writing lessons and life reflections while on the train ride home
Sitting down with a notebook or a laptop and immediately feeling inspired to write is a huge expectation we put on ourselves, and not one that is easily achievable. I’ve found that focusing on my physical environment can kickstart the flow of ideas. Do you have a book lying around? How about a whole library? Here are three ways to use the literature existing around you to write your own.
Rovinj is an eclectic mix of colorful shutters, winding, white stone pathways, laundry hanging from multiple stories of windows, and a summer breeze. It’s almost more Mamma Mia than the film itself. Like with any location we’ve traveled to, there were many lessons we learned during our four days in the idyllic (former) island city of Rovinj.
While drafting a timeline of chapters for your creative writing story, create another character with the help of a few random idea-generating lists. Will this character belong in your story?
Today we’re zoning in on an exercise and a prompt that will begin the process of putting together the pieces you’ve been building. We started at creating a character, now we’re filling in the gaps.
We can learn a lot about each other by discovering our fears. The same can be said when developing a fictional character. You’ll be creating a list (rooted in their history), then creating a confrontational situation for your character.
Struggling to write your character through an emotional experience? Follow this series of writing exercises and prompts to open your character up to emotional experiences.
Dig deeper into your character by following these writing prompts. To create a well-rounded character, you must include a range of traits, positive and negative. Choosing their zodiac sign can be a great tool for this, along with writing them through a stressful situation.
Let’s continue creative writing by putting your newfound character into situations and see how they respond. Follow these quick exercises and prompts to get the most out of your character writing.
If you’re like me, you love the idea of writing stories. Having your words be read by others. Publishing your work. If you’re like me, you’ve figured out how difficult that can be, especially if you’re creating characters and a story line from scratch. Today can be the very start of this journey – the seed that will grow into something beyond you. Let’s start with a character.
Ahhhh, another Wednesday writing session. This is a time where you shut off the white noise in your life, reflect, and hopefully end up with writing you’re proud of. Since we are focusing on life writing still, we’re now honing in on intrinsic and extrinsic qualities of character building. The twist is, you’ll be writing about someone you intimately know.
We’re officially in another week of life writing practice, this time focusing in on including those key sensory detail that make your writing come alive.
Need ideas to unblock your creativity? Interested in writing but you don’t know where to get started? You can follow this life writing playbook with a friend, a group, or by yourself.
1. You don’t have to tell everyone when you’re making a big decision. They might try to include themselves in…
I’ll never forget a statement made by Damien Echols while leaving prison after surviving death row, wrongly convicted, for 18…
You open your eyes. Out the window of the train you see gleaming cities in the sunlight, sunflower fields stretching…
When people think about Edinburgh, they think about the historic architecture, the cobblestone roads, and the haunted legends. Personally, I…
It was my favorite night of the year. As my mother had me turn off the lights, she lit every…
This question proved to be harder to answer than a simple yes or no, as most questions are. I suppose…
To me, memories exist as a warm, blurry, slow-motion filmstrip. They live and breathe in the past, but I find…
J and I sat in our small car while driving back to base, over hills and valleys, an expanse of…
As a fourth grade teacher last year, we read the book Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech in my classroom.…
With this in mind, I realize that the majority of the population doesn’t know what it’s like to live on…
Pick a name on this list and start writing.
Starting a creative writing session with a stream of consciousness can empty out any personal thoughts or details that are lingering in your mind. You might be surprised by the gems that you write during this “zone out” time. Since I’ve started this routine, I have a difficult time beginning my creative writing time without emptying my thoughts and starting with a clean slate.
Choose emotions on this list to have your character experience. Try writing your character through multiple emotions, either due to an external circumstance or an internal realization.
