A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.
James Boswell
I continued with my journaling last semester. When you find something that works its hard to give it up, and I’m not saying that all writers should journal I just find it to be an invaluable tool. First, it gets all the stuff out that I’m worrying about that has nothing to do with creative writing, kind of a dumping ground for my brain. Next, it gives me a focus for the day. If I just sit and write in my journal than everything else seems doable. And lastly, the journal entries are really fun to read months and years after you wrote them. These little bits of personal history tell me a lot about where my head was not only as a writer.
At the writer’s conference Jeffery Deaver gave a very funny talk using his past journal entries. I think some of them were embellished, creative license he is after all a writer, but because he is a very successful writer it was fun to listen to his entries when he wasn’t so famous. It was all in there self-doubt, self-deprecation, humor, stories about the ways he procrastinated.
I recently found my own journal from 1993 that gave me some interesting story and poetry starters. But it also gave me detailed memories of a time 16 years ago I would have never remembered.
Today, if you have no idea how you would start journaling take one of Bernadette Mayer’s ideas and just begin. This is a great list I found online when I was researching her poem, Midwinter Day.Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Tags: Bernadette Mayer, Jeffrey Deaver, Journaling
Posted by Writing Nag on Apr 23, 2009 in
writing prompts “Smell brings to mind… a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years.”
Diane Ackerman
A Natural History of the Senses
by Diane Ackerman has been on my reading list for a year, recommended by my first adviser at Goddard. I can now see why she recommended it. As a writer and a poet we are often reminded to engage all of our senses in our writing but for me the hardest sense to capture in words has been smell. Ackerman writes “when we see something, we can describe it in gushing detail, in a cascade of images…But who can map the features of a smell? We tend to describe how they make us feel.”
Here are two memorable smells that Ackerman captures in words. “Violets smell like sugar cubes that have been dipped in lemon and velvet,” She writes this is what writers do “define one smell by another smell or another sense.” “A Peace rose smells like sugared leather dipped in honey.” I highly recommend this book not only for writers and poets but for anyone who is interested in the world of our senses.
Today, spend some time writing about smells or look through your writing and find where you are missing lush descriptions of senses. Try to write about the smell of the ocean, a garden, your mother’s kitchen, a classroom, a new book, a spring morning, your dinner last night, a favorite perfume… Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Tags: A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman, sensory writing
“It is only through your conscious mind that you can reach the subconscious. Your conscious mind is the porter at the door, the watchman at the gate. It is to the conscious mind that the subconscious looks for all its impressions.”
Robert Collier (American motivational author, 1885-1950)
If you read part 1, I am using S.L. Stebel’s book, Making Your Subconscious Your Partner in the Writing Process and Double Your Creative Power!
This morning I took out my piece of writing from April 9th.
Here’s part II. Take a pen, pencil or highlighter and read your work, circling the words or words that leap out from the page.* When you are done, put the circled words on a new page and repeat the first process, writing at white hot speed without stopping to think. The words you have circled Stebel calls “trigger words’ “messages from your subconscious from stories struggling to get out.” Again when you are done put away the writing for at least a week. Repeating the process until you recognize when you should stop. At the end of the process, weeks or months you should have themes or story starters deep from your subconscious, words that need to be written.
*For me this was amazing, I didn’t remember writing many of these words.
Today, if you haven’t done this exercise I encourage you to do this. I’ve had this particular handout for at least 3 years, and I’m pretty stunned what words came up in part II. I will continue on with the exercise so look for updates. Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Tags: creative writing, creativity, writing prompts
Posted by Writing Nag on Apr 14, 2009 in
writing prompts,
writing quote Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. The chasm is never completely bridged. We all have the conviction, perhaps illusory, that we have much more to say than appears on the paper.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
When I do any kind of art work I feel this chasm the most. In my head my vision for my art piece is complete and beautiful…on the page it falls flat. Recently, I bought some new water color pencils, maybe I just need the right tools and then my art will be better. The pencils are beautiful but still the finished piece is lacking. Talking to my brother-in-law about this he says you just have to keep working on it, like writing the more you do it the better you become. It is hard to think he ever drew flat pieces like I do. But I think he’s right. Practice, practice, practice…and on that note a prompt. Whenever I am stuck with the blank page these prompts seem to get my keys and/or pen in motion.
- I remember (in the style of Joe Brainard)
- I have eaten-(in the style of William Carlos Williams poem This is Just to Say)
- I am
- I believe
- I forgot
- I want
- I need
- I love
- I hate
- The last time
- The first time
- I felt
- I was about to
- In________ fill in the blank with a place or a year
- On Fridays
Today, take one of several of these prompts and freewrite for thirty minutes. In October, a free write of “I remember” for Halloween yielded 3 pages and many amazing memories. Try it! Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Tags: Joe Brainard, Matt Smith Cambridge illustrator, William Carlos Williams, writing prompt
“When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do — well, that’s Memoirs.”
Will Rogers
I’ve been engrossed with Natalie Goldberg’s memoir writing book this week. I used to think memoir was only something written when you are old and retired, thinking back on your glory days, your childen, your career, your amazing travels. I guess I thought only famous people wrote memoirs or memoirs that sell anyway. This book has changed my thinking about memoir writing. Filled with creative writing prompts. Natalie uses short chapters to keep people with short attentions spans like myself, engaged and reading. Using examples from retreats or classes she taught Natalie illustrates how exciting and verbally stimulating writing memoir can be. As she states in the introduction memoir is not “a chronological pronouncement of the facts of your life” but instead a series of memories, moments and events that made you who you are. I think this book is a keeper, right up there with her classic Writing Down the Bones.
Inspired by her book, set the timer for 10 minutes and write about all of the houses you have lived in. Want more? 10 more minutes, write about a place you haven’t lived. Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
I just finished my first collage for this packet work. When it was finished to my surprise I had another idea for a poem. In my relaxed state of cutting paper, arranging colors, words and pictures I let go of my anxiety.
When facing a creative block or feeling stressed about your writing the urge to flee or do nothing (resistance) can be overwhelming. Sometimes a walk around the block is enough to get me to the next level. But when it doesn’t work I discovered last semester that working with paper, scissors and glue reduces my stress and provides another creative outlet.
You’ll need magazines, scrap paper, scissors, glue, a small block of time, and an open mind. This collage is for you, don’t think too much about how it compares to another artist’s work. It can simply be fun.
1.Go through magazines and pull or cut out images you like, don’t think too much about this,pick colors, pictures, words that speak to you.
2.Randomly place pictures, words, scrap paper, into a pattern that pleases you. Some beginning collage artists suggest looking at magazine ads for layout ideas, but this can also be intimidating. Don’t glue anything yet.
3.Leave the collage unglued for a couple of hours or even a day.
4.When you come back glue the images in place. You might find a new layout looks even better after an incubation time.
5. Set the timer for thirty minutes and write about your collage.
Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Learn More About The Art of Collage.
Learn More About Resistance and Creative Blocks.
Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it’s so hurtful to think about writing. Heather Armstrong, Keynote Speech, 2006
Heather Armstrong’s Blog.
As I’ve said before, if I don’t write my post in the morning I find it painful and difficult to write past 3:00 in the afternoon. I’ve found that the morning time is easy for me where later on it feels like a chore.
Have you found your block of time when writing works? Or are you still struggling to fit it in? This week try to write at different times of the day, at any time does it feel effortless? Today, work “time” into a short story, essay or poem…don’t think you need to finish it but just make a good attempt at setting it up maybe a character is always late or a poem about an antique time piece, a essay about the future of time or maybe a story about a time when you were lost, scared, or in new surroundings… Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Posted by Writing Nag on Dec 26, 2007 in
writing daily,
writing goals,
writing prompts “There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness were the themes of universal admiration. Eded out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish) they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows.”
Charles Dickens (1812-1870). ‘A Christmas Carol’
It was a very good Christmas…family, friends, food and wonderful gifts. It’s hard to recover from all the festivities and get back to work but there are only 6 more days to achieve your writing goals for 2007. For me that’s one more story to edit and get in the post because this particular magazine doesn’t take email. What about you? Have you procrastinated something all year? Could you set your mind to it and get it together before New Year’s Eve?
Today, check Duotrope Digest’s Theme Calendar for the last submissions for the year or Google “writing contest December 31, 2007″. If you don’t have anything ready pick a January 31 goal and start writing. Remember that half the battle is starting. Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?”
M.F.K. Fisher in ‘The Gastronomical Me’
I opened my first restaurant when I was eight in my parents kitchen. I served Fluffernutters and peanut butter sandwiches. No jelly. I didn’t like jelly. No hot food, I wasn’t allowed to use the stove. Although my only customers were my brother, sister and my cousins like most first time restaurant owners I was overwhelmed and it quickly folded.I was thirty-three before I opened my next one, unfortunately no Fluffernutters are on the menu. East-coasters know there is no substitute for true Fluff from Lynn, Massachusetts.
I just found this wonderful site Food Time Line. A great reference for writers, food writers and history buffs with interesting links about the history and introduction of foods into our world.
Today check out this site and then write about a new food discovery. Firecakes were Civil War food and monkey bread, a sometimes sweet layered yeast bread that pulled apart, became popular in the eighties. Now get back to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag
Best Food Writing 2007 (Best Food Writing)
American Food Writing: An Anthology: With Classic Recipes
Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More
