Feb 8: During the next few days compose short poems or prose paragraphs about the sights, sounds, and smells surrounding you. Challenge yourself to capture thses sensory impresssions in the most vivid language you can muster.
Feb 9: Find a draft or partial draft that you gave up on, read it over, then set it aside and begin revising it whole cloth. Don't consult the original draft unless you must; the goal here is to capitalize on a freshness of perspective. Think of ways to: (1) engage the reader's attention more quickly with a gripping or curiosity-arousing opening, (2) cut back on details that do not move the story forward, (3) make you characters more three-dimensional by putting them in situations that allow their personalities and eccentricities to emerge, and (4) ensure that your protagonist is struggling to attain a worthy goal and that her opposition is formidable.
Feb. 10: Allow yourself a half hour of daydreaming every day. Get comfortable, maybe plan music that permits flights of fancy, and let your imagination break free of its worldly tethers. But keep your journal nearby so that you may record your imaginative voyage afterward--or even during, in case you dedazzle yourself with a vision you do not want to risk disappearing into oblivion. Then choose one of your daydream entries and fashion a poem or short story out of it.
Feb. 11: Generate a list of a dozen or more difficulties you've experienced in your life: childhood illnesses, getting involved with the wrong friends as a teenager, troublesome romantic relationships, bad career moves, and so on. Chooose three, and from each, write a paragraph or two explaining how you dealt with and resolved them (or why you weren't able to resolve them.). Here are the experiences that God has used to shape me into the person I am now. (1) Alcoholism, (2) divorce and relationship difficulties, and (3) late life return to college. I am also keenly aware that I did not resolve these issues on my own but only with the help of God. In hindsight I see how God was using each of these things to mold me for the purpose he has for me and he is still in the process of molding me.
Feb. 12: Maintain a record of the feedback you give during a writers' workshop session. Afterwards, apply that feedback in a draft in progress. For example, if you suggested that one of your fellow writers develop an action scene more fully, take a closer look at your own action scenes (or lack of them) and revise accordingly. Have not, as yet, been able to attend a writers' workshop or conference.
Feb. 13: Begin writing a series of soul-food dining moments. In one such moment, show a family for whom tradition is important dining on foods that reflect their values. In another moment, bring nontraditional family members together and draw parallels between their values and the food they're eating. In the novel/novella that I wrote for Nanowrimo Challenge has several food scenes and some are traditional such as Thanksgiving and Christmas while others are not.
Feb. 14: Apply the "what if" question to a love topic and shape it into a story. For example, what if a pathologically shy young man somehow, through some strange circumstance, manages to befriend a pathologically shy young woman? What would their original meeting be life? What would they say to each other, if anything? Have not written exactly that scene or those characters but I would think that two such individuals would have to meet much as two characters in a WIP. They actually physically bump into each other in a small flowershop and at first they verbally snap at each other but at the same time are physically attracted to one another.
Well those are the assignments for this week. Unfortunately, unless we get enough snow that I do not have to work tomorrow and do not lose power, I will not have time to even work on the four WIP that I already have. I also need to be looking at revising that novel/novella but have not gotten it back from my proofreading friend yet. May have to start revisions based on the first reader's comments.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Assignments From First Week of February
Feb. 1: Write a paragraph describing how you would transform one of the ancient myths into a modern-day situation. For example, try creating a modern-day Sisyphus, who is fated to complete a task only to end in futility (the real-world counterpart of rolling a rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down again). Interestingly there was a cartoon in the Sunday Huntsville Times (Feb 7) of just this thing. The cartoonist used the modern-day task of getting rid of spam emails as our current Sisyphus' task.
Feb 2. Study Renoir's painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" and then write down three or four associations it triggers as you contemplate it. Later, expand one of these associations into a dramatic scene that you might later be able to incorporae into a short story or poem.
Feb 3: Which of your views on current issues are you most motivated to share with the world? List each view and write a paragraph describing it in detail and then another paragraph explaining your reasons for wanting to share your view with the public. Today the view I would probably most like to develop and share is how violence in movies, television, music, and computer games has led to a culture that is desensitizsed to acts of violence. Also a segment of our current population that sees acts of violence as acceptable solutions to various problems.
Feb 4: Write a memorandum to yourself beginning with "My goal as a writer is to ..." Go into as much detail asyou can about the kinds of writing you want to master and what you expect of your readers.
Feb 5: Write a paragraph or two in which you describe how a certain novel--or particular event in a novel--reawakened a long-forgotten or dormant experience. In describing your experience, try to capture the state of mind of your younger self.
Feb 6: (1) Open a dictionary of quotations at random,choose a quotation, and use it as a springboard for a short story. (2) Choose two quotations with contrasting messages and use them to embody the views of two characters pitted against each other.
Feb 7: Write a two-page biographical sketch for each of three principal characters for your novel. These individuals should be at least partially based on persons you know well. You won't be able to think of everything at one sitting, of course, so allow the character to evolve over time. Keep returning to these initial profiles and add or modify them if needed.
Feb 2. Study Renoir's painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" and then write down three or four associations it triggers as you contemplate it. Later, expand one of these associations into a dramatic scene that you might later be able to incorporae into a short story or poem.
Feb 3: Which of your views on current issues are you most motivated to share with the world? List each view and write a paragraph describing it in detail and then another paragraph explaining your reasons for wanting to share your view with the public. Today the view I would probably most like to develop and share is how violence in movies, television, music, and computer games has led to a culture that is desensitizsed to acts of violence. Also a segment of our current population that sees acts of violence as acceptable solutions to various problems.
Feb 4: Write a memorandum to yourself beginning with "My goal as a writer is to ..." Go into as much detail asyou can about the kinds of writing you want to master and what you expect of your readers.
Feb 5: Write a paragraph or two in which you describe how a certain novel--or particular event in a novel--reawakened a long-forgotten or dormant experience. In describing your experience, try to capture the state of mind of your younger self.
Feb 6: (1) Open a dictionary of quotations at random,choose a quotation, and use it as a springboard for a short story. (2) Choose two quotations with contrasting messages and use them to embody the views of two characters pitted against each other.
Feb 7: Write a two-page biographical sketch for each of three principal characters for your novel. These individuals should be at least partially based on persons you know well. You won't be able to think of everything at one sitting, of course, so allow the character to evolve over time. Keep returning to these initial profiles and add or modify them if needed.
Interesting Assignments From January
1. Write a letter or poem addressed to your fellow citizens in which you share one idea for making the world a better place. Is it the importance of individual citizens exercising civic responsibility? Is it having faith in a higher power? Perhaps you have a vision for education reform? Be as detailed as you can about the program you propose.
2. First prepare a one- or two-page "bio sheet" of a character you'd like to include in a future Work In Progress (WIP). Include such attributes as: physcal and behavioral characteristics, temperment, habits of speech, beliefs (spiritual, ideological), eccentricities, fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes. Next, write a scene consisting of narration, dialogue, and action, in which your viewpoint character interacts with another character, and in which you capture as many of the above character atributes as you can.
3. Write a scene involving two or more individuals meeting over dinner to discuss serious business or to celebrate a special occasion. Work in detailed descriptions of the food and the way it has been prepared together with the particulars of the get-together.
4. Take one of your newest ideas or insights --one of thoe New Year's resolutions you never followed through on, for example--and work up the idea into a step-by-step action plan. Then write an essay in which you describe what actually took place when you put your ideas to work. Don't leave out the missteps or the unforeseen snags.
5. Begin creating a world on a single page. Choose any setting you wish--a sublime nature setting like the Yosemite Valley; a twisting dark road in Romania where vampires are said to be lurking; a village in Uganda where medical missionaries are trying to save the lives of malnourished children.
6. How can you help yourself uncore your natural voice? Write a page in which you describe, in a relaxed, informal manner, without groping for impressive words, how you feel about one of the front page stories appearing in this monrning's newpaper. After you finish the page, read it aloud. If it doesn't sound like you, circle the phrases or sentences that seem artificial or forced. Then keep revising the paragraph until it seems to capture your natural voice. Now apply the voice test to your current WIP. Turn to any page, read it aloud, and if it sounds artificial, get busy revising it.
7. Make a list of commonplace objects and then free-associate on their symboli possibilities. Afterwards, compare your associations with those presented in a dictionary of symbols.
2. First prepare a one- or two-page "bio sheet" of a character you'd like to include in a future Work In Progress (WIP). Include such attributes as: physcal and behavioral characteristics, temperment, habits of speech, beliefs (spiritual, ideological), eccentricities, fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes. Next, write a scene consisting of narration, dialogue, and action, in which your viewpoint character interacts with another character, and in which you capture as many of the above character atributes as you can.
3. Write a scene involving two or more individuals meeting over dinner to discuss serious business or to celebrate a special occasion. Work in detailed descriptions of the food and the way it has been prepared together with the particulars of the get-together.
4. Take one of your newest ideas or insights --one of thoe New Year's resolutions you never followed through on, for example--and work up the idea into a step-by-step action plan. Then write an essay in which you describe what actually took place when you put your ideas to work. Don't leave out the missteps or the unforeseen snags.
5. Begin creating a world on a single page. Choose any setting you wish--a sublime nature setting like the Yosemite Valley; a twisting dark road in Romania where vampires are said to be lurking; a village in Uganda where medical missionaries are trying to save the lives of malnourished children.
6. How can you help yourself uncore your natural voice? Write a page in which you describe, in a relaxed, informal manner, without groping for impressive words, how you feel about one of the front page stories appearing in this monrning's newpaper. After you finish the page, read it aloud. If it doesn't sound like you, circle the phrases or sentences that seem artificial or forced. Then keep revising the paragraph until it seems to capture your natural voice. Now apply the voice test to your current WIP. Turn to any page, read it aloud, and if it sounds artificial, get busy revising it.
7. Make a list of commonplace objects and then free-associate on their symboli possibilities. Afterwards, compare your associations with those presented in a dictionary of symbols.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
