Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Chapter Four – Getting Ready to Write
Before we exercise we stretch and do warm ups. How do we warm up before writing? Our imaginations need to be as limber as our bodies. If not, we can suffer the creative equivalent of muscle cramps (e.g. writer’s block).
Writing Warm-ups:
-Try a writing prompt
-Write a page in your journal
-Read a few pages from your favorite author
Set a time limit on your warm-up, then get to your main writing, such as the novel you want to publish.
For me, right now, The Writer’s Idea Book is a great warm-up. And writing this blog is another warm-up. It gets me in the right mood. It starts my brain in creative mode. I begin getting ideas. Occasionally I will try a prompt. I like to look up “writing prompts” on Pinterest, or even go to a word generator website. It will give me ten words, and I have to write a short story that includes all those words. It’s a fun exercise that gets my brain flowing.
Here’s a word generator website that I like: Random Word Generator
Chapter three in the Writer’s Idea Book talks about different Creative Techniques which I have listed here:
Freewriting – write everything you can think of on a specific topic, don’t stop your pen (or curser) from moving, sometimes used with a time limit
Brainstorming – similar to freewriting, but less structured, veering off topic is fine, just write everything that comes to your mind
Automatic Writing – similar to freewriting but uses all grammar and punctuation rules, popularized by Beat writers in the 50s
Listing – obviously… making lists
Clustering – also called web writing, circle your main topic in the center then make a web of ideas that sprout from that main topic
Cave Writing – word and pictures, anywhere on the page
Cut and Paste – literally cut your story into pieces and rearrange the sentences, or even throw them onto the floor and have them rearrange themselves (the idea is to get a different perspective, see how different things might work together in new ways)
Mix and Match – columns of sentences or categories, take one from column 1, one from column
Any of these techniques can be used to warm up your mind. Get the creative juices flowing. And they are meant to be fun. Find what works for you and write!
A good list of writing prompts: 50 Creative Writing Prompts For Adults | Filling the Jars
another good list of writing prompts: What to Write About When You Have Nothing to Write About | Nathaniel Tower
Writing Prompt:
Warm up by writing at least three paragraphs in your journal. Write about the day’s events or plans, ideas you’ve been thinking about, whatever. This will help you limber up without the pressure of writing well. It will also put you in touch with your natural writing voice. Sometimes we get mired in our “literary” voices, which prevents us from writing. In the journal you can get your pen moving, then segue to the piece. If you find this approach leads to long journal entries but no words on the piece of the day, set a limit; “I’ll write one page in the journal, then move to the novel.”
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Ruthie had a bad headache today. It made our lessons difficult as I didn’t want to make her do anything too grueling, but we got through Storytime and a bit of History. She couldn’t even watch our History video because it hurt her eyes to look at the TV. You know she’s not feeling well if she won’t watch TV. It’s 3:00 and she’s playing with her little sister now, so I’d say her headache is gone. And a few minutes ago she said, “Maybe we can watch the video again, since I wasn’t able to see a lot of it.”
I participated in the first ever NYC Midnight Rhyming Story Challenge last week. It ended up being a busy week, and my in-laws were in town last weekend, so I didn’t have much time to write, but I did get something down on paper. It’s not my best work, but it rhymes and it’s in the genre they asked for and it contains the theme and mood they asked for, so I count it as an accomplishment.
Busy days, unexpected illnesses, husband working late, kids not cooperating, all of these make it difficult to find time to write. Not to mention plain old, unmotivated. I got that way last night. I had plans to write when the kids went to bed, but as I was folding laundry, I turned on the TV to watch the final episode of a Discovery of Witches season 2, and once that was over, I didn’t want to write. It was almost 10:00, and though I wasn’t tired, I just didn’t feel like writing. It’s hard enough to free my schedule, and it’s even harder to write when I just don’t feel like it. If I had just forced myself to get started, do a warm-up, I probably would’ve continued to the piece I’ve been working on. But, today is a new day, and here I am writing.
I want to share the Rhyming Story I wrote last week. The genre I was given was a Ghost Story. My theme had to be Safekeeping, and the mood I had to use at least once was Bitter. The only other rule was to keep it under 600 words, but that posed no problem as I was too busy to write a ton. Feel free to comment what you think, but show me some grace, it was a rough week.
If you liked the rhyming, maybe check out two of my children’s books. I wrote these for each of my sons and they Rhyme! And nobody dies in either of them, unlike the story above.