Tag Archives: inspiration

March 25, 2010 · 8:40 am

A whole new design

I’m enjoying writing this blog so much that I’ve decided to get a web designer to help me put it all together so it works really well. I want to have a section on how to get published, another quickstart set of tips, links to more writers and more thoughts about writing. Plus, I’d like to do author interviews and photo prompts, alongside all the writer tips for you.

Today, I’m staying in a hotel in the centre of London. London is my home town, so it’s the first time I’ve ever done this – looked at the city as a tourist might. It’s been making me think about looking at stories from a new angle. London is filled with tiny quirky streets, cobbled corners, busy cafes, packed galleries, and loads of pigeons. As a tourist here, I’m noticing the details – details I often just take for granted as I rush about visiting one friend or the other, or trying to get work done.

How can you look at what you’re writing from a whole new angle? You don’t have to stay in a fancy hotel in Soho (although, I admit, it’s pretty nice!) but perhaps you can try your story from a different character’s perspective. Today, I’m looking at London as a tourist, perhaps I could look at London in my imagination through the eyes of one of those gallery goers, or even through the eyes of a pigeon!

So, take one of you characters and rewrite a scene through their eyes. What do you learn???

I’ll keep you posted on the new web design.

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Filed under Places for writers, Thinking

Tagged as character, creative, exercise, ideas, inspiration, process, rewriting, stories, story, suggestion, tips, writing

March 13, 2010 · 9:15 am

Festival continued…

Great workshops with great kids. We did some awesome travelling with out imaginations over the last couple of days and had many neat ideas on pages.

One thing I was reminded of is that writing has to be fun! Try writing a nonsense poem to help remind you of this – it doesn’t have to mean anything, just get some sounds and words down.

Nuf Evah (Have Fun!)

Dubai

I’m here in Dubai awaiting the start of the Emirates Festival of Literature. I’m here to teach a couple of workshops with teen writers in Dubai and I’m really looking forward to working with them.

Whilst I’ve been here, I spent a couple of days in the desert, enjoying lots of empty space and rolling dunes from my window. It got me thinking about writing and how sometimes you can stereotype place when you write about it. The desert isn’t always hot and dry. In the mornings, a heavy mist hangs over the sands, thickening the air. The sky isn’t blue but hazy. The sun when it heats up, feels so close that it’s heavy. I wouldn’t have known any of these things if I hadn’t been in the desert myself. Now, as writers, we can’t always go to the places we’re writing about – especially if it’s somewhere imaginary. But we can do research. We can read about places like the place we’re describing. We can talk to people who have been there. If it’s an imaginary place, we can research the realistic parts to make the imaginary parts feel more true.

That helps me not to stereotype descriptions of place when I’m writing.

Here’s an exercise: take a few minutes every day or so to describe the weather and the sky in the place you’re in. Really try and capture the essence of what you’re seeing, feeling, smelling… You’d be surprised – the sunset isn’t always orange, the morning isn’t often crisp…

Can you break those stereotypes?

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Filed under exercises, Thinking

Tagged as creative, exercise, idea, inspiration, questions, writing prompt

March 3, 2010 · 11:41 am

The Everafter

I’ve just finished reading The Everafter by Amy Huntley . The main character, Madison, is dead and she finds her way back to her life through the objects she lost when she was alive. It’s a romance, a mystery and a thoughtful book about letting go.

What objects make you reflect on your life? Could you chose one object and write about the memory you have because of it? Where does it come from? What does it make you feel? Can you write the memory down using all your senses, like Amy Huntley does, to really bring that moment back to life?

For Bailey

In the selection of quickstart ideas on this site, number five suggests writing a prose poem. This is a great form for those of you who have written stories and who want to try poetry, or those of you who’ve written poetry and who want to try something new. I wanted to use today’s post to explain prose poetry a little more…

Simply put, a prose poem is a poem that doesn’t have line breaks. It reads like prose on the page, but like poetry in the language used – think about rhythm, sound, internal rhyme, and imagery, just like you would if you were writing a poem.

Remember:

There are no rules of form or rhyme.
Think about an image that makes you want to write. Why does it?
Keep in mind, you’re writing the poem in sentences and fragments of sentences but you don’t have to think about punctuation.
As you write, use language that is poetic – can you find internal rhymes or rhythms to make the words sing?

When you’ve finished the prose poem read it outloud to yourself. Have you brought an image and an emotional truth together? Do you need to do this, do you think? Does the prose poem work for some reason that is hard to explain but you just know it does? If so, then you’ve done it, you’ve written a prose poem.

If I’ve got ten minutes, I chose a word from the dictionary and use it as a title for a prose poem. I try to let the words flow freely, I try not to get in the way of what I’m writing. I use the word and see if it brings an image to mind that I can capture on the page. Ten minutes isn’t enough to write a finished or polished piece, but it gives me a little writing time in an otherwise busy day.

Today, I’m packing to head on a four month trip. I look forward to writing lots, to taking some photos that’ll inspire you to write and to meeting readers and writers on the road. First stop, Toronto. Maybe I’ll have time to write a rough prose poem on the plane… now there’s an idea…

Tag Archives: inspiration

A whole new design

Festival continued…

Dubai

The Everafter

For Bailey

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