CHARACTER SKETCH. Write a few paragraphs about a character you want to use in a short story or novel. Who is this person? Describe her – what does she look like? What are her hobbies? Her job? Her likes/dislikes? What does she want from life? Who or what is keeping her from obtaining her goals/desires? Keep writing about this person until you feel you have known her for years.

DIALOGUE. Eavesdrop on a conversation at the office, in the grocery store, at the health club, or at a social event, and then recreate that conversation as dialogue for your story. Write it until it reads like people actually talk to each other.

JOURNAL ENTRIES. Look through the entries you have written in your journal. Do any of them explore philosophical issues, a miraculous happening, an unexplainable incident, an unsolved mystery, a turning point, a moment of truth, the gifts of grace and love? Dig deep, reflect and stretch your ability to translate your thoughts into words.

LETTER. Write a letter to someone out-of-town or just write the letter to an imaginary person, describing something or someone this person has never seen. It could be your garden, neighborhood, a refurnished room in your house, your new car, pet, or a newborn child. Write as complete a description as you can.

SCENE. Pick a scene from a book that you thought was just okay and rewrite it. Change it every way possible until you are pleased with your improved version as long as it still fits the story’s overall purpose.

MORE WARM-UPS TO TRY:

Newspapers and magazines are often good sources for ideas. When you’re stuck, they’re a good place to turn and write a reaction to the article.

Sometimes you can get ideas for stories or poems by looking at pictures or drawings. Study the picture or drawing and then response to what you see. There are many ways to interpret what you see. If there are people in the picture, describe them so that the reader can “see” their faces, their attitude, and their relationship. If it’s a drawing of a scene, write a story or a poem about it. How does the scene make you feel? Is there a tone of sadness, happiness, or peace surrounding the drawing? Describe the different objects in the drawing, and what are their relationships to each other and to time.

Start collecting pictures that catch your eye – keep them in your journal for future reference. Old family photo albums and scrapbooks make great warm-up exercises. Do you remember the people in the photos, the places, and the occasions?

List your favorite books, songs, recipes, special friends, places, events – how have they shaped your life? These are valuable bits and pieces no one knows but you.

Make a doodle chart of yourself. Sketch some basic things in your life and label them. From your doodle chart, others should be able to get a general idea of what you’re like. Then go ahead and sketch doodle charts of people you know.

Write about clothes, about food, about happenings, the list goes on and on. By now you should be pretty well warmed-up if not roasted!

RECAP

1. Start writing by using warm-up activities.
2. Keep your warm-ups in your journal for future reference.
3. React to newspapers and magazine articles.
4. Collect pictures, photos, drawings and use these to help get you started with story ideas.
5. Be observant and train yourself to write about everything and everyone around you.

Comments, questions, suggestions: neeliepubl@aol.com

It’s a known fact that Ernest Hemingway wrote standing at a lectern. He would shift from foot to foot, and when the writing really began to flow, sat at his desk to continue.

And Truman Capote claimed he was a completely horizontal author and could not think unless he was lying in bed, or stretched out on a couch or in a hammock.

Dame Agatha Christie tells us that she plotted her stories early in the morning while sitting in a bathtub of warm water, eating apples. John Nichols, who wrote The Milagro Beanfield War, also found soaking in a tub of warm water conducive for getting ideas flowing. I’m not sure what he munched on at 4:00 a.m. A writer friend told me that she needs a grease pencil in the shower. Must be something about warm water that generates the flow of ideas!

Kitchen tables were also a favorite for a number of authors. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote most of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on one. She managed to squeeze in writing between cooking, sewing, cleaning, and caring for her seven children. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte also used the family’s kitchen table to function as a writing desk. Jane Austen worked at a small round parlor table with hardly enough room for her notebook. In fact, she was so shy that at the slightest sound of someone approaching, quickly hid whatever she was writing.

Then there’s William Faulkner who maintained he wrote only when it rained. One wonders how the course of American literature would have changed if Faulkner set Yoknapatawpha County in Arizona instead of Mississippi.

Tennessee Williams worked seven days a week. He did not think writing on Sundays was a violation of the Sabbath although he did make one exception – Easter Sunday. Issac Asimov also wrote every day from early morning until late evening. Barbara Cartland, who produced over 500 novels, was still writing and being published when she was in her nineties. And Mark Twain never wrote another word after the death of his beloved wife Livy.

It seems that writing almost anywhere and time has been tried by some writer, still the act of writing remains as varied as there are writers. Now that you have taken on the role as writer, it’s your turn to find your writer’s space and time, your favorite pen, pencil, or computer, comfortable clothes, perhaps some background music, art piece, or pictures of loved ones. Do whatever works best for you. Writers share persistence and determination, frustration and ecstasy. By looking in your heart, you too, will discover your writer’s voice.

One final point in getting started is to check local community colleges for adult continuation or special interest classes in writing. Local libraries are other resources for writing groups, special presentations or writing workshops, or even critique groups. Signing up for a writing course, taking a workshop or joining a critique group can prove beneficial especially if you are a novice writer and may need the support and incentive from others with similar interests. A writing course can also provide the structure and basic techniques necessary for good writing.

Along these same lines, if several of your friends or members of a writing class are interested in starting a new and possibly small writing club, you might want to join them. This would allow for immediate feedback and critiquing of your stories, provide opportunities to share similar writing experiences with each other, offer encouragement to get through some of those darker moments, support each other’s efforts, shed light on new discoveries, and most important, laugh and cry together as you journey through this new adventure with pen in hand and love in your heart, transforming your creative ideas into captivating and inspiring stories.

Also consider joining organizations or clubs that offer networking opportunities with others who have already done what you are trying to do. Their suggestions, tips and resources are invaluable.

RECAP

1. Study the writing habits of the pros.
2. Find your writer’s space and time.
3. Practice writing techniques and styles to help find your writer’s voice.
4. Take writing courses, workshops or join a critique group to get feedback on your writing.
5. Join a writing organization or club that offers networking opportunities.

Comments, questions, suggestions: neeliepubl@aol.com

KEEP A JOURNAL: Professional writers have files or notebooks filled with notes, bits of conversations, cartoons, observations, newspaper clippings, photos, and doodles. They collect like crazy anything and everything. Who knows what poem, story or article is lurking among those scraps of paper.

SET UP A ROUTINE: Writers write every day; that’s their job. Cultivating the essential habit of writing regularly will make writing easier and fun. Carry a notebook – whatever fits into your pocket, purse, briefcase, and glove compartment – use whatever works best for you. Once you start writing, you’ll be amazed at how many new ideas will begin popping into your mind – jot down that good idea, or clever quip before it is lost. Good places to keep notebooks are:

• bedside table
• bathroom
• kitchen
• den or TV room
• car
• pocket or purse
• outside garden or patio

TAPE RECORDERS: Some writers prefer to use small hand-held tape recorders instead of notebooks. Recorders work best in cars while you’re driving or stuck in traffic. Recorders also work well on bedside tables. In no time, you will train yourself to hit the on-button in the dark and talk softly into the recorder without even waking your partner.

WHEN AND WHERE TO WRITE: At first you may need to try writing at different times: early morning, high noon, far into the night. The most important factor is once you’ve found your writing time, stick with it. Serious writers would never think of doing dishes, the laundry, shopping, playing golf, answering the phone during their writing time.

Find a place where you feel comfortable at writing: your room, the kitchen table, an office or den, soaking in a tub, lying on a couch, or while driving to work. Some writers use tricks to get them in their writing mode like listening to music or the natural sounds of the outdoors.

SEVERAL MORE IMPORTANT ITEMS TO HAVE AT HAND:

• a comprehensive dictionary
• an authoritative thesaurus
• an English grammar handbook
• plenty of pens or well-sharpened pencils
• computer or word processor

READ: Begin your writing library with several excellent reference books:

• Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon, Writer’s Digest Sourcebook;
• Creative Writing by Lavonne Mueller and Jerry D. Reynolds, Laidlaw Brothers;
• For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham, Ballantine Books;
• On Writing Well by William Zinsser, HarperPerennial;
• The Writing Life by Anne Dillard, HarperPerennial;
• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.

RECAP

1. Keep a journal.
2. Set up a routine – when and where you write.
3. Equip yourself with important reference books.
4. Write every day.
5. Get started and keep it going.

Excuse My Dust is a newsletter to help you along your writing journey from first putting words on paper to the published product.

Comments, questions, suggestions: neeliepubl@aol.com