The Importance of Writing Exercises

a guest post by Carlie M. A . Cullen




You sit down at your computer for the first time of the day, open up the document ready to dive into your latest work of art and what happens? You struggle to get started. Once you get into the flow, you’re fine, but it’s those first few painful minutes where you suddenly doubt yourself. So why is this? Why does it happen?

Your brain and creativity, like any other muscle in your body needs warming up before you start to really exercise it. Put it this way – would you run a marathon without stretching your leg muscles first? Would you try bench pressing a huge weight without easing into it with lesser weights first? Not if you’ve got any sense you wouldn’t! 

You would end up with painful pulled muscles and ligaments which would seriously inhibit your ability to do everything you’d normally achieve without thinking about it.

So why strain your creativity in the same way?


A five or ten minute writing exercise completely unconnected to your current ‘Work In Progress’ will warm up those muscles in your brain and get the creative juices flowing.

Here are some examples of what you can do:
· Free Writing – pick any word at random and write whatever comes into your head about that word. Don’t stop to correct spelling mistakes or grammar, just keep writing.

· Pictorials – pick any picture from a newspaper or magazine and write about what you see. Describe the environment, describe any people in it, describe any feelings the picture invokes.

· Photographs – choose one of your own photographs and write about the day it was taken. Where was it? Why were you there? Who were you there with? Describe the scenery or buildings. Talk about any people in the photograph; who they are, what they mean to you.

· A lyric from a song – it may be an unfamiliar song you hear on the radio or a new CD, or one that you know particularly well. What feelings does that lyric invoke in you? Does it fill you with joy or happiness? If so, why? Does it make you sad and if so, why? Does it make you remember events from your past? If so, what, and how does that affect you now?

· Look out of the window and choose an object or person/couple you see. Describe it/them. If it’s a person, wonder about what sort of life you think they lead, where they’re going. Look at how they’re dressed. If it’s a building, what sort of people do you think live there, what are their lives like? Describe what you imagine.

· Everyday objects – choose a random object from your house and build a mini story around it. It could be something as basic as a ball of string, a rolling pin, a candle, a pack of playing cards, a box of matches. The list is endless.

As you can see, there are so many possibilities of things you can write about to exercise that muscle before you attempt to begin on your latest project. And because the creative juices are already flowing, you will find it much easier to pick up where you left off with your project.

If you can discipline yourself to spend those few minutes doing your warm up exercises, I’m sure you’ll find those moments of doubt and struggle disappear, and your writing will be all the richer for it.

Research: Writing with an authentic voice

by J.R. Wagner

Trinity Library, Dublin Ireland (been there, such a cool place!)

I've been asked on numerous occasions how much research goes into writing.  Many people believe because I write fiction, I can simply make it up as I go.  This couldn't be further from the truth.

Just because the story isn't true, the characters aren't real or the setting is a place from my imagination doesn't mean I can simply wing the entire writing process.

I'll give you my most recent example:

I just completed a novella set in the mid 1800's. The first thing I researched was the geography of the setting at that time.  Where there any towns in that area?  What was the landscape like? What was the population of the town?  How did they get around? (horseback, cars, bicycles)

The story took place in a country estate. What were the buildings like in that time period? What were the grounds like? What were the indigenous species of plant-life in the gardens? What was the layout of the house?  Where was each room located and what was it called? (we don't have sculleries and larders in our homes today) What about the furniture? How did they dress? What type of money did they use? What books were popular?

Why is any of this important?  It gives the narrative authenticity. If you want to immerse your readers into a particular time period, they have to believe, down to the last detail that they are in that time period.

Be careful not to detract from what drives all great stories -the characters and the plot.  Allow the characters and plot to move the story forward through this authentic world you've created.  Do not allow your overly authentic world to slow the progression of the story just to show off the fact that you've done your research. Plot and character progression always come first.

Some writers will research before they ever put pen to paper.  I am the opposite. I'll write my first draft and include notes to myself to go back and look something up. I let the plot and characters take charge and follow with a second pass to do the research.

For example: Billy made his way to his bedroom (check)  fussing with his jacket (check)  (type of chair?)before slumping in the fireside chair and picking up a copy of Harry Potter. (check)

Turns into: Billy made his way to his bedchamber fussing with his waistcoat before slumping in the the Regency Giltwood armchair and picking up his copy of Emma.

Bedrooms were called bedchambers during that time period.

English manor house bedchamber

 The attire of the day for a man
included a waistcoat.

Waistcoat

The Regency Giltwood armchair was a popular piece of furniture in both time and place

Regency Giltwood Armchairs

Emma, the popular novel by Jane Austen was first published in 1815 in the United Kingdom

Where did I find all this information?  Did I google it?  Wikipedia?

I typically use google and Wikipedia to help narrow my search for better information.  Through those searches I discovered a treasure trove of books on the topics I required.

Here are a few:

Subtleties of Showing, a guest post

By C. M. A. Cullen