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Posts from the ‘Writing Exercises’ Category

Aug 24

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Newspaper+marker=poetry: Poet or not, try this

I’m addicted to making and reading newspaper blackout poems. I learned about them when I stumbled across the book Newspaper Blackoutby Austin Kleon.

Kleon discovered newspaper blackout when he was stuck on his writing. He picked up some newspapers lying beside his desk and started marking out words. In his book, Kleon shows examples of newspaper blackout poetry and explains the “20-year history of folks finding poetry in the newspaper,” then goes on to explain how to do it yourself.

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Aug 23

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Three ways to feed your muse: hunting down inspiration, Part 2

You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.  Jack London

Inspiration comes from many places. Sometimes, it’s a visual image—fog settling over the bay, a blue jay teetering on a phone wire, a dead leaf swirling on the wind. Sometimes, inspiration comes in the form of sound—a phrase overheard, the sound of water rushing over rocks, silence when the power goes out.  But too often, inspiration doesn’t just come out of the blue—I have to go hunting for it.

One of my favorite ways to find inspiration is to read the work of others—poetry, fiction, nonfiction. As a writer, we train ourselves while reading to have different levels of awareness running at the same time. Kind of like having multiple computer programs running at once.

On one level, we’re fully immersed in the story or poem, but on another level we’re noticing language, syntax, the arrangement of words, metaphors, rhythm. We notice how the author or poet uses concretes and abstractions, how she presents her characters or builds suspense.

As you read, notice if the piece grabs you. And, if it does, where does that happen? Be on the lookout for what inspires your muse.

Sometimes, an idea or inspiration will come in the form of one word. One wild word that sparks your muse into action. Read more

Aug 15

Buck, the movie: how your characters reflect you

Last night I saw the documentary Buck about horse whisperer Buck Brannaman. This movie is not just for horse lovers. It’s a touching story of hope and humanity—how one man overcame the pain and horrors of his early childhood and turned that experience, with the help of loving foster parents, into helping horses and their owners. Instead of repeating the cycle of abuse his father perpetrated on him, Buck found a way to transmute that pain into love, understanding, patience, and compassion.

Buck is a modern-day cowboy version of Gandhi.

The film shows Buck at work—his 40 weeks on the road each year traveling from town to town putting on horse clinics for the locals, showing them how to communicate with and handle their horses. The film shows us where Buck comes from—his harsh early years where he developed the survival skills and insights that eventually set his personal philosophy. We also get to see him working on the set of the movie the Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford.

What does this story have to do with writing? As writers, we’re constantly on the lookout for good characterization, setting, dialogue, etc. This movie has it all—but there was something else I learned about being a writer. Read more

Aug 10

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Create memorable characters instead of cardboard cutouts

As writers, we don’t want characters who are empty shells, cardboard cutouts. As young adult author Libba Bray says, “You don’t want characters to be blank slates filled in by the reader.”

Author of Beauty Queensand Going Bovine to name a few, Bray spoke at the 40th annual Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Aug. 5-8.

It’s hard to create a plot with interesting twists if your characters are boring and don’t react in interesting ways, she said. So how do you create compelling characters? Try these techniques: Read more

Aug 9

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Naming your fear is the first step to conquering it

Different cultures throughout time have taught us that naming things gives us power over them.  At the recent Pacific Northwest Writer’s Conference, New York Times best-selling author, Bob Mayer, spoke on the last day about fear. He started his talk with a quote from Stephen King:

“I’m convinced fear is at the root of most bad writing.”

I’ve taken Mayer’s Write It Forward online class and the first thing he does is have us name our fear. I couldn’t do it. For years, I’ve worked hard on conquering my fears and felt as if I’d pretty much conquered them all (even my extreme fear of snakes). I know all about the concept of “going fearward” and often recommend it to my clients. So when Mayer suggested I probably hadn’t been faced with my current fear yet, I thought, “Uh, huh. Right.”

But there was something wrong in my writing life. I’d been working on my next book and procrastinating terribly but not understanding why. I thought maybe my subconscious was trying to work something out with the plot. But that wasn’t it. Read more

Aug 5

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Use word-gathering to become a better writer

Writing a poem or a paragraph is like solving a puzzle. I seek the perfect word not just for its meaning but also for sound and rhythm. In the process, I stumble upon other words that draw my attention and, before I know it, I’m off on an adventure. Words are like gems, sparkly and seductive in their power.

Priscilla Long, in her book, The Writer’s Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life, says she knows writers who have worked hard for years that do “pretty good work” but have never made the transition to great writing. The reason? Often, these writers—though hard workers—approach language passively. They only use words they grew up with or use in everyday language. Long doesn’t mean that we should suddenly spout elongated Latinate words but that we should become word gatherers, seeking out words that call to us with their sound, texture, rhythm, or meaning. Read more

Aug 4

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Live in the moment so you can write in the moment

Children show me how to live in the moment. I’m teaching a creative writing class for kids this summer, and I’m inspired by how they experience life.

One of their assignments was to be detectives. “Observe what is going on around you and write it down in your notebook.”

As if I needed to tell them to be observant.

Adults often talk about stuff and think the kids are just off to the side coloring or playing with a doll or a truck. Think again. Children are sponges and soak up everything you say.

And kids immerse themselves in experiences.

In the last class, I brought out a tin of mints. The children came alive. This was their reaction: Read more

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