August Writing Challenges: Day 12 - Senses and Color

AugustThe 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 twelfth challenge we're going to discover how our senses and color affect our writing.

Here is your challenge:

On your paper, draw a circle with five lines coming from it. Label each line with one of the five senses:

   Sight

   Hearing

   Touch

   Taste

   Smell

Close your eyes and imagine what color is prominent in your mind. Let the color wash over you as you think about it in terms of each sense. 

Fill the next ten minutes by writing down what comes to mind by this color, sense by sense. Some of the senses are more difficult than others, but making the extra effort will help you with being more specific in your future writing. 

Once you've written for ten minutes, adding to each sense, pick a number between one and ten. Write it on your paper. 

Check below and find your number. 

1. Yellow

2. Black

3. White

4. Gold

5. Blue

6. Green

7. Brown

8. Pink

9. Purple

10. Orange

Now, go back and use the color that matched your number and write for another ten minutes how that color affects your senses. 

THINK ABOUT THIS:  Imagine the colorful people you have met in your life. Jot down notes about the way these people look, dress, act, talk, walk, and smell. This is a great way to work on character development and perhaps flesh out a character in need of a little more personality. It's fun to pick and choose from all the choices offered by people you know as you invent characters of your own. 

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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?

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Your Senses

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

2. Write about Your Senses. Think about sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smelling -- write about the relationship between your senses and the quality of your life experiences.

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 associate with all your senses? Did you write about the relationship between your senses and the quality of your life experiences?

Why or Why Not?

Writing Tips - How to Set Your Story

The definition of setting is "a backdrop against which your characters perform."

When writing your story, you must make sure there is a sense of place. It's essential. Setting denotes time, establishes mood and provides atmosphere.

As a writer you must make sure that your setting isn't simply paragraphs of description. Interweave with your characters and their actions.

Helen Haukeness writes in "Setting Your Novel Straight" that many writers who can write well about plot and character overlook the significance of setting.

She has identified eight problems that you, as a writer, may encounter and the solutions.

Let's begin.

1. Failure to Understand the Depth of a Setting.
Setting is more than buildings and roads, trees and flowers, or mountains and valleys. Setting means detail. Remember this word: specificity. When creating setting, involve all the senses: furniture, weather, people, tools, toys, clutter, lighting, odors.

As a writer, you want to elicit a response from your reader. You do this by creating a reality for them with your writing that is plausible.

2. Using Stereotyped Descriptions.
Create a sense of place with your writing. Either write what you know using environments you are familiar with, or do the research necessary to become familiar with unfamiliar settings. Ms. Haukeness suggests that writers keep a notebook of rile folder of brief descriptions, observations, and evocative images. Listen and observe wherever you are in order to absorb your environment through your various  senses.

3. Failure to Use Words as Symbols of Atmosphere and Mood.
Infuse life into your words when describing setting. Create an atmosphere that bursts into your reader's imagination with wondrous colors. Detail is important, but don't overwork your reader when they read your narrative. A smart reader will know when you're writing is overdone and no longer involves them in the story.

4. Failure to Evoke All the Senses in Descriptions of Setting.
When you think of setting, it brings to mind a picture. However, the visual image is only part of what you have to use to create a sense of place. Use all the senses available: sounds, smells, references to taste. Make the reader actually live your story instead of being an innocent bystander. Once again, let me remind you to not overdo it. Let your words build your background in your reader's mind.

5. Failure to Write Scenes Through the Character's Eyes.
You are not a character in your story. You are not the main focus. Let your reader experience your story and setting through your character's perception.

6. Failure to Change Setting Throughout an Entire Novel.
Your character doesn't stay the same throughout your story. Your character evolves, changes, and has moods. As a writer, you must make sure that your setting does the same thing. As emotions conflict in your character, so must your setting contrast. If your character is indoors, take them outside. If your character is in the woods on a rainy day show the colors, scents, surroundings to your reader.

7. Using Fictionalized Geographic Names That Don't Sound Authentic.
Be creative when using the names of cities, towns, places, and such in your story. Use your imagination or if you'd like, mix and match names of cities and states.

8. Isolating Descriptions From the Narrative Line.
If you write a lot of narrative in your story, more than likely, the reader is going to skip over it to get to the action - The dialogue of your characters. Don't end up using all your narrative to set your scene. According to Ms. Haukeness, "let the background of your novel come to life through your characters' thoughts, dialogue, and actions."

Did you learn something new about how to set your novel? Did you learn what not to do?

Great!

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

Writing Tips - 10 Techniques to Spark the Writing

From Gotham Writers' Workshop Inc. and from an article in The Guardian comes writing advice from the Poet Laureate of the UK, Andrew Motion.

10 Techniques to Spark the Writing

1. Decide when in the day (or night) it bests suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.
2. Think with your senses as well as your brain.
3. Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.
4. Lock different characters/elements in a room and tell them to get on.
5. Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
6. Bear in mind Wilde's dictum that "only mediocrities develop" - and challenge it.
7. Let your work stand before deciding whether or not to serve.
8. Think big and stay particular.
9. Write for tomorrow, not for today.
10. Work hard.

Friday Five Minute Exercise - Perceptions

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

2. Write about perceptions. Perception can be defined as knowledge acquired through the senses. What insights or intuitive judgments do you possess? 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 and write about your own perceptions of intuitive judgments?

Why or Why Not?

Give Me 250 - Dialogue

Let's celebrate our writing. Your Writing Coach has the "Give me 250 on Wednesdays" prompt. Every Wednesday I will give you a prompt and all you have to do is give me 250 words on whatever pops into your head about the prompt. It can be a draft or a final revision. Just give me the 250 words you want to share. Post the 250 words on your blog. Celebrate your writing!

Then, when you are finished, link your permalink post here and discover what others have posted for their 250. Share this link with your Twitter friends and Facebook friends. Share away. Just celebrate and share. Use the hashtag #250Wednesday on Twitter.

Only one rule: Encourage the person who linked before you. It's important that we all have validation for our writing. Encouragement is important. Validate another's writing; be supportive, just like you'd want someone to validate yours.

Invite your friends to join in the fun. What can you write in 250 words with our prompts?

This prompt will stay up for your writing pleasure for one week, Wednesday until Tuesday. Then, the prompt changes.

Let's grow this writing prompt challenge. Grab the button and share with others.

250 Wednesdays Button

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3/20/13 Prompt - Dialogue

Today's prompt is all about dialogue. Last week we wrote a silent scene using no dialogue. This week we are going to have two characters delve and explore as much about their character development, senses, description, plot and story all within dialogue.



Have fun with this. Did you enjoy the writing prompt?