10 QUICKSTART IDEAS
There are so many ways to get writing – it’s just a case of sitting down and starting somewhere, right?
1- Look at the room you’re in right now. Find an object in it that makes you think of something important. Hold the object. Consider it from all angles. Does it bring up a memory? You have ten minutes. Start writing and don’t stop until the time is up!
2- You’ve got eight minutes to write – don’t let your pen stop writing. Set the timer and answer this question: What does the word JOURNEY make you think of?
3- Have you ever tried to write a haiku? You have up to seventeen syllables to write a poem (sometimes arranged as 5 syllables in the first line, the 7, then 5), which should mention a season. Show me what you come up with…
4- Keep your ears open. Listen to what people are saying around you. Take a line of dialogue that you overhear and use it in a story or a poem. Again, I’d love to see what you end up writing.
5- Write a prose poem with the opening words: Death is a man with… OR Death is a woman with…
6- Pretend you are the author of a blog and that you’re just about to go to prison. Write an entry for your blog.
7- Before you go to bed tonight, write two full pages about anything that’s happened to you during the day. When you wake in the morning, write two more full pages, starting with the last line of the two pages from the night before.
8- Imagine you are on a desert island. You have a pen and paper with you and nothing else. Who would you write to? What would you say?
9- There are two characters sitting on a bench having an argument. Who are they? Write down what they say? Write only the dialogue and see where you end up.
10- You are a journalist with an eye for a story. On your street, something terrible has happened. What? Find out the story by interviewing an imaginary character…
Don’t let your internal editor stop you from getting words down on the page. Just write, write, write! And send me what you’ve done if you want. I’d love to read it!
