Vignette: A Writing Exercise

Write Anything had a neat little writing prompt up this morning, one that works for Planners as well as Pantsers. (For the record, I am a Pantser who listens to the whispers of my inner Planner.)

The premise is: to write a scene where two family members who have been estranged, come together for the first time. The scene is built on ten prompts. You should write just one sentence for each prompt. The entire exercise takes between five and ten minutes to complete depending on whether you write or type.

For a list of the ten prompts, go to the link. (It's only fair to drive some traffic their way, no?)

My Response (Handwritten in just in 9 minutes)

1) It was hot. Hot, hot, so very hot.
2) Birds chattered and bickered in the tree above them.
3) In the parking lot, cars coated with dust from the long drive in ticked as their engines started to cool.
4) Some how, the breezeless air carried the sent of something old and metallic to the two women.
5) The handles of her tote bag strained under the load, one already reinforced with a large safety pin.
6) A sudden flurry of wings, and the birds were gone.
7) Another car crunched in, doors slam, friendly greetings are called out.
8) She held the bag out, raised it as high as she could.
9) The tremors in her hands moved up her arms. Soon her whole body shaking.
10) "This, it's all I had. Take it and leave."


What I learned from this exercise:
A) I can't not write an ending first. As soon as I read the last prompt, that line formed the body of the story.
B) I can't follow rules. The first prompt and the last two contain more than one sentence each. Good thing they call it creative writing!

My favorite writing books

There are enough books about writing that if you took the time to read them all, you'd never have time to write. (I don't think that's irony, I think it's that the people who write books about writing know that other authors are always looking for way to work on their writing without actually doing it. We're a crowd that begs to be distracted.) I won't pretend to have read even a small percentage of all those books, but I've read enough to know that there are some good ones, some repetitive ones, and some that are just plain wrong. Of the good ones, there are three that are on my desk all the time, right next to my thesaurus and dictionary. In reverse order of which ones I would save if my computer caught fire and the whole desk were about to go up in flames:

3. Coaching the Artist Within by Eric Maisel - Maisel has a pretty cool job, coaching and teaching people to coach writers, painters, actors and other creative types. He's written a lot of books about what stops us from creating, how to get deep down to the part of us that doesn't judge our work before we ever set pen to paper, and most importantly, that creation is Work. It's not magic, it's not a "either you have it or you don't" ability, and it's not easy. Coaching the Artist Within covers all the roadblocks, self made and external, that we allow to get in our way so that we don't have to do the work. I've got several of Maisel's other books, but this is the one that speaks to me when I need a kick in the butt.

2. Room to Write: Daily Invitations to a Writer's Life by Bonni Goldberg - This is a wonderful little book full of writing prompts and exersises that are more than prompts and exercises. Each starts with a few paragraphs explaining why whatever the prompt is exploring is important to a writer, then gives the directions for a short writing assignment, and ends with a quotation from published writers, statesmen, artists, etc. that connects to the exercise. This is the book I grab, open to a random page, and start writing when my muse doesn't show up for work.

3. Bird by Bird:Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott - This is my writing bible. When I am lost and ready to give up, this is the book that reminds that lost is okay and giving up was never really an option. There's good nuts and bold advice about writing in here, mixed in with a lot of "you're not the first person to feel this way and you won't be the last". This is the book of reassurance and compassion that every writer needs to get through those dark days...weeks...and, let's admit it happnes, months.

A writing contest AND vocabulary booster

Answers.com has posted their latest writing contest (limited to North Americans, for some techno-silly reason), and I'm already smarter without having done one bit of writing. The ten words and phrases that must be included in the entry had several that I'd never seen before. I love new words more than I love a no-fee, good prize very short story writing contest.

On their list of ten, I'd have to say my favorite is sapid. Halva sounds pretty good too, but that could be my stomach talking.

Two poems

(But first we pause to pat ourselves on the back for posting some original writing. Ahhh, yes....that was supposed to be a major part of this blog and of particpating in NaBloPoMo!)

Two cingquains, one traditional and one modern, on the same topic. These are the result of my morning writing warmup.

November

Wasn't cool
Wasn't wet wind
Now one day later
Winter


November

Low skies
Get out the coats
Cemetery garden
Vermin moving into the house
Close time

if you're curious about what's the difference between the traaditional and modern form, here you go, from the wonderful Writing Fix website.


Totally unrelated, but potentially poetry inspiring, SpaceWeather.com has issued an "Aurora Alert" because of current solar windstream patterns. I've seen one Aurora Borealis in my life, surprisingly when I was near a major city with lots of light pollution. They are amazingly beautiful, even in a watered down form.

On procrastination......

According to the blog schedule I wrote for myself, I should be posting some original fiction today. To put it bluntly, I got nothing. Call it a block, call it negative inspiration, heck, call it anything you want - I'm just not writing. I am not without some self-discipline, however, so I headed over the best place for writing prompts and exercises I've ever had pointed out to me, Toasted Cheese. It was simply too perfect that the first item on their 2007 exercises archive was to make a list of the things I do when I should be writing.

1. Surf the net. Well, duh, huh? This wasn't much of a problem until two or three weeks ago, when I finally installed a wireless router in my house. My darling little iBook doesn't have an airport card, and the wired modem was on a different floor from my writing space, so when I sat down to right, I was not connected to the net. Now, because of changes brought on by my partner's work requirements, the wired modem sits right next to me. I'm hooked up all the time. And hooked is exactly the right word to use.

2. Bake. I justify it because it's certainly cheaper to make home made goodies and just because I'm trying to eat better/eat less doesn't mean everyone in the family needs to give up the chocolate and butter and sugar and all that other yummy stuff, right? And, I've always found that cooking clears my mind for new ideas. It's probably that "use a different part of your brain" thing. But, using the quiet alone time to do something that would be better served when the family is actually around to eat the stuff is a bad health choice and a bad use of my time.

3. Watch old movies on TV. This is another "but it helps me write!" lie I tell myself when I'm doing it to avoid work. Yes, I get some good ideas, considering my main character in one novel is over a hundred years old. I do need to experience his culture, and movies are a great way to see what he's seen change. But I show so little discrimination in what I watch, it's obvious I'm avoiding work, not doing something to move it forward.

4. Research for other people. I love to research. To avoid work, I'll volunteer to do research for other people's writing. I could spend the time doing my own research, but that would mean facing that I wasn't using the research, so I avoid that bit of self-recrimination by working for someone else. I can say I'm working, and I'm helping other writers and that's good, right? Not at the expense of my own work, and I damn well know it.

This little list would serve no purpose if I don't use what I've learned here to fix the problem, so here goes.

1) Unplug the Ethernet cord during a scheduled work time. Sure I could plug it right back in, but I do have some pride and self control. If I take a physical action to stop the addiction, I can see the problem and the solution. Sometimes you have to see the scars before you can stop cutting.

2) I'm not going to stop doing something I love to do for my family. But, I can get it out of my system in larger blocks, freeing up larger blocks for writing.

3) Use some of my research skills to figure out what to watch, when it's on, schedule the time, and then NO MORE!

4) Just say no. If I stop volunteering, I know I'll be asked. I can say no. If I'm not helping other people, I'll have to help myself.

Getting my characters to talk

Anyone who writes will understand the frustration of being psyched up about sitting down to work and discovering that at least one of the characters you planned to work with is not speaking to you at that moment. Of course, the “right” thing to do is to plow on, make that character work for you. After all, they belong to us, not the other way around, right? My problem is I’m not a very tough boss. When I was an actual boss person, I was awful at telling people to do something they didn’t want to do. I was always trying to find ways to make them want to do the work, possibly even enjoy it, and often ended up doing the work myself rather than have an unhappy employee. I’m the same with my characters. I’m not good at making them do things or say things that don’t feel right, even though I know I can fix it in a later draft when they do come around for a more productive visit. I want them to be happy now. (Not that all my characters are happy people. Some are true bastards. One is in a terribly dysfunctional relationship and knows it. But, they’re in situations of their own making, and that's close enough to happiness for this fiction writer.)

All of this prelude is in explanation of what I’m about to post. It’s a tried and true exercise that I’ve found works well for me as a way to a character talking, because, they, like real people, love to talk about themselves. It's the well known Questions segment from “Inside the Actor’s Studio”. Today it also serves to introduce a major character from one of my novels in progress, working titled “Sucklimation”. (It’s not a vampire story. The word suck in the title refers to something lower on the human male anatomy. And it’s not porn, either.)

Michael (An artist going through mid-life crisis at the same time he meets a new muse who comes with more baggage than Michael wants to carry)
What is your favorite word?
Roundabout
What is your least favorite word?
Bottom line
What turns you on?
Finding that one tiny mark that keeps something from being perfect
What turns you off?
Too much hunger for anything. Passion is good, but when it becomes a hunger, that’s too needy for me. You could call it addiction, but that wouldn't be quite right.
What sound do you love?
Silence
What sound to you hate?
Chewing
What profession other than yours would you attempt?
Chef
What profession would you not like to participate in?
Chambermaid
What is your favorite curse word?
Bedamn. I don't use swear words.
If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
“You were right, it really didn’t matter what you believed, it was all about how you lived.”