Monthly Archives: March 2009

Every writer who has ever lived has, at some point, stared blankly at the paper / parchment / monitor and wondered, "Now what?"

Writer's Block isn't a curse, it's an opportunity.

Today's writing exercise is simply a series of timed exercises.  (These are all ten minute segments)

How to begin? Start with the words, "I remember" and let it roll from there. It doesn't matter if it was five minutes ago, five years ago, or five lifetimes ago. Dump some stuff out in whatever non-grammatical, nonsensical form it arrives. This is NOT an exercise about editing. This is NOT an exercise in writing 'good stuff'. This is an exercise in getting the blockage out of your head so you can reconnect with your inner self.

So, "I remember" and what comes after for 10 minutes. Use a timer, wait for a commercial break on the TV or radio, or whatever means you need of timing yourself. Just KEEP WRITING. It might be your father's neckties, your sibling's constant (whatever it was), or breaking your arm last week in a car accident. Go with whatever flow is there. You DO remember something, don't you?

Now then, take a break and walk around the table. Change the flavor of your chewing gum. Maybe toss out that bit of newspaper lying on the edge of the table.

Ready to continue? Start with "I don't remember", and continue writing for 10 minutes. The same rules apply. What did you eat on that trip to Vegas? Where were you when you got mooned by those kids? Well, you have forgotten a few things by now, haven't you? Who was your third grade math teacher? Hrm?? Did you turn out the lights before you left the house? What does your dog look like in the night?

This stresses the brain in both positive and negative ways, and gets things rolling.

Take another break. No, seriously. Take a break because we're about to change channels again.

Start again with, "I'm thinking of…" and go for 10 minutes.  Well, you were thinking of something, even if it was pretty absurd.  Pixies in your computer? How your spouse would look with blue hair?

Take a break and start over again with, "I'm not thinking of…"

You get the idea.  To continue the rest of the exercise, do the following pairs of thoughts with breaks in between:

I know / I don't know
I am / I am not
I want / I don't want
I feel / I don't feel
The first time I / The last time I

Now looking over what you've scribbled, since you've made it this far, might there be some nugget that you can write about now?

While this is an exercise for creative writers, these kinds of exercises can help writers of any level or background. Or at least that's my 2 bits for today.

I have not been writing as much this week. In fact I had not been writing much at all this year – I have been in a sort of funk that has been tricky to shake off.

So I took myself out for a coffee and a self-counseling session with all of my bits of scribbled notes, chapters from books, and odd thoughts. I cornered a table in Panera and started spreading everything out.
Yes. Paper. I'm a doodler. I find it difficult to doodle in OpenOffice or Word. And, I think mechanical pencils are among the finest inventions ever. You don't need electricity, gravity, batteries, WiFi, hard drives, or storage chips. I still have paper thoughts I scribbled down in college, nearly 100 years ago now (by some folks' reckoning) and I never lost all of that stuff to a hard drive failure. Not like many things I lost this year due to two hard drives crashing – but that's another story.

Why Panera? Well, they have good coffee and service, even though it's a bit pricey. Their lunch menu is completely yummy and nutritious. I've tried writing at Denny's and they look at me funny. I also don't like getting syrup on stuff. I've tried Starbuck's and honestly can't see paying that much more for coffee. And I don't go into Dunkin' Donuts because I would never be able to leave. Maybe if they tore a wall out and brought in a tow truck for the ambulance, but otherwise… not so much.
Here's the damages: $2.99 + tax, and

• one domain to research and purchase to market myself professionally for employment
• one domain to research and purchase to market myself on the creative side
• one nonfiction manuscript to complete – book length
• two novels to finish
• an idea for a third novel
• Ooops, make that four novels
• … that will be, uh, five pages to go under the creative website
• two or more blogs to try to keep going
• one blog/forum website to create for a writing community

At least partridges and pear trees are scarce!
Well, no wonder I've been going in circles!
Then I decided that it would be more meaningful and symbolic if I did the same thing to my office that I had done to my brain. So much of yesterday was going through everything that had stacked up, dusted over, or been tossed in a box. I have a large trash bag of crap, will process at least one more full today, and perhaps a box or two of stuff to get tossed.
But that's not all of the good stuff. I can still build two more PC computers out of spare parts, but that's only because I only have two cases. I'll be tossing VGA video cards and dial-up modems, but otherwise I have a hard time throwing functional technical stuff away. I'll see how it goes
So I may not be coming up for air much before the end of the weekend. See ya round the 'net! It seems I have plenty to do…

I needed to change my karma a little bit today, so I went out for a haircut, lunch and a couple of errands.

The haircut was uneventful, and I won't bore you with the grocery shopping. Lunch was more interesting.

I went to Panera, and got the tortilla chicken soup (yummay!) and the bacon turkey sandwich (feh).  I was about half way through my soup when I started thinking I ought to do a character study on somebody around me. It's a hobby of sorts when I'm surrounded by strangers. Nobody in the restaurant really presented a good opportunity though, and I was not really able to focus on anybody.

Then a Jaguar swung into the parking space just the other side of the window from me. It seemed as if the driver were taking up two parking spaces, and so I muttered to myself into my soup something about Jaguar drivers blah blah blah. But that's when I noticed a dragon hanging behind the rear view mirror.

A dragon? I noticed it before I noticed the driver. Yeah, it looked like a dragon that was draped around the back of the rear view mirror. What?! This is a non sequitur, you know? The driver is a 50-something female who spent more on her hair than I just did on mine, more on her nails than I ever have, and was wearing both a turtleneck and a cable sweater in the identical shade of pink.

The back of my mind spun for a bit and I could not correlate the dragon with this driver. Not for anything. I noticed her as she gave her order, and as she waited for it. She was skinny, tanned, and her face was lined at the corners. Well, at least she hadn't fattened any plastic surgeons… But why a dragon hanging from her rear view mirror?

Was the dragon there as a memento of some occasion? Maybe. Was she declaring that she is the 'dragon lady' and we were all to steer clear?  Maybe. Or was it an ex's car that she had scored in a divorce battle and it was still draped there as a trophy?  You never really know.

So was she a trophy wife? No, this didn't seem to fit. Maybe a real estate professional or a sales manager or some sort.

And why did I pay attention?  Well look, I can use the dragon wrapped around the rear view mirror angle as a hook for any character I want to describe.  There's a juxtaposition between her careful appearance and lack of cosmetic surgery. She might not be successful herself, but she wanted to give that appearance and is probably close (or was) to somebody who was.

And that's why I call it a character study. She could fit in a spy/mystery/thriller as easily as something like On Golden Pond. The fact that she noticed me staring at her and she moved to the far side of the restaurant might have something to do with it too. (ooops!)

And was that really a dragon or was it something else? Well, that could be a plot turning point right there if it is something like a CSI episode or something from Agatha Christie-ville.