August Writing Challenges: Day 8 - Observation

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the eighth challenge we're going to see observant we are with our surroundings:

Here is your challenge:

The first step is to notice your surroundings. Your home. Start there. What is in your room - apartment - house - tent - mobile home - ancestral mansion? Your abode? Your residence? Look around. Get a pencil and a piece of paper and go to work.

Make a complete list of the everyday, utilitarian stuff in your home. For example, your bed. Next to each item, rate its degree of necessity, meaning, to what extent could you live without it. This will start you on a path of attentiveness.

How many times a day do you walk by it, see it, hear it running? How aware you you of your surroundings?

Once you've made a list of items in your hoe and rated their "essential-ness," widen the search. Observe other people's homes/work places. Look at homes on television and in movies. Write down what you see and remember. 

Think about homes you encounter in books or short stories. What particulars are other writers including? Consider the characters in your own works. Even if you weren't planning on describing their homes in detail, try to flesh out their physical worlds. Do they have a four-slice toaster?

What about trends? Have you begun to notice similarities in the way in which people lay out their kitchens? Do most apartments have a television in the living room but not a bookshelf? Do more married people have pets? Is there more art on the walls in the homes of your single friends or married friends? 

Look, see, observe, record. Write.

IMPORTANT POINT: As a writer, you will spend a lifetime sharpening your observational  skills. The more you are aware of, the more you an write about: AWARE with your eyes, with your heart, your soul, your body. The world is out there for you to gather up and hold. You are on a lifetime mission. Your assignment is to LIVE AND OBSERVE. Your objective is to gain EXPERIENCE.

The end result? Hopefully, lots and lots and lots of wonderful stories.

August Writing Challenges: Day 4 - Getting Dramatic

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the second challenge we're going to get dramatic:

Here is your challenge:

Ask three (3) people: "What's the most dramatic thing that has ever happened to you?"

Pick one answer and write a scene about that event.

TIPS: Everyone has a different degree of drama. Technically, a drama is a serious (non-comic) play; the need to act out feelings on the stage has probably let to its secondary meaning, which is high emotion. 

In fiction, the writer's job is to make sure events are fully dramatized, that enough happens so that we feel what the writers wants us to. (And writers overdramatize events - there can be too much action and not enough meaning.)

The "what's-at-stake" question, so common in workshops, is closely connected to the question of "what's-the-drama?" Getting someone else's report on an experience of the "dramatic" can raise the stakes from the get-go. Answers involve trauma, risk, pride, shame, heartbreak.

Aristotle, always thinking about drama, said a tragedy was an imitation of an action of high importance, complete in itself and rendered so that the viewer, through pity and fear, experienced catharsis.

Modern short stories do this in their own ways. This challenge, though it's only an exercise, is meant to remind writers of that purpose. It also gets them out of their own experience, which can be a good thing.

Have Fun!
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The Writer's Secret Magical Genius Part 1

All writers have a third component to their nature - genius. I know, you're mother knew it all along, right?

But, any writers go their entire lifetime, without even recognizing it. Without liberating it. Without working with it. Without understanding it.

So sad.

In Becoming a Writer, Dorothea Brande says this magnificent statement, "No human being is so poor as to have no  trace of genius; none so great that he comes within infinity of using his own inheritance to the full."

The average man knows nothing of the genius he carries within him.

Others may labor arduously for a glimpse of inspiration. That is not genius.  There is an energy release. Authors know of it. Artists understand it.

Many call it "getting in your stride," "hitting the zone".. or my favorite, "the voices started talking."

Every writer has their own experience of that burst of genius. That sense of clarity. Their own method of releasing the faculty by some trial and error process that they've discovered works for them. It's what starts their "rituals" in their writing. Lighting only strikes when the coffee cup is set here, and the sun is just setting or rising, and the melodies of so and so are playing and the chair is adjusted so.

Am I right?

There is a common denominator if you look at it hard enough. Rhythmical, monotonous, and wordless. That is the key.

As if by putting oneself into a light hypnosis, a writer has found the key to tapping into his/her genius and writing the story to the bones.

Next week we'll discuss the formulaic way into the Writer's Genius.

Writers Resource:

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Your Right to Experience Growth

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

2. Write about Your Right to Experience Growth. We often shun others because they are different. We should embrace diversity and open-mindedness. I believe when other do not let you grow, they are doing so because they simply fear what is different. They do not feel validated. Do you write in order to experience growth?

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?  We all are different, in our special way. Do you embrace diversity? Are you open-minded? Do you write in order to experience growth? Why or Why not? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Taking Risks

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

2. Write about Taking Risks. Is your life as a writer a risky one? Do you see it as an adventure? Do you feel blessed because you have a passion for writing? Write about the risk you take in life if you do not listen to your heart and write. Does the risk of losing the chance to experience life as a writer outweigh the risk of failure?

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? Do you have a passion for writing? Do you take risks? If your life as a writer a risky one? Can you write about the risk you take in life if you do not listen to your heart and write? Have you found that the risk of losing the chance to experience life as a writer outweighs the risk of failure? Was this exercise helpful? Did you enjoy it?

Why or Why Not?

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?

Writing Tips - Telling a Story or Giving a Report?

The difference between "story" and "report" is crucial to the reader's expectation and the writer's execution.

The word "story" has a special meaning, and stories have specific requirements that create predictable effects.

What are the differences between "report" and "story", and how can the writer use them to strategic advantage?

A scholar by the name of Louise Rosenblatt argued at one point that readers read for two reasons:

1. Information
2. Experience

That's the difference.

Reports convey information. Stories create experience.

Reports transfer knowledge. Stories transport the reader.

The tools required to create reports and stories differ as well.

Every writer should know about the famous "Five W's and H". They've helped writers gather and convey information with the reader's interest in mind.

Who
What
Where
When
How

They are the most common elements of information.

When used in reports, these pieces of information are fixed in time, fixed so readers can scan and understand.

This is how you "un-fix" them, when you can transform information into narrative:

Who becomes Character
What becomes Action (What happened.)
Where becomes Setting
When becomes Chronology
Why becomes Cause or Motive
How becomes Process (How it happened.)

As the writer, you must figure out whether your project requires the crafting of a report, a story, or some combination of both.

In can be said that stories require rising and falling action, complications, points of insight, and resolutions. As a novelist, you can invent these movements into a story. However, as a reporter or non-fiction writer you must report them.

A narrative requires a story and a storyteller.

An article in a newspaper requires a reporter.

By combining story and report, you, the writer can speak to both our hearts and our heads, creating sympathy and understanding.

Here are some things you can do:

1. Look at the newspaper with the distinction between reports and stories in mind. Look for narrative opportunities missed. Look for bits of stories embedded in reports.
2. Take the same approach to your own work. Look for stories, or at least passages in stories, where you transport the reader to the scene. Search for places in your reports where you might have included story elements.
3. Reread the conversion list for the Five W's and H. Keep it handy the next time you research and write. Use it to transform report elements into the building blocks of a story.
4. The next time you read a novel, look for the ways in which the author weaves information about politics or history or geography into the tapestry of narrative. How can you apply these techniques in your own work?

So, in your next project, are you going to tell a story or give a report?

Writing Resource: Writing Tools - 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Options

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

2. Write about Options. Write down all your options - the alternatives - the choices. Sit quietly and try to remember the dreams you had as a child. Get in touch with your soul be recurring desires and aspirations you have long forgotten. Write to discover the endless possibilities that exist for you as long as you listen to your heart. Free your mind from the restraints you have placed on yourself … write to hear -- write to understand -- write to experience -- write until you know.

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 down all your options? What about your choices? Did you remember any dreams you had as a child? Were you able to get in touch with your soul? Did you write until you understood? Experienced? Until you knew?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - Instilling Immediacy into your Writing

When writing your story, you want to grab the reader and suck him/her into your book. You want your reader to experience your book as it's happening. Word by word. Emotion by emotion. Action by action. To do so, pay attention to the following three areas:



1. The Story's Structure

2. Description

3. Writing Style


The Story's Structure 
Right from the very first Chapter, your story must grab your reader. If you're not grabbing your reader look at the following:

Point of View: If the point of view is clear and consistent from the story's beginning, readers won't be forced to guess whose perception they are seeing through.

Conflict: Action proceeds from characters in conflict - and pulls readers into your story. If you have the conflict clearly in mind, and pose it clearly for the reader, you will reach for the more active phrases and situations that create immediacy.

Exposition and background: Long descriptions of character or setting background intrude on the reader's illusion. Many writers feel it is important to the reader to being their stories with such passages. Readers do not need the entire background of your fictional world to appreciate the story's movement. The opposite is true. A single sentence, if well-imagined and worded, can do that far more immediately.

Create Compelling Description
Animating objects is just one way for resting immediacy through description. Consider these others:
Create charged images: A charged image evokes all the other elements of your story - theme, character, conflict, setting, style, and so on. As the reader moves through the story, the charged image discharges its potency gradually, keeping the reader involved and intrigued.

Make descriptive sentences rhythmic, as opposed to mechanical.

Filter all description through point of view.

Be brief.

Writing Style
How you arrange your words, phrases, and sentences also contributes to the sense of immediacy that keeps readers engrossed in your story. There are certain styles and techniques you can use to create a forward flow:

State things in chronological sequence

Use active phrasing

Keep transitions crisp

Impinge phrases

Juxtapose elements

Use reveals and surprise to sustain the reader's immediate attention

Use repetition to emphasize certain elements

Avoid distractions and deadeners


Making fiction immediate is a tremendously awesome task. The biggest problem the author has is that he/she tens to own the emotions, imagination and intellect of the reader. We delude ourselves that what we put on paper will be as intensely immediate for the reader as it was for us.

You can overcome much of this occupational hazard by imagining as your write, an audience of strangers. Try to feel their living, breathing presence and respond to their craving for an immediately intense experience.

Writing Resource: The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing