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Posts from the ‘Writing Life’ Category

Jan 13

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Three ways to unleash your inner journaler

Just the thought of starting a journal freezes some writers in their tracks. Maybe you’ve been there. You open the cover of your fancy journal and stop. You don’t want to write about what you ate for breakfast. You blank out on the blank page.

But journaling can reveal writing gems that lead to new stories, character ideas, or valuable insights. Journals can be a legacy for family. A bit of history.

Sometimes focus is the answer to thawing your writing muscles. These prompts or topics might be the answer to shape your journaling practice:

Write 100 words. Decide to write 100 words (or 125 or whatever word count you choose). Write like a madman or madwoman. Write with no regard to meaning, sounds, spelling, or common sense. Fling the words onto the page. Do it as a free write, timed write, or just write.

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Jan 11

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Record significant daily events in the 5-Minute Journal

Every year, I aim to write at least a little something in a journal about the happenings of each day. I like the idea of looking back in time to see what I made of my life. What were the high points and even the low points? What did I learn from what went well and not so well? And what did I accomplish?

Looking back can help you see if you’re living the life you hoped for. And it gives clues to what you value.

But the days can get away from me, and I look back and realize my practice of noting a daily happening didn’t occur as often as I’d hoped. Until now.

Last month, I ran across the 5-Minute Journal app created by John Caddell.

In an e-mail Caddell sent after I signed up for his journal app, he wrote, “If you make a commitment to write down something about the day, every day (or every working day), you’ll find that you are capturing all sorts of information about what you do, what makes you happy, or annoyed, or increases your energy. You can find patterns in the mistakes you make, and the kind of work you find fulfilling. Seeing these allows you to do something about them.” Read more

Jan 9

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5.75 questions to ask your characters (and yourself)

Are your characters living bold, brave lives?

The answer to that question and the 5.75 questions in this video may inspire your characters (and you) as they live their boldest life on the page.

Box of Crayons, an innovation agency, offers this video and others about living an authentic, creative life while doing great work.

Jan 5

Personal theme reveals my three-word memoir

I was intrigued this week when I saw a twitter feed about three-word memoirs. People were reflecting on 2011 and summing it up in three words. It made me think about what I would write for my own miniature memoir.

That, in turn, reminded me of my personal theme for 2011 — one that I chose last year for myself to represent progress and to reinforce my pursuit of learning and creativity.

As it happens in life, I experienced some fairly negative and toxic events in 2010. I thought about my response and decided I could build a more creative legacy of what I aim to accomplish as a writer, friend, daughter, and spouse if I focused on the positive. Read more

Jan 4

How to use misfortune to make your writing stronger

“A writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. This is even stronger in the case of the artist. Everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one’s art….Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so. If a blind man thinks this way, he is saved. Blindness is a gift.” –Jorge Luis Borges

I don’t have many “off” days. What I mean is, I’m pretty good at handling life’s little surprises. I wasn’t always so cool and collected. I used to obsess and worry and play the repetitive mind-game as well as the next person. But over the years, I worked hard at letting all that go. I was motivated to change.

I knew I was making progress the year my son turned 13. It was the morning after Halloween. I opened the front door to pick up the newspaper, when I saw it—somebody, in the middle of the night, had thrown a gigantic pumpkin at my brand new car. The car’s rear end was demolished, the trunk caved in, and my deductible was $1,000 (which I didn’t have at the time because I’d just purchased the new car). I was stunned. I felt as if somebody had sucked up all the air in the world. Read more

Jan 2

Start the new year by writing a gratitude list

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions anymore. I guess I’m at the age where I see each day as an opportunity to flex my resolve. But I do find the beginning of the year a great time to reflect back on all I achieved in the preceding year and set new goals for the next one. I do this in all areas of my life and in different phases. Phase I of my New Year’s plan is to start a gratitude list.

For ten to twenty minutes, I write a list (in a sparkly new journal) of things I’m grateful for. The beginning of my list looks something like this:

I’m grateful for:

1. My family who not only loves and encourages me but also helps others in the world;

2. My writing partner, Carly, for pushing me to stretch my comfort zone and believe in myself;

3. My friend J.M. for making me use my brain and heart in ways I never knew I could; Read more

Dec 30

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Short story writing method reveals New Year’s theme

Instead of making a list of New Year’s resolutions, my friend Nicole likes to have a theme – a single statement that encompasses a key idea that she wants to focus on for the year. For 2012, I decided to adopt a writing theme – one that would help me focus on the power of imagination.

Sometimes it’s easy to over think the writing process. I’ll worry if I don’t know where my story is going. I begin to doubt myself and the project. Then I have to remind myself (again) that we write to discover, to find out what happens. It’s okay if I don’t know everything that’s going to happen.

In The Story Behind the Story: 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work, author Stephen Dobyns says he was inspired to write a book of short stories after hearing advice from writing mentor Raymond Carver. Dobyns asked Carver how he had written a particular story:

“He (Carver) said the first sentence had come into his mind and he just followed it. The sentence was something like: “He was vacuuming the living room rug when the telephone rang.” Carver said, ‘It came into my head and so I tried to see what came next.’ In such a way had the story unwound itself.”

After the first sentence, the whole process had been a process of discovery. Read more

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