A New Writing Course and A Story

A couple weeks ago I began a course offered by The Habit. Through The Habit, Jonathan Rogers (author of the Wilderking Trilogy) teaches courses, sends out newsletters, and moderates book studies–all to help writers find community and tell their stories. It’s an incredible website filled with incredible writers!

The title of the course is “Writing with Hobbits.” It is a creative writing course in which we study J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing techniques in The Hobbit and then practice using them in our own writing. I plan to post all of my writing pieces for the course on this blog. In the future I probably won’t give any explanation for the pieces, but now you know where all this new writing is coming from.

Here’s my first piece, called “The Bedtime Routine.”

The Bedtime Routine

“Samuel, time to get ready for bed!” I say.

Samuel jumps over the couch and crouches behind the back. As soon as he hears my approaching footsteps, he rushes down both flights of stairs and into the closet. I pretend to ignore him. I hear him chuckling to himself as he sneaks out of the dark entryway. I hear him creep back up the carpeted stairs. He sits down on the floor of his bedroom and starts to play with his Legos. I softly tip-toe down the hallway. I call for him one more time, and this time I include a threat.

“Samuel, time to get ready for bed or you’ll lose your special treat tomorrow!” I say as loudly as possible (without yelling).

Samuel jumps when hears my voice so unexpectedly close to his room. In no time at all, Samuel pulls on his striped pajamas, brushes and flosses his teeth, hops into bed, and cozies down into the soft mattress with his stuffed dragons and monkeys. I kiss him goodnight and turn off the light. In a few minutes, I hear his soft sleepy breathing drifting through his open bedroom door. I sigh, cozy into a soft blanket on the couch, and pick up a good book.

Good night, dear Samuel. And good evening to me.

Would you like to join me at The Habit? Here’s more information. 🙂