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!

posted by lit lover at 6:13 PM