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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.

On Editing from THE Editor

I'm taking the liberty of writing an introduction for today's guest-poster.  Jenn Wagner reads.  A lot.  I go through a couple books a month if I'm lucky.  Jenn goes through a couple books a week -and finds editorial mistakes in nearly all of them.  Even those published by 'the big seven' publishers.  She reads across genres, fiction, non-fiction (I'd use the word voracious, but I absolutely despise the word.) She has an uncanny knack for picking things out of a manuscript that most people completely miss -even 'professional editors'.  I asked her to read Exiled in the later stages of the editorial process (smacking myself in the head for waiting so long) and she did a phenomenal job of picking out things (hundreds of 'em) everyone else missed.  Yes, she's that good.  This is why Jenn Wagner gets the title THE Editor. She doesn't know I'm writing her introduction -and will most likely find several editorial problems with it. But that's okay because she's on my side!

Ever been engrossed in a book, and then – “Huh? That doesn’t seem right!” You may have stumbled upon an anachronism, something that is

Virtual tour updated 6-30!

Well, it's underway.

Meet the illustrator of Exiled

 During the publication process, J.R. Wagner knew he wanted chapter illustrations for Exiled.  He had a certain style in mind and when he and Elizabeth finally came together, he knew he had found what he was looking for. 

Elizabeth Witiak is the chapter illustrator for Exiled; book one of The Never Chronicles. 

She is 20 years old and currently resides in Telford, Pennsylvania with her family. 

What did you think about the opportunity to illustrate for a novel?

This was my first time illustrating for a book. I found this opportunity as a perfect time to build onto my portfolio. 

When did you become interested in the arts?

   My interest in art first began at the age of 12, I would sketch templates for clothing designs and while being home schooled, my older sister would teach me art lessons. While in high school, I was inspired to try different types of art. Some of these included; pottery, which I studied and worked with for 6 years. I also took, drawing and painting, which I still work at today. A small handful of my work has been exhibited in local art shows. After graduating from Souderton area High School, I set off for college to major in art. My original plan was to become an art teacher, but now it seems that i have found my occupation as an illustrator, and it suits me the best.

Do you have a favorite medium? 

   When drawing, my favorite medium to work with would be charcoal, I like to add a lot of shading to my work, and charcoal makes that easy. I feel that some of my best work I have done in my portrait pieces of friends and family. The inspiration i get to create these portraits comes from past time artists, like Andy Warhol, and even current day artists like Kat Von D, who both also specialized in portraits.

Did you do anything specific for the artwork in Exiled?

   For my artwork featured in the book; Exiled, I wanted each image to capture the readers imagination about what is to come. It was also important that the image did not give away to much about the chapter. I envisioned each image to feel as if you were looking into that scene from the book. This was done by variations in my use of shading.  While reading each chapter, I would think about what part stood out to me the most, and that would help me in deciding what to draw. 

   Being a part of this book and getting to work with the author himself, J.R. Wagner, was such a great opportunity. I’m sure that you, the reader, will enjoy reading this book just as much as I have. It surely is one of a kind.

~Exiled, Chapter one~

~Exiled Chapter thirteen~