Our photo today is of a book, maybe a journal, opened to a blank page. The blank page can be a blessing or a bane. Your attitude is what determines which of those you are looking at.
Those who feel the blank page (or screen) is a blessing probably produce more stories, essays, and poems than the ones who consider it a bane. They are the ones who look at the blank page and sigh, change positions, keep looking at the blank page, change positions again, sigh and.... Obviously, that blank page does not motivate them.
When confronted with a blank page, and you have no story idea, the freewrite exercise can be of help. I can see a few of you rolling your eyes at me like a teen-age girl who can't handle something her mother has said.
A few days ago, my online writing group received the word for the week to do the freewrite exercise. We call it a Random Word exercise, but it's the same thing. The how to: Open a book, close your eyes and put your finger on the page. Whatever word your finger is on will be the word you use. The word given in our exercise last week was 'lost.' Set a timer for at least ten minutes, 15 or 20, if you like. Use the word and start writing about whatever comes to your mind. Don't stop and think, just keep writing. It doesn't need to make sense; it doesn't need to stay on one thought; it doesn't need to be grammatically correct. Just write!
When you read your effort at the end of the set time, you might find some gibberish, or you could see something that makes you want to continue. An idea for a story, or an essay, or a poem is often within those words you pounded out in ten minutes, all relating to the word given. You can write something about the word and keep going with another thought altogether. Whatever that word brings to the forefront of your mind. Your subconscious will be at work with this exercise, too.
Case in point: A few days ago, I was reading the week's freewrite exercise of several people in my online writing group. I found one especially good. I replied to that person who is basically a poet. I told her how much I enjoyed her exercise and that I thought she had the bones of a fine essay or poem. She wrote back to me saying I was a mind reader because she'd been considering turning what she'd written into a poem. No blank page for her!
Not every freewrite exercise will end up being worthy of continuing, but many will. Sometimes, one or two lines can be lifted and enlarged upon; occasionally the entire thing.
What I especially like is that, when a group of people use the same word, they all write something different. It can be whatever the word triggers, or the word itself.
Marlene Cullen moderates The Write Spot Blog. She has a good explanation of freewrites. On the right side of the page, you'll find a menu. Click on Prompts for some samples. She uses more than one word for the prompts, but it's basically the same idea.
Check this list of words, choose one, or more, to try the freewrite exercise:
shovel
trigger
duck
patriot
pet
blue
gullible
Did you notice that some of the words could be either noun or verb?
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