Second Week of February

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.