Quick exercise for the day: Random word jumpstart

Often the challenge in getting your draft written is just getting yourself to write . . . the next . . . sentence. And then the next.

Here's a quick jumpstart for when you're feeling stuck.

Random Word Jumpstart

Open your document to the next scene you have to write. Go to this random word generator. Take the five words it suggests. The next sentence you write has to contain the first one. The second sentence, the second one. Until you get to five. (Set a timer for ten minutes and do this fast.) Yes, all of this has to happen within the context of writing your next scene.

Exercise for the day: Draw your story

Sometimes when I start new classes, as I did last week at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, I talk myself through my nervousness by thinking of my job not as teaching, but as listening.

I think about ways I can listen to writers: to their work, their feelings about their work, their questions about it. How can I ask new questions and see things from different angles?

Here's something I tried last week that gave me(and the writers. an interesting visual snapshot of where they are with their work now, at the beginning of the fall session.

I put my kids' magic markers in a bag, brought them to class, and dumped them out in the middle of our big table. I gave everyone 11  x 17 paper and asked them to turn it to landscape orientation. 

Turning paper sideways (an idea often used with mind mapping), and using different colors and sizes of markers are all ways to pop yourself out of the linear, purely verbal, black-and-white thinking you most often use when you're writing, editing, and revising. 

I set the timer for seven minutes and asked everyone to make a visual representation of their plot-- in ANY way they wanted. Using shapes, figures, squiggles, words, colors. I emphasized there was no pressure to be artistic or clever; that if your best visualization is nothing but a straight red line, or a frowny face with a tear coming out of its eye, that's valid. Everything is valid, as long as it's honest. 

Then we went around the table and had each person explain how they're seeing their book right now, using what they'd drawn. After each person spoke we responded with our impressions.

Try it! 

Draw your story

Get a piece of paper (11 x 17, regular printer paper, whatever) and some colors (markers, pens, pencils). Turn the paper sideways. Set the timer for seven minutes. Set down any kind of visual representation of your plot, moving from one end of the paper to the other. 

This is a way of listening to yourself, and seeing your story from a new angle. What do you learn about your story from doing this? What's strong in it? What's missing? 

Exercise of the Day 9/15: Evil twin

My fall classes have started so I'm going back to posting more exercises of the day. I started this as a way to record exercises I often use.

This week in one of my HVWC classes we talked about how easy it is to get in a rut with your main character. We often give our protagonists so much baggage: we want them to represent us, or to read as a good/moral/smart person. Minor characters can do fun and unexpected things while our heroes get sort of stiff and stuck. For this I like to suggest an exercise called "Evil Twin."

Evil Twin

Think of the next scene you need to write or revise. Set the timer for fifteen minutes. Instead of writing what your main character would do in this situation, write what their evil twin would do.

--

People often find they want to actually use this scene when it's done.

The secret is that your character's evil twin is actually your character. Just the part of themselves that they try to keep hidden.

Try it!


Note: My use of the singular "they" is intentional. Let's all start using it!