Free Write

Sometimes the best way to get your imagination flowing is by doing a free write. Most writers are very familiar with the free write. You sit down, set a timer if you wish (I usually so something like 15 minutes), and just write whatever comes to mind. It's basically word vomit.

A lot of writers will simply write what's going through their minds at the time. I don't know what to write. It's been a long day. The last time I had such a long day was that time I was hit by a car full of circus clowns. And so on until a story arrives. I usually wait a few minutes until something sparks and then start writing. Still others will already have something in mind they want to free write about, like a character they want to flesh out more.

Every so often on this blog, I will post my free writes. For this post I found an old free write that I'd done in a coffee shop years ago when I was still dating my now husband. He was studying for a test (we were both in college) and I was using the time to do a little writing. Something I hadn't done in a very long time. This was the first thing of mine that he ever read. I apparently kept it as I recently found it folded up in one of my writing notebooks.

I didn't mean to die, it just happened. My mother is going to be so angry with me. I guess I should have seen it coming with the way things have been going lately...or had been going? What tense does one use with one's dead?

I guess it all began on that windy night when I was rushing home, head bent against the gusts. It was late and the streets were mostly deserted. The moon hung suspended over the buildings shut up for the night with only a few warmly lit upstairs windows.

I was hurrying through the intersection of Burke and Capitol when a man came stumbling out of the darkness and all but knocked me over. He quickly righted himself and the bowler hat perched precariously on his balding head. He was a round sort of man dressed in tattered, out of date clothing. He wore a tweed jacket frayed at the sleeves with a gaping hole in the shoulder seam. Underneath was a bottle green waist coat and what I thought was a rusty gold chain belonging to a pocket watch. A knitted scarf was wrapped enough times around his thick neck, one would think he was securing his head from toppling off his shoulders.

"You must help me sir!" he burst out at me, his eyes darting between the shadows.
"I...well, I'm not sure I under--" I began before he interrupted me, grabbing fistfulls of my coat collar. 
"We are both in an immense amount of danger! They've already began looking for you!"

His breath reminded me of mothballs and his fingers, shaking so close to my face, were in need of washing.
"But who sir, is looking? What sort of danger?" I was becoming increasingly worried about the state of his mental health. Maybe he was drunk. 

He became even more agitated and began shifting his rather large weight from one foot to another.
"No time now! We've run out! We shouldn't be speaking out in the open. Come, follow me!" he sputtered. When I hesitated, he grabbed a hold of my wrist and began pulling with determination.

Against my better judgement, I followed.

Using a Given First Line

This has always been one of my favorite ways to get my brain going and my fingers itching to write. It's basically the traditional writing prompt, but boiled down to the first line. In elementary/middle school, I remember my English teacher writing prompts on the board for when we came in to class. Our first objective was to write a story using the prompt while she got all the necessary administration duties out of the way. I LOVED these. I couldn't wait to get to English class and start on a fresh new story. As soon as I read the prompt, my mind was off and running.

It's been quite a few years (12+ to be exact) since I had such a great daily way to exercise my imagination. When I picked up writing again, after a good chunk of years pursuing a degree that was not in writing (I'm still kicking myself for that one), I feel like my imagination has gotten a little rusty. It no longer feels like it is full to bursting with ideas that I can't wait to put down on paper. I have to work harder to get back into the writing mindset that was so easy as a child.

This could be because I'm out of practice, but also because I have a much stronger sense of the difference between good ideas and bad ideas as an adult, which really narrows down the list of possible stories. This is both helpful and a drawback. It keeps me from writing space operas about steam powered monkeys who save their planet from laser shooting unicorns, but it also puts a limit on where my imagination can run. Sometimes, the best ideas sound crazy at first, and then the reasoning part of your brain can use it in a way that makes sense.

You should see some of the stories I wrote as a child. I found one recently titled The Lizard Wizard that sounded a whole lot like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets....but with lizards. There were illustrations.

But I miss being able to let my mind run amok in a giant meadow of ridiculousness and I'm desperately trying to get back in the habit. These prompts are helping me do so, but I promise I won't write about magical iguanas or even steam powered monkeys, but you will see the raw word fluff that comes out of my head in the first fifteen minutes of attempting the exercise. So here it goes.

Prompt: Begin a story using 'Where were you last night' as the first line.

Where were you last night? It was an inevitable question that I knew was coming by the thirsty look in my roommate's eyes, the conspiratorial grin smeared with toothpaste as she watched me from our shared sink. I trudged in and flopped onto my bed .

She would expect, like most college roommates, an exhilarating tale of late night house parties or bar hopping on the strip, maybe a sordid affair or two. 

She really gave me too much credit.

She will ask me for details about the night, breathless and trying hard not to show the itch of jealousy, but I won't be able to give her the story she craves. My nights weren't spent gallivanting across campus with senior boys in a drunken haze.

They were spent with creatures far more dangerous than that.

But the less Courtney knew, the safer she'd stay.



Feel free to comment with your ideas and attempts!

-Exercise from What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

The Magic Spreadsheet

The first time I heard about The Magic Spreadsheet and all of its sparkly-rainbow glory, I knew I would have to give it a try. It was created by Tony Pisculli who wanted something to motivate (coerce) him into writing everyday. Mur Lafferty picked up on it and claims it has worked wonders. You can listen to Lafferty's interview with Tony Pisculli about The Magic Spreadsheet here. 

It has since turned into a massive Google+ community and shared spreadsheet. Writers can record their daily word count (minimum 250 words a day) and receive points for writing that day and extra points for not missing a day. The more days you go without missing one, the more points add up.

I began using it starting this month and am loving it so far. Although I was disappointed that logging in didn't magically give me writing superpowers that sent me into a keyboard smashing frenzy, the magic of The Magic Spreadsheet is not wanting to break that little, seemingly insignificant chain. It also helps that you can see other people's progress. I can't stand it when I can see other people chugging out a consistent word count when I forgot to write that day.

So no, the Magic Spreadsheet isn't going to instantly make you into a writer extraordinaire, but it will give you that daily nudge that says, "Sit down. Write."

Beginning Lines: Start in the Middle

This exercise was all about the first lines of a novel or story. The best novelists are masters at hooking the reader with those beginning sentences. They can seemingly transport you to another time and place with a handful of magic words (or is it magic beans?)

The objective was to start your readers in the middle of your story, in the midst of the action, but also to give the reader an immediate sense of setting and character. Here are my four attempts this morning:

1. Her eyes met mine over the tangle of clinking glasses at Mr. Rosenmann's exclusive party.

2. I knew the explosion would be big, but I didn't expect it take out the entire city block. The chaos had me in fits of giggles.

3. Ransoms have their perks. For instance, now you can put a monetary value to how much your family loves you.

4. Talin's brother always said she was too good at finding trouble, but she had a feeling finding herself up to her elbows in the stolen ship's electrical wiring as it began taking off was going to make the top of his list.



Feel free to comment with your ideas and attempts!
-Exercise from What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter