Category: Writing Exercise

Writing Exercise: Priming the Pump

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of the NaNoWriMo hive mind on the Internet

Sometimes, somedays, you just can’t get started. You and the blank screen pixels have become one. Maybe you are between works. Maybe you are coming off of editing. Maybe you don’t know where to go with the work in-progress (WIP). Maybe work was exhausting. Maybe you suffered a loss, an argument, you’re sick – mind or body or emotions just ain’t working yet.

And sometimes …. sometimes there is just nothing.

You may need to Prime the Pump. Just do a simple little exercise of 100 words. That is all you got to write. One hundred words. Maybe with 100 words you can write 100 more. Once the brain gets moving in one direction, it continues moving.

Collect a couple ideas and set them aside in a “Prime the Pump” list. You need to prepare in advance, because you likely won’t think of anything when you are in the middle of the ennui.

Examples for the list would be:

  1. 100 words of a character fault
  2. 100 words of a scene description
  3. 100 words of a motion like a kiss or a punch. Whatever is the next movement the character should be making.
  4. 100 words of why the character in the scene is fighting having the scene written. Dialog between me and him/her.
  5. 100 words of why I think I can’t write right now
  6. 100 words of what the kid did today
  7. 100 words why the spouse makes me happy
  8. 100 words of what I’m cooking for dinner and why I like the idea.

An Excel file should work just fine for the list. These are not meant to be an opus or even a sellable item. Just 100 words to kick start the day of writing. When you hit 100 words, switch out. Save the bit into the Prime the Pump folder with the day’s date and then go to the project you should be working on. Maybe have it already open, so you don’t even have to think about the switch. Just close out on the Prime the Pump file and go-go-go. The object is to get writing anything – so you can write something. 

For date formatting, I would recommend year-month-day format, that way the list appears in date order. Example:

2014 10 22 – Where I sit
2016 09 22 – Want to cry
2019 10 22 – The Kiss

By the way, if priming the pump doesn’t keep the words flowing after the switch out, give yourself permission to stop if you need to. You wrote something. Only 100 words, but if you are heartsick, or stressed, or whatever it is your brain is occupied with instead of writing, trying to write Product may not be happening today.

Give yourself permission because you tried. You actually put words on a screen. You tested to make sure it wasn’t just enough to start typing.

On the other hand, the attempt of Priming the Pump may keep you typing for hours – which is why you tested yourself. You never know which it is until you tried.

WRITING EXERCISE: Create a writing folder for Prime the Pump. Then create a PrimeThePump.xls (Excel) file. Record ten ideas. Write one of them and post it below.

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My Attempt: Where I sit when I am typing

Despite the heavy gray curtains, the afternoon sun shines in my eyes and overheats my face, interfering with my ability to concentrate on the computer screen. Glancing left and right , blinking the spots out of my eyes, shelves of books and towers of CDs and DVDs beg me to waste time with them. Studiously ignoring them, I curl my toes against the smooth wooden floors and bang out another 100 words. (72 words)

Writing Exercise: White Box

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Master isolated images at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dialog happens. It snaps, madcap, overlap. Wondrous.

In a blank room, with no action by the unnamed and undescribed characters. White Box Syndrome strikes again.

Rooms cannot be White Boxes (unless, of course, they are), but expanding beyond the perfection dialog can be a challenge. For my flash New Life Plans, all the activity happens in a small room, however by concentrating on the chair Dru sits in, the reader is oriented within the small stage instead of adrift in a generic interview room.

WRITING EXERCISE: From a work-in-progress (WIP) or recent story, find a scene where the “box” hasn’t been fleshed out. What is missing? Smell, sight, clothing, furniture, room temperature? What do you think needs to anchor the story to a stage? Rewrite the scene. After rewriting the scene, what ended up being the strongest anchor for the scene? When you started the rewrite, what anchor did you think was going to hold it together?

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My Attempt

For New Life Plans, I thought the interviewer’s computer screens were creating the anchor for the science fiction story – but they were too abstract, and in some cases did not exist in reality for the point-of-view (POV) character, making things even more of a White Box. It was the chair, fighting with the mechanism which grounded the scene in reality.

How about you? Comment below.

Writing Exercise: 50-Word Prompts 2019

Erin Penn

WRITING EXERCISE

Remember last year working on a couple of 50-word prompts. (50-Word Prompts 2018) I’m just back from Pennsic and really don’t have the energy to come up with a new writing exercise, so here we go again!

Write two 50-word flashes. Aim for 50 words, give or take five extra words. Don’t read my attempts until after you do your own. Writing them directly in the comment section below will help you focus on the flash aspect – just getting words out.

How does this exercise help you as a writer: (1) just write things out quickly; (2) learn to work from prompts (important for the anthology world); (3) practice writing to a word count.

TEXT PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH: Market

VISUAL PROMPT FOR 50-WORD FLASH

Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash

My Attempts

TEXT PROMPT: Market

“How much for him?” I waved at the male sex bot behind the counter. I never considered buying one ever before, but today’s town mating fair had left me feeling unexpectedly lonely. Too old to join the youngsters on the breeding platform, and too poor to join the contract buyers. (first published 3/21/2022; 50 words)

VISUAL PROMPT

She stared, a brunette tress falling in front of her right eye. I didn’t have money to give her. The wind cut us both, slicing skin with Jack Frost knives. Me, I would be going home and a warm bath would ease the ice wounds.  I passed her my blanket. (first published 3/21/2022; 50 words)

Other Cool Blogs: Chuck Wendig 4/18/2017

Erin Penn

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
Meme words added by Erin Penn

House Fire or Hot Property? Why not both? That pretty much is the publishing industry in a nutshell, and those that like to hang out in it. An living example of this metaphor is Chuck Wendig.

On his birthday in 2017, Mr. Wendig did a retrospective on his blog – Terribleminds – “What I’ve Learned After 5 Years and 20 Books: 25 Lessons.”.

Three pieces that grabbed me from the twenty-five on the list:

  1. Writing advice is … largely the product of survivorship bias.
  2. A writing career is a little bit jazz.
  3. Give the proper amount of fucks.

You can find the list here: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2017/04/18/what-ive-learned-after-5-years-and-20-books-25-lessons/

WRITING EXERCISE: Read the whole list of twenty-five and choose one that really strikes home. Write it up in a comment below explaining why it is important to you. By processing it out, explaining it, the concept will stick with you longer.

***

A writing career is a little bit jazz. 

I’m a plotter. Jazz is scary, improvisation jazz is even more scary. It’s structure isn’t a structure as much as a growth, layers of paint building from a pencil sketch which may or may not match what is in the mind but ends up so much more than I thought possible – or total dreck. Wendig wrote “You plan what you can, but the rest is experimentation.” Eek! 

And yet, jazz has its own beauty. Something beyond any plan. Adding a bit of jazz, a bit of music to a page to a book to a sentence. Create a canvas which people get lost in. The concept of a career having the same unsteady base is frightening and freeing.

Writing Exercise: Listen to the Music

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Every writer takes in inspiration through their senses, with some senses being stronger than others depending on the author. 

Me. I’m visual and touch. I see the scenes, feel the temperature, touch the surfaces. To write I need to be touching something – a keyboard or pen and paper. I’ve thought about DragonSpeak, but it doesn’t catch me on fire. To write, I just need to sit in my space with no distractions so I reach my inner space where things are happening. Sound is a big no-no for me.

Other people need other cues to write. Some people light a candle a favorite scent. Some people need certain lighting. Fuzzy clothing or other tactile trigger can indicate time to write. A nice cup of tea with a certain flavor not used any other time of day. So many rituals to activate the mind through the strongest sensory channel, letting it know TIME TO WRITE.

A lot of writers depend on music. For some, the music is part of the activation ritual only, not the ongoing process. They just listen to the song and approach the music for inspiration like I do visual prompt. Then turn off the music and write.

But most writers who employ music have it in the background to define the writing space.

David B. Coe listens to jazz. John Hartness has a certain playlist for when he writes fighting scenes. If you visit a coffee shop, you will see several writers with laptops and earbuds playing music. Many writers publish the “soundtrack” of their novel; music they listen to while creating or were inspired by for the story. Gibson House Press describes some in Novel Soundtracks (published November 19. 2018 – https://gibsonhousepress.com/novel-soundtracks/).

Me, when I hear words, they come out my fingers from my time doing transcription. But some people swear by it. Others want music without words. Sometimes people need words but can’t write with real ones so they work around the words interfering with their writing by listening to music in foreign languages.

Video game soundtracks are extremely popular because they are internally rewarding; they are built to be addicting and keep people doing the activity. (Looking for an outlet? – try Pandora’s Video Game Music Radio).

I’ve been remiss in not suggesting this sooner. Even though music is no-go for me (I listen to music for everything but writing), it may be the perfect thing for you.

WRITING EXERCISE: Explore Music with Your Writing. Go to Pandora or other music site, if you don’t have one already, and sample different types of music. Can you think of new words when hearing words? Does latino, classical, jazz, or video-game-experimental float your creativity? Think about your senses; which are your strongest for memory and interacting in the word outside of visual? For your starting ritual for writing (if you have one or think you need one), see what happens if you add a particular song or particular type of music. Remember for some writers, they only use music for particular types of writing – like fight scenes. Would that help you?

WRITING EXERCISE BONUS: Randomly pick one song. Can be through a large playlist or a random generator (like https://8tracks.com/mirandajae/some-random-tunes) and use it as a prompt to write a flash.