All writers have those days where you stare at the screen and the fingers are poised on the keyboard, and you went to bed last night knowing right where you were going to pick up from in the story…and…nothing. The words have their heads under the pillows and are pleading for five more minutes, mom. As a mental alarm clock then, I turn your eyes upon these most holy and venerable 15 Craft Exercises.
No, you don’t have to do them all in one sitting. But keep them in mind. Bookmark them and set them in a little corner of your desktop so when you have one of those days where your mind is spinning its wheels, you can dig these exercises out and at least give yourself some outlet for the day.
My favorites:
– Sit in a restaurant or a crowded area and write down the snippets of conversation you hear. (I’ve done this, and I can point out a specific ridiculous conversation that I lifted and pasted almost word for word into one of my as-yet-to-be-published novels…and no, I’m not giving any credit. Trust me. They wouldn’t want the attention.)
– Keep a diary of a fictional character.
– Take a piece of your writing that you have written in first person and rewrite it in third person, or vice-versa.
I’ve also combined that second bullet with the interview suggestion. There have been many times that I’ve started to flounder with a story, and to get my mind back behind a character’s motivation or emotions, I’ve sat down and typed out a conversation in my head as if I’m interviewing that fictional person. I ask them how they’re feeling and they generally say they hate me for putting them through so much crap. I mean, sure, I ask questions like, “So, what are your thoughts about me killing off your family in chapter three? Wasn’t that spiffy?”
They also tend to get up and storm out of the interview before I can get much out of them, but it’s a fun little exercise, nonetheless.
And in the interest of adding something fun to this post that really has nothing to do with anything that has come before it, I present you with a dissection of Godzilla and several of the rubbery monsters he fought over the years.
I see that smile.
I must be a weirdo. I tend to hate craft exercises. I remember the “sit in the restaurant and transcribe conversations exactly as they happen” exercise. I realized people are amazingly ineloquent and shallow. ; )
I do like prompts, though.
Well, I’ll admit the conversation I stole from these folks is where they were obviously trying to be incredibly deep and philosophical while actually making everyone around them want to gag. So, yeah, I can see your point.