Jump Write In

Going to the fair was always an exciting time for me when I was a child. I was fascinated with the glitter of the lights and the barkers calling out to the passing crowds.  I always avoided the rides where the excited screams and yells of the passengers warned me that it was not a ride for the faint-hearted.  For your writing warm up today, imagine an exciting amusement park for writers only.  Describe the rides that would make a person scream with delight and fear at the same time. Perhaps the buckets in the Ferris wheel are shaped like inkwells, and instead of an octopus ride there is a ride that takes you through a maze of  paperwork,  and the house of horrors is full of agents saying, “Needs more work. ” What type of games would one find along the midway? What are the barkers calling out to the crowds of writers as they pass along the way.  Create a character to attend the fair. What is his or her name and which rides would he or she be attracted to? Who would he or she meet along the way?

Use creative license and most of all HAVE FUN!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Are you horrified at the thought of eaves-droppingon someone? It might help to know that practically everyone does it, though usually not intentionally. How many times have you been in line at the grocery store or sitting in a coffee shop, or waiting for a haircut, and accidentally overheard a sentence or two of someones conversation?  I love to sit in a coffee shop and write in my journal, and one time I wrote down the little bits of conversations I overheard around me and made a poem out of them.  Now, please don’t get me wrong.  I don’t purposely eavesdrop on other people, but when you are writing, and pause to think, and are in the close quarters of a small shop and the acoustics permit, the volume carries. Then there are the people who talk louder to out-do the volume of the background music playing.  I consider conversations that happen to float my way on the waves of sound as public domain and excellent fodder for poems, short stories, or character development.

For those of you brave enough to try, here is your writing warm-up for this week: go to a coffee shop and write down the tidbits you hear from accidental eavesdropping and then include them in a story.  Or pick one and write a back-story leading up to the tidbits you over-heard.  For those of you who may feel a little guilty about recording what you accidentally overhear, I have provided some below for you to use. (By the way, these are the real tidbits I used as material for a poem.)

1. “I have an appointment to get the valves adjusted…”

2.” okay three minutes…”

3. “Monica how are you….”

4. “I had to go the speed limit…”

5. “Did everyone leave early…”

6. “I’m not looking forward to my classes today…”

7. “hi…”

8. “my mom was in the middle of paining my room…”

9. “I got to sleep on the couch anyway…”

10. “yes two green ones…”

It just goes to show, you never know who may be listening. Have fun!

Until Next Time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion! (and enjoy your next cup of coffee)

I’d like to know: What’s the strangest tidbit of conversation you have overheard?

Make a list. Everyone makes lists at one time or another: grocery lists, to-do lists, address lists, donor lists, goal lists and on and on it goes.  I was sitting at my computer the other day, trying to think of new things to write about writing (which can be more of a challenge than you think).  I suddenly remembered a few years ago, as I sat in my master’s program advisor’s office, lamenting my lack of ideas for a thesis topic. He said to me, “Write what you know.” So I sat down, made a list of my passions, my life experiences and various other personal thoughts. It was from that list I came up with my thesis idea and the rest is history.

Making lists has saved my bacon on many occasions and it is a journal writing technique from which other writing sessions can be generated. Making lists can be enlightening, helpful in organizing your thoughts, and therapeutic. I know one woman who made a list of reasons why she couldn’t sleep and discovered that, after “fear of fire” showed up several times on the list, she realized that she was living in an upstairs apartment for the first time and didn’t have an escape plan in case there was a fire.  She bought a drop-down ladder, drew herself a map of the apartment with all the possible escape routes, and bought a fire extinguisher. She said she slept like a baby after that.

In her book, Journal To The Self, author Kathleen Adams suggests making your list long; one hundred is a good round number.  By making a list this long, you can get past the immediate things on your mind and begin to tap into the subconscious, as was the case with the friend I mentioned above.  Making a list can also help generate more ideas when you feel a writer’s block coming on and it can help you organize your story plot or develop a character. The trick with writing a list a hundred items long is to write it in one sitting. Starting it and coming back to add more defeats the purpose of spontaneity and reaching the subconscious.

So here is your challenge for this morning: Number from one to a hundred down the side of a page and then write a list of one hundred things you can make a list of hundred about.

Here are a few to get you started:

1. reasons why I need a vacation

2. things I love to eat

3.  places I would like to visit

4. things that get me riled up

5. reasons I like being single/married

6. ways that I would spend a million dollars

7. topics to write about

8. things my main character is afraid of

9. things my main character wants to do before my story ends

10. unusual names I’ve heard

With this as a starter, you only have 90 more things to put on your list of 100. When you are finished with this list, take one of the topics each day and make your list of 100 about that topic, then choose one item off of that list and write for five or ten minutes on that one thing.  For example, tomorrow you can write your list of 100 reasons why I need a vacation, then choose an item off that list and write about it.

Have fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Have you ever played a game of Scrabble and ended up laughing at the silly words created by your tiles as you are trying to figure out your next move?  There is a writing technique I call “Scrabble scramble” which can be used to give your imagination a nudge when you are writing a sci-fi or fantasy story and trying to invent a language or words for your other-world character.  There are a couple of ways to do it. One is to get together with a couple of friends and play Scrabble, making notes on the letters you draw and the different ways they come together on your Scrabble “pew”.  Having friends involved in the process is a bonus and can be lots of fun when you practice the words together and come up with definitions.

Another take on this is to buy two or three scrabble games at the thrift store, put all the tiles in a bowl or hat and take a handful out at one time. Put the letters together into different combinations, or just turn them over and see what letters happen to come up. Either way,  be prepared for a good laugh as you try pronouncing the words of your new language.  Make a dictionary of your new language with the English translation, then add it at the end of your story.

Have lots of fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Have you ever seen a movie and wished you could change something about it, or watched a television show with a surprise twist that you didn’t get? How about a book with an interesting plot but not enough substance to keep it going? Choose a movie or television show you have recently viewed, or a book you have just finished reading, and write either an alternate ending or a what-happened-next chapter or scene.

Another take on this is to rewrite and modernize a  popular fairy tale. Disney studios is making millions off of doing this sort of thing.  I’ve always been curious to know what happened to Hansel and Gretel after they grew up.

Have fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Here is an exercise to stretch your writing muscles and imagination.  You are from the planet (make up a name) looking through a high powered telescope at Earth.  It allows you to see down to the smallest details, and through buildings.  Nothing can be hidden from your sight as you gaze down on this new civilization you have discovered. You have never seen humans before and you have to write a report on the life of  an earthling you have chosen to study. You boss wants the report as detailed as possible.

Here is another one for you:

Sally and Sam like to go to the gym for a good one-hour workout four days a week.  One day the treadmill suddenly stops.  Alone in the gym, Sally and Hank begin to play with the controls,trying to get it moving again. Sam does what most people would do with a stubborn machine and begins talking to hoping to coax it into working again.  Suddenly  the treadmill inclines to full capacity and a face shows up on the stats panel.  You are the treadmill. Write a conversation with Sally and Hank, telling them how it really feels to be a treadmill. What words of wisdom can you pass on to them? What do you really want people to know about the life of  a treadmill?If there is another piece of gym equipment your prefer, us it instead.

Have fun and let your imagination go wild.

Until Next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

The sestina is a form of poetry believed to have been used as early as the twelfth century when troubadours used it to delight and entertain the populace.  If you read my blog on writing the pantoum (see August 16th posting), you will remember that the pantoum had lines that repeated in subsequent stanzas. In the sestina it is words that are repetetive from one stanza to another. Creating a sestina is a wonderful challenge for the poet who needs a break from routine writing.  It requires thoughtful attention to detail in the writng.  Here are the guidelines for constructing a sestina: (I have added a slight variation the end of the list)

1. There are six stanzas of six lines each.

2. After the sixth stanza, there are three more lines which completes the total of thirty nine lines to the poem.

3. The end-word of each line occurs in all of the stanzas but in a different order:

a. Writing a sestina may seem confusing at first

b. But it turns out to be easy

c. Because the end words are all the same

d. just in different order

e. so if you’re a brave poet and want to try

f. just follow this example

4. For the second stanza, you will use the same end-words but in a different order. Move the last line end-word up to end the first line, then keep the others the same. So your end words will be: example, first, easy, same, order, and, try.

f. The order is an easy example

a. it’s a matter of deciding what comes first

b.  the rest of writing is easy

c. your words in the lines don’t have to be the same

d. pay attention to the order

e. it’s not hard to give it a try

5. Let’s do one more practice stanza. This time “try” will be the end-word for the first line.

e. When you write a sestina you must try,

f. to read and follow an example,

a.  which can be very helpful at  first,

b. and make your writing life easy,

c. to write another one the same,

d. when you understand the order.

6. This  pattern repeats for all six stanzas.

7. Now that you’re totally confused, here is the clincher: the three lines following the sixth stanza must employ all six end-words.

A slight variation is to write a list of words and cut them up into individual strips of paper.  Put them in a box or basket and pull six of them out. Use those six as your end-words. Have Fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

When you are feeling at an impasse with your imagination, doodling or other forms of drawing can help get things flowing again and you don’t have to be an artist to do it.  All you need is a large pad of newsprint and some colored felt pens, pencils or other drawing utensils.  Make large circles on the paper, using your entire arm, drawing them first with your dominant hand. After a few minutes switch to your non-dominant hand, changing the color of your pen and moving your arm in the opposite direction.  Whenever a word comes to your mind, write it somewhere on the page, making sure to write at an angle, up and down, or backward, but never left to right. Don’t worry about whether the words have any kind of association with each other, just write them. Stand back and look at the circles you’ve made.  Do you see anything within your scribbles that look like something else? Use the circles as a topic and write a short story or poem.  Attempt to incorporate as many of the words written in your circles as possible.

Another method to stimulate the imaginative side of your brain is to make what I call ” A Cloud Picture Mandala.”  For this method, take a large piece of paper and draw a large circle. A pie tin, dinner plate or Frisbee makes a wonderful guide for tracing a circle. Once you have finished with this take a pen or marker and make random dots, lots of them, all over the inside of the circle.  Now connect the dots, without picking up your pen, until each one is connected to another one.  Look at the patterns you’ve created and start making pictures out of them and coloring them in. You can add more lines as needed to complete a picture but try to add as little as possible.  You can have several pictures contained within the same circle. Once finished, give it a title and write a poem or story using one or two of the images you’ve created within the circle.  Have Fun!

Until Next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

A few years ago, while attending a five-day memoir writing retreat, I entered into a discussion with another attendee about writing and spirituality.  This conversation inspired me to think quite a bit about writing one’s spiritual memoirs.  I encourage you to include writing your spiritual and religious experiences in your personal stories. Writing spiritual memoirs can provide greater insights into your life, not only for yourself but for your readers as well.  Here are some suggestions to help you get started with writing your spiritual memoirs.

1. Make a spiritual timeline. Begin by making a list or drawing a timeline of your earliest memories of  spiritual awareness. When did you start wondering if something was “out there”?  Perhaps it was when you learned a church song or heard a conversation between your parents.  In making your list write the age you were and only a word or two to help you remember why that time in your life was significant.  Make sure your list covers your life up to the present day.

2. Write about the earliest childhood experience from your list.  Imagine yourself back in the situation or memory you are writing about. Who were you with? What did you hear? Where were you at the time?  What significance did this time period have in your formulation or impressions of spiritual beliefs?

3. Write about a transition you have experienced in your spirituality. How old were you when it happened? Did your beliefs shift or change at all? If so, how?  If you haven’t had any spiritual beliefs or transitions, you can write about a discussion you’ve had with someone who had opposite views to yours. Write as much detail as you can.

4. Continue on to the next time period on your list and simply repeat the above process until you catch up to your present day on your list.

Writing spiritual memoirs provides a rich and insightful look into your life, adding a new dimension to your memoir and a legacy for future generations.

Have fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

People who read mysteries are the kind who love the intellectual challenge of solving puzzles.  The elements of  a good mystery, when cleverly applied and presented well, will keep the reader hooked to the very end.  Mystery lovers like the challenge of trying to solve the crime before the protagonist.  Following is a list of key elements to consider when writing your mystery story:

1. Think up a crime.  If this is your first attempt at writing a mystery you can start with a valuable object stolen from a museum or library or a strange noise from a cave in the side of a mountain. For the more experienced writer, you might want to start your story with a murder or other big crime.  Whatever you choose it must be realistic in nature.

2. The second key element to your story is the protagonist aka, a sleuth. This character is the chief investigator who will bring the crime to some kind of resolution by the end of your story. For ideas on how to develop characters please see my blog “What A Character” written June 26th, 2009.

3. The third must-have, to be included in your mystery, is a villain to commit the crime.

4. It’s a good idea to introduce the first two elements above early on in your plot.

5. Timing is everything with a mystery.  Don’t wait too long to let your reader get a peek at the villain but be crafty and careful enough in your writing so as not to tip your readers off too soon or you’ll lose them.  Keep ‘em guessing is the best advice for anyone attempting to write a mystery.

6. Pay attention to details without digressing too much. Make sure your vocabulary is correct. You may have to go to the library to look up crime lab equipment dictionaries in order to validate your scenes in the crime lab.  You don’t want to say something like “he threw the blood into a test tube and put it in the thing that separates it. You would want to write, “He placed a few drops of blood in the test tube, gently put it in the centrifuge, turned it on, and waited.”

With these suggestions in mind, here are a couple of scenarios to get you started:

As your protagonist steps into the stable, he or she takes a big whiff of the smells he or she loves so much; the oats and fresh alfalfa hay, the smell of horse dung, and sweaty horse blankets.   As he or she walks further in, he or she is acutely aware of an unidentifiable new odor and …… (finish the story).

Here is another one for you:  She glanced across the room first, making sure no one was looking then reached into her pocket, pulled out the note and read it one more time.  With a big sigh, and trembling hands she…(finish the story)

Have a great weekend and happy sleuthing,

Until Next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion