I spoke earlier in the year about some exercises or activities to help with creativity, skill and enriching writing.

A search of the internet will provide a lot of exercises or activities for different levels and different interests. I have pulled together some from different sources that appealed to me. You can adjust or adapt any of these for your own needs.

1.       Dream journal – keep pen and paper by the bed and write down dreams when you wake, or a story of the images that come to mind. I can’t always remember my dreams clearly but sometimes an idea of the dream leads to some very interesting stories.

2.       Google image prompt – or review favourite websites for pictures, and one as a prompt to write a short story.

3.       5 minutes of blind writing – I’m not so sure about this one but it works for some. It is what it sounds like, blindfolded write for five minutes.

4.       Eaves dropping – take part of an overheard conversation and write a story.

5.       Describe your favourite place in detail, capturing what makes it special.

6.       Detail a memory from the past – it could be yesterday, it could be years ago, big or small.

7.       Writing off the page – take a line of poetry, or a famous saying, or line from a book/film/tv and continue writing.

8.       Colour – choose a colour, go for a walk and then write about everything you see that is that colour or reminds you of that colour.

9.       Take something already done and twist it – such as a funny story, like Home Alone and make it scary, or take something scary and make it funny, like Dracula.

10.   Take a well known story or character and make it modern – What would red riding hood have to face on her way to grandma’s house today?

11.   Use a crossword – use all the down solutions in a short story.

12.   Take a headline – rearrange the words and then write the new story.

Happy Scribbles

Easter Break

I have been taking some time for myself of late. Not always productive time, but time I need.  Again, I seem to be spending a lot of time setting goals, reorganising and refocusing and relying on my lists but they haven’t necessarily been moving me forward.

Over the Easter break I stretched that out to take some alone time to clear the clutter (from the house and my mind) and try to reclaim my creativity.

It isn’t that I’m not being creative but at the moment I am trying to do so much I am in a constant state of stress about what I want to do. Which is simply crazy. These are goals and projects I have set myself. So at what point did my writing change from being a daily necessity to become so difficult?

I don’t know.

But when I think about it, it is not that it is difficult, I’ve just let other things overwhelm me and get in the way. A few days off my day job gave me the chance to sort some of those other things out and allow me the opportunity to write all I want to.

I’m also taking more opportunities to feed my creativity, such as making sure I read every day, I’ve been to the theatre and booked another visit. And the most exciting is that I’m going to see one of my favourite authors next week launch her new book. In the middle of all of this my writing group is a constant support and source of inspiration.

Have a Happy Easter – I hope your holiday break is as productive as mine.

Happy Scribbling

Priorities

Over the last few weeks I have been looking at my priorities. Ensuring I am focused on the right areas and not trying to do too much. I am often tempted by new project ideas and I find that I can start to get a bit bogged down. Then it all becomes too much and I’m not able to work on anything, let alone complete it.

That is my main aim for this year – to get some projects finished.

This is particularly important for my current novel. I always want to be a prolific writer. I have loads of ideas, stories and characters begging to be written. Some of them will blossom into whole books and some not, some short stories and some blog ideas and some ideas will never make it onto anything other than scrap paper because that is where they belong.

Back to my novel. I spent years (lots of years) writing my first novel and I live in fear of it taking me just as long with this one. If that does end up being the case then I’m a long way from the next novel, and the one after that. And that is not what I want.

So I am prioritising my writing workload in the attempt to get more finished – so that I can start more. Are you still with me?

I have a range of things going at the moment and have recently picked up some more, in a slightly different field for the joy and experience and it is helping someone out.

Initially I had listed in order of importance my writing priorities. But when I read over them, they are all important for the longer term and all of them will need some time devoted to them to get them finished. Some will require more than others.

So in no particular order:

-          Novel one submitted to an agent

-          Novel two completed and ready to send to readers group

-          Writing opportunity

-          Master of Arts (Writing)

-          Regular blogging

I had read the suggestion that all projects should be finished before adding anything else to the list. I can see the sense in that, but some of these projects are ongoing and it would mean that I couldn’t do anything else for at least a couple of years. It may be that I should break them down to smaller chunks, such as just the next stage for each and then add or change as I go.

If I did that the list would look like:

-          Novel one submitted to an agent

-          Novel two – complete redraft/edit of first five chapters

-          Interview “Hero”, draft articles

-          Complete Masters Unit for SP1 – weekly tutorials; major assignment

-          Write blog draft for posting – weekly

But then even as I type this, I can think of better ways, different deadlines for different components. I have a weekly task list; and I have a daily task list. I think I am better working towards my main priorities in the first list my way until they are done. Every week is different too and I believe in being flexible. Some weeks I can get a little ahead with my study; some weeks I may have nothing to write for the “writing opportunity”; or with family pressures and life in general sometimes it isn’t always possible to keep to the planned schedule.

I try. I am writing every day. I am constantly thinking about my writing projects and what I can do. Some dedicated time this weekend and the first item will be ticked off the list. It may come back on, depending on the outcome of the submission, but it will be done.

I’m already tempted to add other things to the list. But if I am aiming to get things finished then I need to focus on what I have first. I have tried to set the outcome to a point where I need to rest, or I can’t do anymore until I have feedback. Then I can use that time to fit in other opportunities and projects.

I just have to continue writing.

Happy Scribbling

(Photo: www.applestooranges.ca)

Crisis of Confidence

I am in the middle of a little crisis. A crisis of confidence. As with most writers (or so my reading indicates) confidence comes and goes; travels up and down and like so much else in my life, it cycles.

But I have wondered lately if it is truly possible for me to do this.

Can I write?

I try but I know I could do more.

Do I write well enough?

I’m not after a response here, I’m not asking for affirmation. I just need to talk it out.

Actually there is a lot I need to be doing, all of which will help build my confidence and skill.

Firstly, I need to write more.

Although I think about my stories a lot, I am actually writing very little at the moment. And I need to be doing some more exercises to keep my writing brain active.

One exercise suggested at a workshop was to write about an object in detail for 10 minutes; and to do this for different objects every day. It made sense to me at the time but I never followed it up. This morning I spent 10 minutes writing about my cup of coffee. Does that sound dull? I actually found it extremely useful. The exercise focused my mind on the detail and I tried hard to use appropriate descriptive words.

This brings me to my second step. I need to improve my vocabulary.

As I read I often think “That was the perfect word to use.” I don’t do enough of that in my own writing. 

There are several ways to improve vocabulary: subscribe to A Word a Day; use the thesaurus and read widely. I subscribe and read anything I can get my hands on; I need to be making the conscious effort to use the thesaurus more.

These seem to be my main weaknesses and the more I work on them the better I will get and the more confident I will become (I hope).

Happy Scribbling

Cycles

I am waking in the dark now. Rising before the sun. It happened so quickly that it came as quite a shock and I checked the clocks repeatedly that first morning in case I had woken in the middle of the night. But the sun turned the edges of the sky a brilliant pink not long after and I relaxed into my writing.

I have recently been focused on cycles. All sorts of cycles, but not the bicycle sort. Life seems to move in cycles, mostly for women it is rumoured that we work on 28 days, men only 24 hours. We all see ups and down, periods of high energy and periods of low.

Thinking over this I started to think about those natural cycles we see around us – the seasons, day and night, life cycles of the cabbage moth decimating my broccoli, just to name a few. There is so much happening around us, changing around us that we can use in our writing.

There is so much to each cycle: the processes, the physics of it, the physical changes, the colours, the impact, the next step. What would happen if the cycle stopped or went a different way, or even reversed?

The fun with writing fantasy is that anything can happen. A pudgy green caterpillar does not have to turn into a white moth. Perhaps it stays as a caterpillar, only changing colour depending on what it eats, or there is no change at all other than size. Maybe it changes into something very different; it may emerge from its chrysalis with a hard thorny shell, metallic wings and sting in its tail.

We need to have some understanding of what does happen around us before we can change it or move it or do something different with it. We could have a night that lasts for a week with three moons but what would this mean for the world beneath this black sky? What would it mean for the plants? Or the water bodies?

But even for the non-fantasy writer looking more closely at nature can be of benefit. Partly because looking at the detail in life helps us to be better writers and if we notice the detail we will hopefully include it in our writing, making it richer and deeper and more engaging for the reader.

The point is that we can have some fun with what we do and we can take from around us to do that. I recently watched a whole documentary on the lakes district in Britain because when I saw the advertising for it, the scene they showed was breathtaking. The greens were vivid, it was open yet sheltered and I immediately saw two of my characters discussing their current situation beneath the tree. Standing close to each other, him trying to be calm, her voice growing louder…

I love that feeling, when it all just falls into place right there. It didn’t need the commentary of the fishing in the area, or the history of the previous land owners. It just needed that perfect landscape, just the right spot for my characters to take off and shine. It just needed the right colour green. But I then I have this thing about green…have I told you about it?

Try this exercise – find a different place or landscape and put your characters into it. How do they react? Is it right for them, are they comfortable?

Happy Scribbling

Picture from aptgarden.blogspot

Life's Pressures

As I have started back at my day job after 4 (nearly 5) weeks off I have started to feel the pressure. Of everything. With my day job I found that it is just as busy and overwhelming as it was before my break, which was quite disappointing. And then I began to worry that perhaps I had planned or hoped to achieve too much with my writing this year.

I also hoped to blog more regularly but what time I do have seems to be going to other things, not always productive.  And then of course there is family, friends, uni work and the occasional spot of reading to fit in.

My main writing focus is my novels and I am currently looking at or working on three. You probably agree with me by this point that I am indeed mad.

Novel Number 1 – trying to get it published, so I’m researching agents, refining chapters to send, writing covering letters. (Although it may be absolute rubbish and never get anywhere)

Novel Number 2 – reworking, revising a first draft into something more (I was at nearly 90,000 words by end of first draft and I hope for it to reach around 150,000 – a long way to go).

Novel Number 3 – early planning stages.

I thought that trying to concentrate on three different stories might be bit much but perhaps the pressure will actually help me get somewhere. I have most of what I need for the first one. I have even picked a favoured agency. Part of me is worried that it won’t get anywhere so I’m holding off a little but really it would only take me a couple of days to get the submission finalised and sent.

When I break it down into clear steps and see that it is not only possible but could be done by the end of the weekend I start to feel better about the process. So if it is rejected that’s ok. I’m all that much closer with my next submission. And if it never takes off, I have another book in the works and a trilogy slowly mapping its way around my study walls.

Novel Number 2 needs a lot more love and attention, every day, and I haven’t been giving it the attention it needs. I know what I need to do and I worked well last year, so time to knuckle down, book out that hour a day and go for it.

Novel Number 3 is happily moving all by itself. I am only spending a couple of hours (at most) a week thinking about plot points and characters and mapping out what should happen when. It is a skeleton and although with some ideas a whole scene comes to mind, I can just put down some notes and move on.

The door is covered in an almost complete Book One, some small gaps towards the end of the book, but I know where the main characters need to be at that point. Some of the detail will come once I start writing it, but as long as I get some ideas down it should work well. I have started using a pencil to get my ideas down (that includes in notebooks) so the cards look blank in the photo. Some contain only a short sentence, others are full.

I have bits of Book two and three but not as ordered as book one. By the time I start writing I would like it all mapped out. This is a very new process for me so I’m interested in how it will go. But as eager as I am to start writing it I think I should wait until I am finished Novel Number 2. Or I will be working on bits of books for ever...

Then of course there are the little ideas that keep creeping in and tapping on my brain asking to be written. Whole new worlds and friends calling to shared. They could be next but when looking at the list above Number 3 is really three books...so I have five to complete before I can move to the next project.

I’ll just continue to scribble down small ideas, either on the door, or the board in the study, or an index card, or one of the many notebooks I have stashed around the place, or typed up here to share with you.

Happy Scribbling

P.S. The Kitchen Door has become a learning tool for my daughter who is learning to read...hopefully sometime soon I can win it back for notes of my own.

Starting at the Beginning

Working through my draft I was hoping that the ending would become clearer. But in looking for that I forgot the most important part – the beginning.

I had reworked the first few chapters but in sharing them with my critical friends I realised I was trying to put the beginning into the context of the rest of the story. I had forgotten what was important for the beginning.

The Hook – that instant or event that drags the reader in. I hadn’t started at the right place. I was trying to pull too much back story in too soon.

Compelling Character – introducing the character so that the reader wants to keep reading, wants to know more about them and what happens to them. I know my main character (we’ve been together some time now) but I didn’t have her in the best light.  Actually one member of the group asked if wanted to portray her as mentally disturbed – big problem.

Appropriate Support Cast – those characters that show the strengths and weaknesses of the main character and help move that story along. They help move the plot. My problem here is that the characters are going to change as my story starts in one world and moves to another. These first supporting characters need to be able to explain why she is prepared to leave this world.

Consistent – the writing, the style and the characters need to be consistent throughout the story. But the set up is here at the beginning. If the beginning is no good then the reader won’t read on.

Now my job is to take all the comments made, the knowledge of what does work and the thoughts and visions of my story and pull them together. To rework a beginning that will have my reader eager to turn the page.

Happy Scribbling