Wendy Call - Archive Interview (7/4/22)

Write The Book: Conversations on Craft

An interview from the archives with award winning writer, educator and translator Wendy Call.

This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to choose one of the following sentences, and translate it into a language of your own design.

• Tomorrow morning, as the sun shines up and over the eastern wall of your house, you will awaken to a gift of joy.
• He ran through the woods and hopped the stones in a bright, cold stream, shouting that he had won.
• Alone, without purpose or thought, she brings a hand to her face and feels the cool touch of her own comfort.

Pick one of these sentences, or really any sentence you come up with, and translate it into a language of your own invention. Make up sounds that feel like these sounds, shape them into words, see what other sentences come out of your unusual translation. Try to create a sense of the sentence that another reader might come close to understanding, if not intellectually. Sure, it might be nonsense, but it might feel just right, too.

Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.

Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro

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