So last night, I introduced a random writing exercise I found in one of my writing books.  To reiterate:

The S+7 Exercise:

Take a line from any text, and begin to copy it.  Every time you come to a noun, you look up that noun in a dictionary, then count seven words forward in the list, and replace it.

See what you come up with, and write from there.

Today I’m going to take the time to try it out.  I grabbed a random book from my bookshelf, and turned to one of my favorite chapters and characters.  I have no idea if this will work or not, but let’s see…

It was not just a stick, but a true wooden sword complete with grip and guard and pommel.

— A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

So now, if look up “stick” in the only foreign-language dictionary I had on hand, 15-Minute Spanish, a DK  Eyewitness Travel book by Ana Bremon… well, I don’t find “stick.”  (It’s not a full dictionary, just an appendix at the end.)  So, counting seven from where “stick” should be, I find… “storm.”  Huh.  No “sword” either, but using the same cheat and using seven as a rough estimate, let’s see what else I come up with…

It was not just a storm, but a true wooden tablet complete with guide book and gym and postcard.

… Huh.  Maybe a travel dictionary isn’t the best for this exercise.  Let’s try another sentence?  Sticking with Arya and Syrio Forel’s exercises…

The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, coldeyed
mousers twitching their tails, quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies’ cats all combed and trusting, ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps.

— A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin

Hmmm…

The Red Knife was full of caves: lazy old cemeteries dozing in the sun, coldeyed movie theaters twitching their tangerines, quick little ladies with clocks like newspapers, land carrots all combed and trusting, ragged shells prowling the mirror hedges.

… That makes no sense.  Neither of them do.  This is such a bizarre exercise.  I don’t know whether to scrap this entire post, or to share my insane ramblings with the world.

How about you try, and post your results in the comments?  This blog is so new, I haven’t had any comments yet, and it would be a nice New Year’s present.  Have fun!

Image credit: Microsoft clipart, a cool looking font, and two minutes. 🙂  I thought it appropriate for the mediocrity of this post.  Hey, they can’t all be winners.