The Road to Writing - Everyday Things

Hi All -

By now you have picked out a journal book and perhaps have gathered some quotes.  Well, the journey to opening your creativity and getting you to write continues with this weeks topic - Everyday Things.

Yes, everyday things.  The problem is you may not notice things because your face is buried in your phone.  So put the phone down.  Put it down!  Take a moment and look around you. Go outside if you're not there already and observe the world around you.  Take notice of the little cafe down the street with the colorful window display, the kid on the swing, the way the birds soar in the air, how about the dad walking with his kid?

See? When you put your phone down you notice stuff and also cut down on your chances of getting hit by a car or falling down a manhole because you're paying attention.

Stories are born from the things around us. They play a part in a story we wish to create. Yes, believe it or not the little everyday things around us play a part in writing.

Take for instance, the idea of a little cafe with a colorful window display. The cafe could be a popular town hang out. It might be where your characters always meet when they get together. The cafe could be part of a characters memory.  The little cafe can be anything.  It can be a major or minor part of a story.

You get to create the cafe. You get to pick the type of tables and chairs it has.  What color are the walls.  Is it a little mom and pop cafe or a an upscale kind of place.  This is where your imagination can be set free.

The great thing about being a writer is that you get to create and mold or destroy your creations.

This week I challenge you to put the phone away for 15 minutes a day and write down what you see around you.  Write down the things that grab your attention.  You don't have to go into great detail but write enough that you can work with it later.

Good luck is this little adventure.

Your musical treat this week is Kenny Wayne Shepherd - I Found Love When I Found You.

Rock on!
~Maynard

 

The Road to Writing - Quotes

There are ways to get the creative juices flowing especially the writing kind.  For those that want to be better writers or are scared because they think they can't, as I stated before we all can write. It's just easier for some of us to whip out a pen and begin.

So to bridge the gap of "I can write" and "I can't write" I offer up something that is relatively easy to do.  Consider it this week's homework assignment or for that matter, this month's homework assignment and that is to write down quotes.

Our lives are surrounded by lyrics, memorable movie quotes and in general quotes in books or things we see on a board in a store window.  Write these things down because these quotes can lead to writing ideas or other creative adventures.  Plus, these quotes can be starting off points if you struggle to find the right words to start off a sentence.  Quotes can provide you with the right inspiration.  When you write down a quote, make sure you write down who said it or it's point of origin.  The more information you have about the quote the better it will help you.

Here a few of my favorite quotes:

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. E. L. Doctorow

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.  Roald Dahl

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them. - Gore Vidal

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. … Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.  - William Zinsser

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature. - Ernest Hemingway


Good luck in collecting your quotes!

Rock on!
~Maynard