100 words
Often my students complain that they cannot possibly write enough to meet my expectations. The mere idea of composing 500, or even worse (gasp!) 1,000 words is more than their little brains can comprehend. I seem to have the opposite problem. I tend to go on and on (just ask my husband). Frequently I find I've used three words where one would do, or I've repeated myself unintentionally (a hazard of my profession), or I've used a few too many adjectives or adverbs. You get the point. But sometimes limits can foster creativity. The following exercise is for those of you like me, who find yourself in love with words and who sometimes overdo it. Construct a paragraph--any kind of paragraph, descriptive, narrative, expository--but use only 100 words. No more, no less. Go.
it's all in who you know
Hello! I'm back again after a very long, unwelcome absence. Duty called (read "day job"), so blogging got put on indefinite hiatus. Even now, I'm feeling a bit guilty for being here, doing this (read: having fun), instead of working, working, working, working. Enough whining. For now, I offer you a fun, relatively easy write down memory lane, courtesy of Discovering the Writer Within by Bruce Ballenger and Barry Lane. These two suggest that you take some time (probably 30 minutes at least) to make a list of every person you've ever known. You might want to start out chronologically, but don't make a big deal out of it. It's okay if you miss a few people along the way. The important thing you'll soon discover with this activity is just how many people you have encountered in your life, each of them a tool in your writer's toolkit, each of them capable of contributing a detail here and there, many capable of starring in entire stories or novels. Happy reminiscing!
now and then
I was just reading in one of my favorite magazines, The Sun, an article by Genie Zeiger entitled "Now and Then." Suddenly, it occurred to me what a wonderful writing prompt the article's concept would make. As adults, each of us is prone to remembering how things used to be, often with nostalgia. Sometimes, then is better. Sometimes, now is a definite improvement. And sometimes, now and then are just different. Give it a try. Write for at least ten minutes, with your focus being a comparison of now and then. As you contrast your past to your present, be aware of how the differences reflect the changes in you and in your world. Be open to exploring what material and physical differences can say about us as emotional and spiritual beings.
one little word
Okay, I'm tired and not feeling too creative, so this one's an oldie but goody. I can't give credit because I've seen this prompt too many times, in too many different places. It's practically a cliche, but then, like all good cliches, it became one because it worked. So... Grab a book off your shelf, desk, etc. Any book will do. Don't spend any time at all choosing--the one closest to your fingers is the right one for this job. Now, close your eyes, open the book, and place your finger somewhere on the page. Open your eyes. What word are you pointing to? Unless it's an article or a preposition, that's your word. Don't look for a better one or you'll spend all night doing nothing else. Now take your word and run with it. Freewrite using that word as your starting point--feel free to ramble, get off topic, whatever. Just get writing.
trash to treasure, part deux
I'm sure you were sleepless with anticipation, right? So here's your other recycling option. Suppose you don't really have any old writing that you're willing to reimagine--maybe you're Stephen King, and everything you write is gold, for example. Well, here's recycling option two for you: 2. Instead of fearing hackneyed, overdone, and even TRITE, embrace it. Think of one of the MOST cliched plots there is--for instance, the Cinderella syndrome--and make it the basis of your piece. Your challenge is to take this oh-so familiar story and make it fresh with unexpected characters, inspiring setting and your unique twist on a well-loved tale. Have fun with it and remember--so little of writing is about plot. Take Sophocles and Shakespeare as your role models. It's not about WHAT happens, it's all in HOW it happens and WHO is involved.
trash to treasure, part one
Sometimes I sit down to write (okay, lots of times), and absolutely nothing seems interesting to me. My every idea feels hackneyed, overdone, or worst of all, TRITE (that most hideous of comments). What can you do when you want to write, REALLY want to write, but all you can see is blah, blah, blah in your head and on your page? Why not try a trick I like to call recycling? It can work a couple of different ways. 1. Take a piece of your writing that has never quite worked. You know, the poem that you could never finish, that short story with the not-quite ending? Now start by doing one thing differently. Maybe you'll decide to change the setting. Maybe the point of view switches from first to third person. Maybe your protagonist changes from a religious zealot to an ambitious drag queen. You decide. What have you got to lose? The piece wasn't working anyway, so here's your chance to have fun with it! Come back tomorrow for part two!
'tis the season
I love spring. I love suddenly being able to sit outside and listen to the birds, discovering that I have cute toes again, indulging in fruity, frozen drinks, and gazing into the green, green, green that is Georgia in the spring. Spring always brings me new energy, new inspiration, new ambitions, and a new longing to make the most of what I have been given. Do you feel the same? Is spring your siren, or is it another season that awakens you from your artistic slumber? Write a scene in which you or a character you've created reacts to a seasonal change. Let the season either mirror or completely contrast with the character's interior mood. Employ vivid description of seasonal detail, make full use of imagery, and allow your character's observation of the season to reveal his/her personality and dilemma.
only you
I am currently re-reading Ayn Rand's Anthem for the first time in twenty years. The book awakens a youthful yearning in me. It reminds me of how it felt to be young, and idealistic, and so sure that you knew so much more than the jaded adults around you. Not to say that I don't agree with its basic premise, that ego is the essence of intelligence, joy, invention, that we must acknowledge and celebrate our differences if we are to excel as a species and reach any form of happiness on earth. So let's take a page from Ayn Rand's school of thought today. What is it that makes you uniquely you and no one else? Do a freewrite of discovery as you celebrate your own unique and individual self.
burn, baby, burn
There's nothing like a really good putdown. Some comics have built entire careers around their ability to deliver the perfect insult. Let's face it, we all take a little bit of guilty delight in other's misfortune every once in a while. Yes, there's definitely an art to the perfect slight.
Two choices this time:
- When was the last time you got burned with a real zinger--you know, the sort of comment that really stings, maybe even embarrasses you in front of other people? If you could do it all over again, with the benefit of hindsight and time, what would you say and/or do differently in response?
OR
- What's the best insult you've ever heard? I'm not talking mean, I'm talking creative as well as scathing. Write it here and then try your own hand at doling out some real burns.
get good at being bad
Everybody procrastinates, right? (No, Traci, just you.) But if you find yourself constantly procrastinating when it comes to your writing, maybe you should listen to Joel Saltzman in If You Can Talk, You Can Write: "If you want to create massive writer's block, insist on being a perfectionist; if you want to snuff out the creative impulse, insist on being a perfectionist; if you want to torture yourself for the rest of your life for never being good enough, insist on being a perfectionist." Saltzman continues: "PERFECTIONISM LEADS TO PARALYSIS, WHICH LEADS TO PROCRASTINATION." Could this be you? Are you already revising your first sentence before you've completed your fourth one? Does your fear of never writing anything great keep you from writing anything at all? Today is the day to break the cycle. Your task? Write something bad. Really bad. Embarrassingly awful. And even as what you're writing becomes more and more horrid, you must not stop. Keep writing truly hideous prose or poetry for at least twenty minutes. I dare you.
public eye
I love to write in public places. One of my favorites is the coffeshops inside some of the larger bookstores these days. It's such a treat to enjoy my steaming cup of coffee, to eavesdrop on the conversations around me, and to quietly weave a few of those unsuspecting strangers into my writing world. This prompt comes courtesy of Beth Baruch Joselow's Writing Without the Muse. Go to a public place with your writer's notebook. Any place will do--the library, the airport, a restaurant. Observe the people around you and choose one person as the focus of your writing practice. Try to inconspicuously observe your subject for at least twenty minutes. Begin by noting physical details, but move onto speculation--what is this person's occupation? family situation? personality? pet peeves? quirks? After your twenty minutes of note-taking, write a detailed character sketch of the person you've observed.
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