Picture this

What do you notice first when you look at this photo? Setting? Character? Action?

Look at the image for a few minutes and let your mind wander. Then, look away and start writing whatever comes out on the page.

What grows from your first thought? A poem? A story? Did the result surprise you?

Exploring character through valued possessions

Photo by Timitrius

Imagine you have to pack up your home and can only take with you those things that fit in the trunk of your car.  Bringing family members along?  Then you have to share the trunk space with them.  What do you take?  What do you do with those things you leave behind?  Who decides?

For a while now I've been considering those questions, and I have about a year to come up with the answers.  The flowers transplanted from my grandparents' house, the china hutch Grandpa built, the desk I bought during grad school, shelves and shelves of books--those things simply won't fit.  The spices in the kitchen cupboard?  Those, I ought to bring.  Everything I have must prove its worth.  Necessity is winning out over sentiment.  And, I'm surprised.  I've always had trouble letting go of items to which memories are attached--even gifts I don't especially like, I cherish because I love the giver.

This has me thinking about the impact of objects in my fiction.  Most often my characters' prize possessions are valued, not for their usefulness, but for their emotional weight.  Nothing wrong with that.  But utilitarian objects--a hammer, for instance, or a bow--could be even more important to a character.

With that in mind, consider a character from your work and make a list of the five objects most important to him or her.  Now, delve into each object.  Describe it in depth.  How would the character describe it?  How would the character explain the object's worth?  Is there a story attached to the object?  Does it have a history?  Where and how is it kept and cared for?  What sort of condition is it in?  And so on.

At the exercise's end, you will likely have greater insight about the character.  You might also have some fresh ideas for the plot or even for an additional story.  Let me know how the exercise works out for you!

Found poetry

Play is an important part of creativity.  Play frees up the mind, leading to innovation and keeping state of mind from growing stale.  Word-play is a fun way to improve, or at least flex, your writing skills.

I've recently been playing with poetry--in particular, found poems.  Found poems are created by taking words or phrases from other sources (usually written, but things overheard can also be used) and recombining them as poems.  I came across the idea in Getting the Knack, 20 Poetry Writing Exercises.  It's the first exercise.  I have yet to try the remaining 19.  Cutting, re-arranging words, adding or changing punctuation are all allowed by the exercise, but you're not allowed to add your own words to the mix.

Most of what I come up with is utterly abysmal.  All of it makes me laugh.  Here's one I just wrote, pulling from Henry Taylor's autobiography, From Lead Mines to Gold Fields, Memories of An Incredibly Long Life.

GRASSHOPPERS FOR FOOD

Dig a hole

three feet deep

three, in diameter

All women 

and children

circle around the hole

wave willows,

advance slow.

Drive hoppers to the hole

Go to hole

with basket

of coarse grass, woven close

Fill basket

with hoppers

Boil water,

heating rocks

Pour over grasshoppers

Cook to taste.

Remove rocks

Dry hoppers

on grass mat

When dried,

pulverize.

Add water,

stir to mush

Eat as though most luscious food in the world

Photo by amphioxus

Give the exercise a try--come play with me, and share your creation in the comments.

An Exercise in Description

Photo by Jan Tik

Most everyone I know has spring fever, and I'm no exception.  The weather's finally beginning to warm up, spring flowers are blooming, and the trees have leafed out.  I suppose this image is a little out of season, but when I came across it, I was immediately drawn in.   More than visual, this photograph calls to all my senses.  I can feel the cold; hear the crunch of the frosted grass and the creak of the tree's tired limbs.  It's a frozen moment full of potential--the moment before something happens.  And, it's a great image for sharpening your descriptive skills.  

Take a long look at the photo, studying the details and using all your senses.  Linger awhile and then, without looking back and without stopping your pen, write at least a page.  Begin with description, but let your mind flow freely without pause.  You may find that you move from describing a setting to creating a scene.  If you'd like, post a comment and share your experience with the exercise. 

I'm off to head outside and warm up in the sunshine.

Found phrases as story starters

Stories surround us, but sometimes, drawn deep into our work, we lose touch with those lively inspirations.  The imagination needs fuel.  If you neglect filling it for too long, you'll wind up with the dreaded empty page glaring back at you.  Personal experience is an excellent catalyst for writing, but I often prefer to search for ideas outside myself.  One technique I've found useful is glancing through newspapers or online sources to find phrases that spark my curiosity and call to mind a character or setting.

I've pulled a few posts from craigslist as examples :

Regarding wolves:
My grandfather, a Native American from Browning, ranched in the area near there. He told me that the occasional cattle killed and eaten by wolves was an honor- a very small sacrifice for stealing the land from them. 

Woman's ruby ring:
Beautiful dark ruby ring surrounded by diamonds selling for half the value due to financial needs.

Sunbeam Faces:
Let Sunbeam Faces put a smile on your face - young and old alike. You can be made into a fairy princess, a puppy, a tiger or even a super-hero. 

Lost Shepherd Husky Mix Male:
Lost dog, about a year old, big and friendly! He is not fixed and has a tan mask. Our children miss him dearly. He goes by Ollie. Please help us find him; he looks like a wolf and is very healthy. He does not bite and has had his shots. Please do not mistake him for a wild animal and shoot him.  

Feeling inspired?  I sense stories waiting in each of these . . . And I'm thinking I might call Sunbeam Faces about being made into a super-hero.  It can't hurt, right?

A Winter Scene

Photo by ArtemFinland

Today's writing prompt:

 Stopping, Hank glanced up.  As white as the snow they were slogging through, the sky seemed apt to dump another eight inches on them.  Jerry trudged on, each step crushing the track they followed.

"People are people, you know," Hank shouted, and the wind whipped his voice back at him. 

 Take the scene from there, and feel free to share what you come up with in the comments section.  I'd really like to know what or whom they're tracking and why. 

Christmas is Coming

A dusting of snow on the lawn, short days, and bitter-cold air leave no doubt December's arrived,  but it's hard to believe Christmas is almost here.  Our neighborhood is looking barren this year, and I've done nothing to add any holiday glitz myself.  I haven't so much as hung a wreath on our door. 

Last year we were snowed in over Christmas, and the year before we were stuck at home while my husband recovered from knee surgery.  This year we'll actually get to visit family.  I wouldn't have said this when I was ten, but getting together with people you love is the best part of the holidays.  (A great-big meal of delicious food I didn't cook comes in a close second, though.)

My favorite tradition isn't specific to Christmas, but takes place every time my family gets together for a holiday meal.  Conversation always turns to reminiscence and soon my brother and sister have us all laughing about misadventures from our childhood.  The stories seldom change.  They've become oral tradition--legends my neice and nephew could recite if they wanted to.  The stories link us as a family and link our adult selves with the children we once were.  I listen and add little. The memories aren't mine, but ours, and each story truly belongs to its teller.  My own memories, I keep to myself.

Holidays and family gatherings are frequent fodder for cliched films and stories, but they can be a source of true inspiration.  Take a few minutes and list the first words that spring to mind when you think of Christmas.  Keep your hand moving and don't second guess yourself, this is an exercise in free association.  When you've reached the bottom of a page, go back and select ten words from your list as a jumping-off point for today's writing.

Using Tokens to Enhance Story and Character Development

Photo by Lichfield District Council

Tokens are objects with symbolic value that exceeds their obvious material qualities. Gifts and mementos, badges of authority, wedding rings, and even ticket stubs can be considered tokens.  Used wisely, the tokens your characters value can add depth to both character and plot while drawing the reader into your story.  Consider the following example from John Knowles' A Separate Peace:
   

We reminded them of what peace was like, of lives which were not bound up with destruction.

Phineas was the essence of this careless peace. Not that he was unconcerned about the war. After Mr. Purd'homme left he began to dress, that is he began reaching for whatever clothes were nearest, some of them mine. Then he stopped to consider, and went over to the dresser. Out of one of the drawers, he lifted a finely woven broadcloth shirt, carefully cut, and very pink.

"What's that thing?"

"This is a tablecloth," he said out of the side of his mouth.

"No, cut it out. What is it?"

"This," he then answered with some pride, "is going to be my emblem. Ma sent it up last week. Did you ever see stuff like this, and a color like this? It doesn't even button all the way down. You have to pull it over your head, like this."

"Over your head? Pink! It makes you look like a fairy!"

"Does it?" He used this preoccupied tone when he was thinking of something more interesting than what you had said. But his mind always recorded what was said and played it back to him when there was time, so as he was buttoning the high collar in front of the mirror he said mildly, "I wonder what would happen if I looked like a fairy to everyone."

"You're nuts."

"Well, in case suitors begin clamoring at the door, you can tell them I'm wearing this as an emblem." He turned around to let me admire it. "I was reading in the paper that we bombed Central Europe for the first time the other day." Only someone who knew Phineas as well a I did could realize that he was not changing the subject. I waited quietly for him to make whatever fantastic connection there might be between this and his shirt. "We haven't got a flag, we can't float Old Glory proudly out the window. So I'm going to wear this, as an emblem."

He did wear it. No one else in school could have done so without some risk of having it torn from his back. When the sternest of the Summer Sessions Masters, old Mr. Patch-Withers, came up to him after history class and asked about it, I watched his drawn but pink face become pinker with amusement as Finny politely explained the meaning of the shirt.

It was hypnotism. I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying your best friend a little.

The scene involving Phineas' pink shirt is entertaining and also demonstrates Phineas' carefree confidence, his natural charm, and the narrator Gene's envy and admiration of these characteristics.  The pink shirt represents what Phineas is and what Gene wishes he could be himself.  Later in the story, Gene dresses in Phineas' clothing, and the pink shirt again provides character insights and propels the plot:

But when I looked in the mirror it was no remote aristocrat I had become, no character out of daydreams.  I was Phineas, Phineas to the life.  I even had his humorous expression on my face, his sharp, optimistic awareness.  I had no idea why this gave me such intense relief, but it seemed, standing there in Finny's triumphant shirt, that I would never stumble through the confusions of my own character again.


I didn't go down to dinner.  The sense of transformation stayed with me throughout the evening, and even when I undressed and went to bed.  That night I slept easily, and it was only on waking up that this illusion was gone, and I was confronted with myself, and what I had done to Finny. 

As today's exercise, write a scene involving a token important to one of your characters.  Examine how the character uses the token, what value it holds for him/her, and what it communicates to other characters.  Does the token add something to the plot as well as developing the character? 

Evening in Sorrento

Today's writing prompt is solely visual--a photo my husband snapped one night in Sorrento.  Hanging out in busy places or viewing photos like this, I often wonder about the lives and thoughts of the people I see.  Sometimes as an exercise, I'll choose one person and build a story for him/her.  To me this photo is full of stories waiting to be told. 

A Matter of Taste

I'm hungry, and I'm craving chocolate.  Before I can eat the chocolate, I have to finish posting this blog.  (There's a story arc for you.) 

Since I'm pre-occupied with visions of peanut clusters, today's writing exercise focuses on the sense of taste.  Consider how wine connoisseurs draw from multiple senses when describing a glass of wine.  Take a look at this example from Benito's Wine Reviews: "While still a bit young, this has an initial aroma of boysenberry jam. There's a touch of toast there as well, but once the wine breathes and softens, you get elements of green pepper, earth, and it becomes light and mellow."  Notice how the description moves from specific flavors "boysenberry jam" "toast" to physical or even emotional qualities.  The wine breathes; it softens.  It's mellow.

For today's exercise use taste as a gateway into sensual description.  Sample an unfamiliar food (or truly savor an everyday one) and write a description of the taste beginning with the literal details and progressing toward fantasy.  Build a scene around your experience of the flavor.

. . . And now I want wine with my chocolate.

Photo by beatbull

Drawing from Simplicity

For today's writing prompt I've provided a couple simple but ambiguous images.  Use them to practice describing a setting in detail.  Or, you might imagine stories that would take place in these settings and the characters to inhabit them.  Jot a few lines evoking the mood or spirit of the image.  Beyond what you see, what do you sense?   

Another Point of View

Photo by Maschinenraum

Last week I had a breakthrough on my rough draft, and I'm fighting the urge to let the blog slide while I work on my fiction.  After a couple of months of limping along, the words are finally flying.  Where did this momentum come from?  I abandoned my main character (the first person narrator) and wrote a few scenes from other characters' points of view. 

Writing in the first person point of view, I sometimes get bogged down by my narrator's limited perception.  Stepping outside the character to see the motives and actions of those around him often helps me discover how scenes will play out or see new ways for the plot to unfold.

For this week's writing exercise take a scene you've been struggling with or a draft you've abandoned and change the point of view from which it's written.  If you've been writing in third person, pick a character you haven't focused on and filter the scene through his or her eyes.  If you've been writing in first person, pick a different character or step back and take a omniscient point of view. 

How does the scene change?   Do new details emerge?  Do you discover a twist you hadn't envisioned?

If you find the exercise helpful, I'd love to hear your results!

Home

I spent the past weekend back home visiting my mom.  The town's changed plenty in the years since I left.  Familiar houses and buildings have been replaced with vacant lots, new duplexes, and factory-built homes that lack the individuality and history of their two-story predecessors.  Vinyl siding and false-brick facades stare out at streets where big porches with gingerbread trim used to yawn at me.  I suppose it's progress.  After all, my hometown is a living community not a museum of decades past.

Sunday morning I took a long walk past the tennis court to the south end of town and circling back to north edge by the house where I grew up.  The town that confined me as a child seems so expansive now; its broad empty streets, relaxing rather than restricting.  Maybe the quiet refreshes me because I know I'll be leaving soon.  Despite its changes and my own, it's still home to me.  No other place holds me as it does.

Today write about home.  What is your concept of home?  Is home the house in which you live or a wider community?  Is a house a home, or is there a distinction?  You might describe a character's house room by room or concentrate on the details of a single room especially important to your character.  What is the home's mood?  Are there parts of the home your character avoids, and if so why?  How does your character feel about his/her home?   

I Don't Remember

Photo by majorbrighton

Today's writing exercise is one of my favorites from Bonni Goldberg's Room to Write. More than once it's helped me break through writer's block.

Begin with the phrase "I don't remember" and don't stop writing until you've filled two pages. Whenever you feel your momentum lagging, repeat "I don't remember" and take off again. Don't direct your writing, but simply see what emerges. You may focus on a single topic or several.  Don't worry about punctuation or the quality of the writing. This is just mining work.  Whatever looks interesting can be refined later.

Here's an example:

I don't remember the hog barn. I remember the horse sales, the dust and corrals filled with possibilities that wouldn't be mine. Most of them skinny. Young and unbroke or old and used up. Not a good horse for a girl who doesn't know how to ride. I only sat in the sale once. The room was smaller than I expected. I remember it like a den. Dim-lit. A small dusty pen surrounded by board benches on a floor that rose in regular steps like theater in the round. Of course, I didn't know what theater in the round was back then. It was only like an enclosed grandstand, a circular one, scrunched small. Dirtiness. Flies and the scent of too many bodies in a small, shut-in space during heavy August heat. I remember a bony man, old and dressed in a gray button-down shirt with a pocket hanging, torn, and stains smeared down its front. He'd open a gate, and horses would enter through a loading chute from the pens out behind. Some would rush in, scared, and circle the pen, looking for escape. Ponies and mules. Nags and foals. I loved the smell of them. That horsey scent that isn't leather or manure or saddle-soap or straw. I don't remember one horse in particular. I remember grays and blacks. It seems there was one, a flea-bitten gray or a roan. One horse I really wanted, and when it entered the pen, my heart beat faster, waiting, hoping. My father's bid card didn't budge.

When you examine what you've written, you may find a topic you'd like to write about or an experience for one of your characters.  Does the writing reflect a theme you frequently write about or one you'd like to explore?

Usually I do this exercise from a main character's point of view, and in the process gain insight about the character's background and motivations.  Even when the exercise doesn't relate directly to the scene I'm working on, it often helps me understand where the action will go.

Pack Your Bags

This fall Jim and I are taking trip to Italy to celebrate our tenth anniversary. For months I've been daydreaming about seaside villages and time-worn cities, art I've only seen in textbooks, and foods I've never tasted. When I go to the gym, I crank the treadmill to the steepest incline so this flatlander can conquer the hilltowns. I've broken in my walking sandals. I've made sure my passport's up-to-date. There's little left to do but pack.

Packing. There's the challenge. Three weeks of essentials and clothing in one impossibly small carry-on bag.  I've been checking out packing tips, and despite finding good advice, I'm still a little daunted about choosing the right things from my quirky, discount store wardrobe to wear in fashionable Italy.  If only I could bring an empty bag and fill it while I'm there!

For today's writing exercise, imagine you've accidently taken your character's luggage.  Open it up and take a look inside.  What did he/she pack?  Is the packing orderly or a mess?  Is there something in the luggage you didn't expect to find?  Is there something the character didn't pack but should have?  Describe the luggage itself.  One piece of baggage or a cartful?  Worn or new?  And, finally, after you've snooped through it, return the luggage to your character.  How does he/she react to the mix-up?

If you come up with something you'd like to share, feel free to post it in the comments.

Photo by Italy Travel Experience
  

Ah, Sleep

For the past few nights I've had a terrible time sleeping, and let me tell you, when I'm groggy, I'm not at my best.  This morning Sadie begged multiple Scooby Snacks by standing in her usual spot and staring at her treat box while I made my coffee.  She always gets one while the water boils.  In a fog, I gave her three before I realized she'd had more than her allotment.  I told her the con game was up, and she lay down to sleep.  Lucky her!

Sleep in general might be a snooze to read about, but to me anything in general becomes dull.  Specifics bring depth and uniqueness to whatever you're writing, and even a topic as tiresome as sleep can be revived by details.

Today, I challenge you to make sleep interesting.  Write a scene in which your character is sleeping (or staying awake) and include all the details that make the act unique to your character.  Is the character alone?  What is he/she feeling or thinking?  Sound sleeper or insomniac?  Is something keeping the character up (worries, work, noise, celebrating)?  Is it day or night?  Are there any bedtime rituals the character follows?  Clothing?  Setting?

If you come up with something you'd like to share, go ahead and post it in the comments.  I'd love to read it.

Photo by Benderish