it, with a little bit of hyperbole thrown in here and there.

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  24. An absurd, magical event in childhood has to be the time that I lost my balloon at Disneyland and that evening my dad took me at onto the back porch, pointed toward the sky and told me that the object moving through the sky was my balloon and from that moment I kept the dream in my head of flying up with my balloon like Peter Pan and twinkle bell

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