Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Emotion of Guilt

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about the Emotion of Guilt. Does this emotion serve a purpose in your life?

Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?


Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to write about the Emotion of Guilt? Did you figure out if it held a purpose in your life and if so, what it was? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?



Monday, January 27, 2014

Writing Tip - What to do When You're Stuck for a Topic

I've been fishing for a topic on what to write this week and so far, all I've got is wet bait. So, what do I do?

Change fishing holes? Tried it.

Change the bait? Tried it.

Stop fishing? No, I don't think so. How will that accomplish anything?

I'm going to follow the same advice I would give anyone else. Write. Write anyway. Write something.

Which is exactly what I'm doing here. I'm hoping that while I'm writing, something good will come out of it and I'll actually have something important to tell you about what to do when you're stuck for a topic to write about.

I do have a book. Is it a book if it's a cube that is about four inches by four inches? It's bound, so I guess it's a book. It contains 786 ideas to jump-start your imagination. The title is The Writer's Block by Jason Rekulak.

Randomly flipping through it here are some ideas:


  • To Outline or Not To Outline
  • Sibling Rivalry
  • Describe the Worst Date of Your Life
  • Superstitious
  • Conformity
  • Clueless
  • Write a Story That Begins with an Explosion


I have other books too, to stimulate the writing part of my brain. Books about creative writing exercises. The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood is a good one.

If I flip through The Pocket Muse I come up with the following ideas:

Who is the tallest person you know?
Fill in the blank: When I first told my family about ________________ they didn't believe me.
Top Five Jobs for Writers based on an informal and deeply flawed poll:

  • Security Guard
  • Parrot Trainer
  • Bounty Hunger
  • Greeter at Walmart
  • Neurosurgeon

These either net you lots of material or lots of time.

Ten Commandments for a Happy Writing Life:

  1. Don't wait for inspiration; establish a writing habit.
  2. Take time off.
  3. Read voraciously.
  4. Shut out the inner critic.
  5. Claim a space.
  6. Claims some time.
  7. Accept rejection.
  8. Expect success.
  9. Life fully.
  10. Wish others well.

Write about the first time you truly understood that all life ends in death.

What is the subject you are avoiding? Write it down.

Write a piece --fiction or nonfiction, poetry or script-- in which three objects exist at the beginning and only one at the end.

So, what do you think? Is there something in there for a topic to write about? Sure there is. And what's more, I just found another book I have titled 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts by Bryan Cohen.

Do you want to know what's in there? Well, let's flip through it and see what we come up with:


  • The top 5 costumes you've ever seen on Halloween. Whey there were so memorable to you and why you wish you'd thought of them first.
  • Summer fling? Ever had one? If so, write about it; if not, make up your ideal summer relationship.
  • If you could choose any place to be your home; to be a place that you felt comfortable in and could enjoy most of your days where would it be? Feel free to choose anywhere in the world, even if it's somewhere you haven't been.
  • Who is the most successful person you know? What can you learn from this person that is applicable to your own life? Write about a meeting with this big achiever in which you learn all of his or her secrets.
  • Your significant other becomes a millionaire and starts buying stuff for you all the time. How does that make you feel? can you use your lessons to become wealthy yourself?
  • You are very intoxicated at a bar and you completely black out. You wake up the next day with an unknown partner in your bed. How do you deal with the situation and what do you tell your friends who were at the bar with you?
  • Shakespeare comes over for dinner. What do you make him and what do you and your family/friends talk about with him?
  • Talk about a time in which you lost your voice and had to communicate without language. What did you do and how did it change the way people interacted with you?
  • While dreaming you think of the most amazing novel you have ever conceived of. As you wake up, you scramble to a notebook and begin writing. What happens next?
  • You have found yourself in the cartoon world of a popular movie or television show. How do you interact with the other characters and how does the style of animation affect you?
  • What would you consider to be success in American society? What would be failure? What would have to happen for you to be willing to compromise your vision of success?
  • Write about a time you had a run in with the law. It may have been something as simple as being pulled over or something ... a bit more serious. Talk about your experience from beginning to end and detail your emotions throughout.

Well, what do you know. I did it. I helped figure out what to do when stuck for a topic to write about. The best thing for me to do is browse my bookshelf and flip through all my writing prompt books. There is always something to write about.

Another tip is to change how you write. Write in a different location. Write with a different writing instrument. If you write on the computer. Try longhand and vise versa. Shake things up a bit and see what happens.

By the way, the above advice comes from Eating an Elephant by Patricia Charpentier. Pretty good advice, I'd say.

Now, I ask you this question: How do you figure out a topic when you can't think of something to write about?










Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Something You Are Angry About

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Something You Are Angry About. Once your anger is poured onto the page, take a break. Approach the same subject and now write and inspirational piece that embarks on change fueled from that particular anger. For example, if you are angry about the injustice of inadequate resources for women, you would write the first piece, spewing every frustration you have about the subject. Your second piece would focus on the inspirational view, changes you would make as a result of the anger. Be creative.

Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?


Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to tap into your anger and really write about something that you feel strongly about? How did you feel when you took a break? Were you capable of turning your anger around and become inspirational? Were you creative? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?


Monday, January 20, 2014

Writing Tip - Rewriting is as Important as Writing



You've written your heart out. You poured everything you had into your writing piece; whether it be an essay, a story, a novel, or a blog post. It's your greatest achievement.

It's also a draft. That's right. A draft. Not complete.

What do I mean, you ask? It needs to sit and rest for a bit before you take another look at it and edit it.

"Oh No!" You exclaim, it's perfect as it is. You know it is.

Uh Huh. Well, let me give you a little hint. Every writer needs their work proofread. And, for the record, nothing is ever "perfect."

The great writer, John Irving said, "Revision is the soul of editing and, as a novelist, rewriting is three-quarters of my life."

Scott Adams said this, "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

We all make mistakes, even without knowing it. Especially now with auto-correct on our word processors and phones and tablets. How many times have you sent a message to say, OOPS! and have to resend with an apology? I know I have.

Even with this blog post, I'll have to let it sit, then re-read it and edit it. And, God willing, it will go out into the Internet world without any mistakes.

So, how do you go about proofreading your own work?

Everyone has a tip for it. I'll give you mine. You can take it for what it's worth, read other tips, and do what works best for you. That's my tip. Use whatever technique works best for you.

First, try not to edit while you are actually writing the draft. It can get confusing and cause you to slow your creative process.

Take a break from the first draft to your first proofread. How long? Well, that depends, I guess. If you have something else to work on, do so while you take a break from your draft piece. Or, do something else to take your mind off it. For some people they need a week or more. Even months before they can be fully ready to re-read their draft. I suppose it depends on the length of the draft as well. A short piece doesn't require as long a break as a novel length draft.

When you start your proofread change your mindset. You are no longer "author" you are "editor".  Be careful to keep that in mind. You want to be able to look at this draft with a new set of eyes and a clear mind ready to edit it. So, if you still don't have enough distance from it as author, set it aside and wait some more.

Here is a list of what some people have done to edit their work:

1. Print the draft on different color paper.
2. Print using a different font.

Do not attempt to edit on the computer screen. It can foul up your mind and put you back in creative mode.

3. If you wrote your draft in your office, edit it some place else.
4. If you wrote your draft while lounging on your sofa, edit it in a different physical position, like sitting at your desk.
5. Your first read should be quick. No notes. Then start more slowly, with an overall feeling from the quick read.
6. Begin your critique and read it as if your friend wrote it. Don't try to fix anything. Just make notes.
7. Re-read again, at a different time of day when you are in a different mood.
8. Read it aloud at least once, especially if you have written dialogue.
9. If it's a longer novel length piece, you might want to create an outline from what you are reading. Be brief, you don't have to write a complete chapter by chapter analysis.
10. Get feedback from others. They must be an objective reader.  Listen to their comments or read their notes but don't be offended from anything they've said or written. You don't always have to agree with everything, but be open enough to accept each note. The person was nice enough to read your work, be nice enough to read their comments, without censure.
11. Once you've had others read and you've read and taken notes, organize all of your thoughts and notes in the order of your draft.
12. Start big and work your way down. Big changes like to plot or such, can make more of an impact to your work than say a confusing phrase or spelling error.
13. If you get stuck on your re-write, move on. Don't let anything stop you from completing your first re-write.

Stop. Rinse. Repeat. - If necessary.

14. Cut anything that is a duplicate or irrelevant. Be ruthless. You are editor now. Not author.

Remember, it's never going to be PERFECT in your mind, so know when to stop. Always track your changes so that if you've gone too far in your edits, you can go back a version.

15. As a final tip, I would say, read your draft backwards from the last word to the first. It's always a good way to catch any hidden technical errors.




Writing Resource: Your Writing Coach by Jurgen Wolff



Friday, January 17, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Release

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Release. Pick a topic that has built up steam in your heart and mind. Write long and hard on this topic. When you are finished, be still and feel the release of pressure throughout your entire body.

Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?


Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to pick a topic to write about. Were you able to write long and hard? Did you find the physical release afterwards? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?


Monday, January 13, 2014

Are You Tired of Hearing About Goals?

It’s all around us. You can’t open your e-mail without someone sending you something about setting a goal.

It can be losing weight.

Gaining weight.

Stop smoking.

Get a job.

Setting Blogging Goals.

Setting Parenting Goals.

Learn how to unclutter your life with these goals.

Argh!

I’m over it. Totally. Absolutely. Beyond any doubt. I’m over it.

I am bombarded on a daily basis with e-mails telling me I’m too fat, too skinny (Ha!), to unorganized, too lenient, too whatever, and I need to call a halt.

Now.

What about you? Are you tired of hearing about all the goals we must set for ourselves this year? Or are you one of the ones who is sending out messages to your followers, telling them to set goals. They must set goals. You must set goals.

Argh!

Maybe it’s because I just had a Bipolar episode recently, and I’m still sensitive and fragile from it. It was a scary episode. I heard some news that actually triggered an episode. It lasted nearly a week, and I’m still not quite over it. I haven’t gained all my mental and emotional strength back yet. I was inconsolable. Totally. And what was worse, the bad voices came back and were screaming at me that I was worthless, I had no value, I was a mistake, and I had no purpose in planning a business.  This, while I’m trying to get Your Writing Coach off the ground. 

It was devastating. And, worse? Could there really be a worse? Yes, there can. My doctor prescribed medication to get rid of the voices. I was to take it three times a day. That first day, I began having reactions to it. Not the right kind either. I had uncontrollable limb flailing. Yep, arms and legs flailing about with no control. It was about the scariest moment I’ve ever had. I had no control over what my hands, arms, and legs were going to do.

I e-mailed my psychiatrist and told him about the severe reactions and he had me stop the medication immediately. Whoa. After I stopped taking it, it was like a miracle. The reactions stopped as well.

Amazing.

So, that could be the reason I’m so sensitive to being bombarded with something over and over again.

So, I apologize to anyone I may have offended when I said I wanted you stop sending out your goal messages.

It’s not you. It’s me.

Ha. We’ve heard that line before, eh? Any relationship that went over the giant falls has had someone say that to the other person.

In this case, I think it really is me. And, please, don’t break up with me.  I still want you as a reader and you can send me anything you want and I’ll enjoy it.

I wanted to be totally honest with you about how I felt and the reasons behind it. I don’t ever want to hide having Bipolar Disorder from anyone. It’s something I live with and deal with and take medication for to control it.

Most of the time I am stable and or somewhat stable. I haven’t had such a serious episode like the one I recently had since March of last year. Pretty good track record for me.

If it weren’t for the help of my immediate support team, I wouldn’t have come out of it as quickly (yeah a week is pretty quick) and with as little damage as I did.

Keeping up with all my blogs and projects is very important to me. I try to stay at least one week ahead of my blogs so I have some leeway. I used to be two or three weeks ahead, but the holidays messed that up. I have to catch up again.

To me, blogging is very important. I need the outlet. I want to give important writing information to you, my readers. Today was supposed to be a Writing Tip, however that kind of messed up with me ranting about goals.


But, I think we can still turn it over into a tip about writing. Don’t be less than you are when it comes to your writing. Be as authentic as you can be. You have to be true to yourself, above all else. So, that’s my writing tip for you today. Find your voice, find your authentic self, and write as real as you can for the real person you are. Don’t hide from your reality. Be fair and truthful. Let the you that is most genuine shine through, always.




Image credit: markusgann / 123RF Stock Photo

Friday, January 10, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Intuition

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Intuition. Write about a previous feeling that could only be explained by the forces of your unconscious soul.

Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?


Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Were you able to determine a previous feeling? Did you figure out that it was intuition? How did you figure it out? What senses did you use to determine your intuition? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?


Monday, January 6, 2014

What Writing Topics do You Want for 2014?

It's now 2014. How many of you are still holding strong to those New Year's resolutions?

Yeah, me too.

I'm going to turn this post around a bit and ask you a question: What do you want to learn this year?

What writing topics would you like me to write about this year?

Because, really, that's what this blog is all about.

You.

What you can learn. What I can teach you. So, let's hear from you. I want to know. I want to be able to give you what you want.

Tell me one thing. Tell me a dozen things. Make a whole list. I don't mind.

I really want to know. What can I do for you?

Like the image, I really love writing. And even more, I love writing about topics you really want to know more about.

So, bring it on.

I'm listening.



Friday, January 3, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Relationship in Your Life

1. Set your clocks/timers for Five (5) Minutes.

2. Write about Relationship in Your Life. If it is a difficult relationship,  pay close attention to the emotions that churn inside of you. Use these emotions to create passion as you write about the relationship.

Get into as much detail as you can for the next five minutes.

3. Ready?

4. Go.

5. Finished? Review and be amazed.

I hope you had fun. Come back next Friday for a new writing prompt.

Was this exercise helpful?


Did you succeed with this writing exercise? Was it helpful? Did you write about a difficult relationship or a happy one. Were you able to find the passion in your emotions for either?

Why or Why Not?