The Place For My Writers Notes

Latest posting 30 May 2008

Here we go! I know, I know, the start of summer is kind of a lazy time, and in pasting up oldies and goodies, I saw this one. So - a goal? A process? Or just a game? Anyway you look at it, write -- soon and often, and don't forget to share whatever here, okay?

original posting: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 11:24:22 +0900

August always seems like a lazy time of year, with vacations and summer heat setting the tone.  But month eight also means two-thirds of the year have galloped past.  So it's a good time to trim the sails and lay out a goal, a process, and some games for the trip.

A goal.  This is, as always, a personal choice, but setting a quota seems to work for many.  Set one that's challenging but reachable, okay?  E.g., one piece (story, chapter, essay, poem) a month?  A week?  Or what tickles your fingers to write?

(Or, of course, you could try the challenge!  Just write one piece a week - write, revise, and mail out one piece every week - for a year.  According to legend, everyone who has tried this has been published.  It's a little like those shot glasses of beer every minute - it seems simple, but the cumulative effect is somewhat larger than the shot glasses appear.)

A process.  Here, too, your preferences may vary.  Some like to brainstorm, then outline.  Others free write, write, write.  Hack and slash - er, revise in one grand frenzy, or perhaps a little every day?

Then finish.  And send it out, even if you still don't think the golden sunset sings quite right.

Then start another.

Or play a game?

1. Pick a phrase - quotation, overheard fragment, first or last line, whatever you may find - and write from it.  How many ways can you stretch that phrase, twist that metaphor, and make your words dance?
2. Ah!  Metaphor and simile.  What is and what is like our topic?  Your love is a green tomato, drowsing in the garden?  Or merely like a snail, slipsliding down the dewy rosebush?  Take a metaphor or simile (or two or three) and expand, twist, and play with it.  Turn those tired cliches on their side and see if there's still a new wrinkle or two left in them for you to show us.
3. Last, but never least, unravel a pop story and redo it as your very own. That movie, old children's story, or whatever you might have around can be the basis for practice.  What's the plot?  Now repopulate it with characters you prefer, change the scenery, and tell us your tale.  Or, if the poetic effect catches your eye, try to imitate it?  What is it about the rhythm, the wording, the imagery, and the moan that makes that line or stanza work?  (p.s.  I'm not sure what moan is doing in there, but it seems to fit, so I'll leave it there.  :-)

So, an antidote for the August doldrums.  Set your goal, refine that process, and play some games.  And see if the winds don't fill your sails, sending you skimming over wordy depths under the blue skies of the Muse.

"Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry."  Mark Strand

The writer's job is to get out of the way of the reader.