Monday, April 28, 2014

A Writing Exercise

Resource: Some Seeds to start YOUR Fiction by John Dufresne (article appeared in The Writer magazine.)

Start with a character.

Many stories begin with a character.

Here's one from the unfortunate news of the day: Your character is a polish priest who hears the confession of his colleague and fellow curate at St Paul's Church and learns that his trusted companion has molested a child.

Here's another: a mother whose child has been abducted.

Thirteen Writing Prompts by Dan Wiencek gives us a couple of other examples you can choose from.

Write a scene showing a man and a woman arguing over the man's friendship with a former girlfriend. Do not mention the girlfriend, the man, the womann, or the argument.

Browse the personals section in your local newspaper on online. Pick a person and based on the details provided, create an expanded profile on him/her. Then create a character sketch.

Write for approximately 20 minutes and then let's see what you've written. Post them here if you'd like. Or keep them to yourself. Maybe they'll be the spark of a short story or something longer.

Good luck!




Image credit: grublee / 123RF Stock Photo

Friday, April 25, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Value of the Writing

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

2. Write about Value of the Writing. Do you believe that your writing has significance and that it can change a life? Do you see the value in sharing your writing with others? Do you see it as an incredible experience that you can allow others to participate in?

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 find the value of your writing? Did you find the significance in your writing? Do you believe it can change a life? Do you believe in sharing your writing with others? Do you see it as an incredible experience to allow others to participate in? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?


Why or Why Not?

Monday, April 21, 2014

Get the Picture - A Tip from Robert Newton Peck

I've had the pleasure of hearing Robert Newton Peck speak not once, but twice. And each time, was a treat. The man is a one person entertainment extravaganza. But, all of that aside. He knows how to write and he does it very well.

He's written a book titled "Secrets of Successful Fiction - A fun-to-read, easy-to-master toolkit for writers of all ages." And that's exactly what it is. I'm going to reference it from time to time, as it's full of genuine nuggets of writing information that I want to share with you.

Today's piece is "Get the Picture" and it's about Showing not Telling.

He uses a wonderful example about how millions of Americans used to "watch" their radios every evening before television was invented. Why did they do this? Because they wanted a picture. Not just the voices. Readers do the same thing, he wrote. They want the pictures, not just the words.

Mr. Peck tells us that an amateur writer would tell us a story while a pro shows the story. For example, he went on to use the following:

An amateur would write: "Bill was nervous."

The pro would write: "Bill sat in a dentist's waiting room, peeling the skin at the edge of his thumb, until the raw, red flesh began to show. Biting the torn cuticle, he rubbed it away, and sucked at the warm sweetness of his own blood."

You can see the obvious difference can't you?

Don't bore your reader with a lot of telling. Paint pictures for your reader to see the action, the emotion, the pictures.

As Robert Newton Peck would say, "Do this, and you are a pro. Writing is not listing emotions. Writing is physics. Moving parts. Things. Writing is show business. Get the picture?"


Christian Writing Prompts for Easter Week

Since it’s Easter, I’d like to offer some Christian writing prompts for you to use and create some exciting pieces of wordplay.

Take your pick.

1   1.  Pick a character in the Bible and describe his/her day. What are his/her struggles, joys, frustrations, etc. Write at least 500 words. Can you make a story out of this?
 
2.     Describe how a Pharisee saw Jesus standing on the steps of the temple. What did he see and hear? Use all the senses.
 
3.     You get to meet your hero from the Bible. What happens?
 
4.     Take the first line of a Psalm and write a story revolving around it.
 
5.     Write a story that revolves around “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
 
6.     Flesh out the woman from the well who met Jesus and gave Him some water. Who is she? Why did she divorce all her husbands and lived with her boyfriend? Why did the other women not like her? What was her name?
 
7.     King David meets Daniel. What happens?
 
8.     Someone gives the pastor a note while he’s preaching, what does it say?
 
9.     What is your first memory regarding Sunday School?
 
10. Write a Sunday School sermon for 5 year olds.
 
11. How did Saul feel before David played his harp and drove out the demons?
 
12. Write a short story regarding a person whom Jesus healed. What happened to them after the healing?
 
13. A bird is sitting on the wall as Jesus walks by carrying his cross. What does the bird see, hear, smell? What does he think?
 
14. Describe God’s love, but you can’t use grace, mercy, or love.
 
15. God has given you a new spiritual gift. What is it and what do you do with it?


I hope you enjoyed your choices. Have a blessed day.


Friday, April 18, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Gratitude

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

2. Write about Gratitude. Write about the feeling of thankfulness you experience occasionally when you write. As you write, be thankful for your intuitive gift that allows you to hear your inner voice.

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 and be thankful? Did you thank the gift that allows you to hear your inner voice? Do you have feelings of gratitude for your gift? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?


Why or Why Not?

Monday, April 14, 2014

10 Ways to Develop Style

We are all looking for ways to improve our writing. Today, I thought I would help you develop your style. So, what is style? When in the discussion of writing, style is "the way in which an idea is expressed, not the idea itself."

1. Think About Style -  Think about how you want to express your idea. Use all of your senses.

2. Listen to What you Write - Think of your writing as music. The words you write make sounds, and when those sounds are in harmony, the writing will work. Read your writing aloud. Listen for the beat. Listen for gaps where the music doesn't work. "There are no good sounds or bad sounds, just as there are no good notes or bad notes in music. It is the way in which you combine them that can make the writing succeed or fail. It's the music that matters." states Gary Provost.

3. Mimic Spoken Language - Writing should be conversational. Your writing should convey to the reader a sense of conversation. Mimic spoken language in the variety of its music, in the simplicity of its words, in the directness of its expression. Writing provides time for contemplation. Use it well.

4. Vary Sentence Length - Vary the sentence length and you create music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm. A lilt, a harmony. Write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader's ear. Don't just write words. Write music.

5. Vary Sentence Construction - Subject. Predicate. Object. That's how we were taught early in life to construct sentences. However, identical sentence structure can become boring to readers. Of course, you should strive for clarity and not arrange your sentences in a way that strangles their logic. Keep the primary elements of the sentence dancing so that they will create their own music.

6. Write Complete Sentences - Complete sentences have a subject and a predicate. You should always try to write complete sentences. Good writing often contains incomplete sentences. The incomplete sentence is a useful tool. Using it wisely can invigorate the music of your words. Like a chime or the beat of a drum.

7. Show, Don't Tell - When you are showing people something, you are trusting them to make up their minds for themselves. Readers like to be trusted. Don't dictate to them. Let them see the person, situation, or thing you are describing, and they will not only like what you have written, they will like you for trusting them.

8. Keep Related Words Together - Adjectives should be placed near the nouns they describe so they don't appear to be describing some other noun. In the same vein, adverbs should be close to verbs they modify, and dependent clauses should be near the words on which they depend for meaning.

9. Use Parallel Construction - Just as the steady beat of a drum can often enrich a melody, the repetition of a sound can often improve the music of your writing. When you deliberately arrange words and sounds in similar fashion to show the reader the similarity of information contained in sentences it is called parallel construction.

10. Don't Force a Personal Style - Style is your writing. It is tangled in the content of your words and the nature of you. Do not create some kind of persona in your head and try to capture it on paper. Do not try to write like Erma Bombeck, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway or anybody else. Write well and without self-consciousness. Only then will your own style emerge.

If you follow these simple points, you'll be writing your own music and it will be delightful to the reader and to yourself.




Writing Reference - 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost

Friday, April 11, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - A Need that is Not Being Met

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

2. Write about A Need that is Not Being Met. It can be a need of society or your own need. Make a list of action steps to bring the society or you closer to meeting that need.

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 discover a need about yourself or society that is not being met? Did you come up with logical action steps to bring society or you closer to fulfilling that need? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?


Why or Why Not?

Monday, April 7, 2014

Using Adverbs Effectively

Not every writer is a fan of adverbs. According to Stephen King, "the road to hell is paved with adverbs."

There have been many campaigns led to "kill the adverb."

But, in all that blunder and huff, did it ever occur to anyone that the adverb can also be used effectively when writing?

I'm not saying we should pepper our writing projects with adverbs, but used judicially, they can be very effective and help progress your story.

So, what does an adverb do, actually?

1. An adverb tells us more about a verb.

2. An adverb describes or modifies the verb in some way.

3. Many adverbs end with the suffix "ly" but not all.

4. Adverbs often tell us how something happened.


A good way to identify an adverb is to look for the "ly" ending, however not all adverbs end in "ly".

Here is a short list of some adverbs that do not end in "ly".

Fast 
Often 
Very 
Quite 
So 
Well

We use each of these words "often", don't we?

According to the website Emphasis ".. good, clear writing is more about communicating your meaning efficiently than banging your point home – and that means only using adverbs that add genuine, useful information. Whenever possible, show, don’t tell."

It makes sense, right? In whatever we write, we need to always make sure we are "showing" and not "telling" to get our point across. So, a smart move would be to only use adverbs in the add genuine, useful information.

From the Daily Post at Wordpress.com I found a great post about adverbs:

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and sometimes even other adverbs. They’ll often tell us “how” something was done, e.g., He walked slowly. Or, He walked very sowly. But, do adverbs clarify, or are they crutches for lazy or rushed writers who rely on adverbs to do their verbs’ heavy lifting? What if, instead of using adverbs to tell us how the man walked, we swapped in a stronger verb to show us how he walked?
Consider these alternatives:
  • The man plodded.
  • The man ambled.
  • The man trudged.
In each instance above, our new verb not only better describes how the man moved, it creates a picture in the reader’s mind. Stronger verbs can also convey emotion more effectively, which makes for stronger, vivid writing.
If you're looking for some extra exercises on helping understand modifiers go here.

Always remember this, your purpose in writing your story is to show as much as possible to the reader. If all else fails, reach for an adverb, but try in every way to find an alternative first. For stronger writing, use stronger words.






Friday, April 4, 2014

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Fate

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

2. Write about Fate. Do you believe in fate -- that power which is thought to determine one's future? Does fate play a role in your success or failure as a writer?

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 come to terms whether or not you believe in fate? Did you determine if fate played a role in your career as a writer? If you do not believe in fate, what do you believe in? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?


Why or Why Not?