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<< BACK TO READING AND WRITING
October 11, 2012
Recently I posted a blog on how an old Star Wars photo inspired the storyteller in me. Afterwards, I received several requests for more tips on how to stimulate creative writing. So with this entry, I'm happy to oblige.
In the original blog, I wrote about a former writing professor who had students create a story around an innocuous image. I'm adding three more of these skill-building exercises. The third exercise will help you pitch your book to others.
It's important to note that I didn't invent these exercises. All of them are tried-and-true techniques used by aspiring writers. But if you haven't tried them before, give them a shot. After all, they may be the nucleus for something much larger.
October 11, 2012
Recently I posted a blog on how an old Star Wars photo inspired the storyteller in me. Afterwards, I received several requests for more tips on how to stimulate creative writing. So with this entry, I'm happy to oblige.
In the original blog, I wrote about a former writing professor who had students create a story around an innocuous image. I'm adding three more of these skill-building exercises. The third exercise will help you pitch your book to others.
It's important to note that I didn't invent these exercises. All of them are tried-and-true techniques used by aspiring writers. But if you haven't tried them before, give them a shot. After all, they may be the nucleus for something much larger.
- Write the conversation: The next time you're in a public place (a movie theater, a restaurant, the coffee house, a public park, etc.), position yourself close to two strangers who are having a conversation. Spend no more than two minutes eavesdropping, and if possible, write it down what you hear so you can use it later. It doesn't matter if you understand the context of the strangers' conversation, because that's what you'll be providing. Then take this snippet of random dialogue and develop a story around it, fleshing out the characters and providing back stories.
- Dream journal writing: Plenty of people keep dream journals, but for writers they can have a practical value. Ideas for short stories and novels have come to me in dreams, but the problem is I often forget details shortly after waking up. Keeping a dream journal handy will let you write down details before they slip away. Keep your journal for at least a month, then go back and find two dreams you want to flesh out into short stories or character sketches. Click here for additional information on keeping a journal.
- Tag a book. If microblogging has taught me anything, it's how to be economical with words. I still struggle with this, but Twitter's really helped. The goal of this exercise is to provide a tag line for an imaginary or real book. Try to keep it to 100 characters max. Additionally, you can practice a longer pitch for a book — what's often known as an "elevator pitch" or what you could tell someone about a book in the time it takes to ride an elevator three floors.
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