A Blank Page Calls For Freewrite Exercise

 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? 

A Top Freewrite Exercise

 

One of the best writing exercises is a freewrite one that begins with two little words meant to trigger memories and more in your mind, both conscious and subconscious. 

A freewrite exercise is simple and not time consuming. You are given a prompt or a single word. Set a timer for 10 minutes, write the prompt or word and then keep writing without stopping for the full ten minutes. Don't worry about punctuation or spelling. Don't stop to think about what you're writing. Don't worry if nothing connects or seems to make sense. Keep going until the ten minutes is up. 

Marlene Cullen of The Write Spot uses wonderful prompts to help writers do this exercise. Visit her website and blog sometime. You'll find it very interesting, I'm sure.

For today's exercise, do a freewrite starting with these two words--I remember...

Give yourself free rein and see where it takes you. Have fun!

Freewriting Exercise

 

I've posted many times about the freewriting exercise. The reason I remind you every now and then about doing it is that the exercise brings results.

Freewriting is done with the aid of a prompt. It can be a word or a phrase. What word? What phrase? Find one by opening a book, any book, close your eyes and point. Wherever your finger lands is the word you'll use for the exercise. 

Set a timer for ten minutes. Type the word, then start writing. No thinking, just write. It need not make any sense to you but keep writing whatever comes into your mind and flows to your fingers. As our poster today tells us, this exercise helps to free your writer's voice. It also allows thoughts to emerge from the depths of your mind. 

More than once, when I've written for ten minutes, then read what I'd written, I am amazed at what I read. I've thought 'where did that come from?' Sometimes, memories from long ago surface.

You might also find the bones of a story or a personal essay. And everything you wrote might seem like gibberish. That happens, and it's no problem. The important thing is to do the exercise and let the words flow without stopping for the entire ten minutes. I know people who set the timer for fifteen or twenty minutes. Ten is fine, especially when you first try this exercise. 

Some writers do this exercise on a regular basis as they feel it gets the juices flowing for the more serious writing they will do next. A warm-up.

If you don't want to try the point to a word in a book method, here's a list of winter words to use as prompts. You may end up writing something altogether different than the weather these words imply.

• cold
• temperature
• snow
• sleet
• ice
• skates
• ski
• chills
• frost

Writing exercises are the way writers practice just like athletes who do warm-ups before a game.

Don't be one of those writers who thumb their nose at exercises. They can be fun and help you on your writing journey.

A Writing Exercise That Brings Results

 

What will she write?

Last evening, I attended a writing group meeting in California via Zoom. At one point, we were given a prompt to do a Freewrite exercise. Several people read what they had written. It amazed me how welldone they were, All the writing tools they had came through in what each had written. 

This enforced my own belief that once you have learned to use the writing tools in our word world, they become automatic whenever you write, even in an exercise like this. It's a vote for 'practicing your writing every day.'

Usually, my Freewrite exercises are done with either one word or a photo. Marlene Cullen, the moderator of The Write Forum, sends prompts that are several words. Last evening, the 4-word prompt inspired everyone at the meeting. The prompt:  The last time I...

Those few words brought everyone in a different direction. My very first thought was 'The last time I saw Paris' but only because of the lyrics in a song. I scratched that and instead, my first line was 'The last time I saw my mother...' And I was off. By the end of the allotted time, I had a rough draft for a personal essay. From the ones we heard read aloud, I would say each one could either stand alone or be expanded upon. 

By now, you should know the drill. Find your prompt, whether a photo, word, or the beginning of a sentence. Set a timer for 10, 15, or 20 minutes. Then write without stopping, without thinking, until the timer alerts you that it's time to conclude your thoughts. 

Will you always come away with a full piece of writing good enough to continue working on? No, but oftentimes you will. Or you might lift one valuable paragraph to continue working on later. Sometimes, what you write in this kind of exercise is pure drivel, but most of the time, you'll find something worthwhile.

Freewriting allows your mind to open and your subconscious to surface into actual thoughts. It also can trigger memories that you can use in a story or memoir or inspirational piece. You can even turn what you have into poetry.  I like to think of it as searching through the attic of your mind. You never know what treasures you might find. 

Marlene Cullen, the leader of last evening's zoom meeting, has a blog that gives you many excellent prompts as well as some book reviews and articles by guest bloggers. I have been a guest blogger several times for her, and she has done the same for me. You'll find her blog at 

https://thewritespot.us/marlenecullenblog/  There is a place to sign up to receive the blog regularly. It would be a great way to be sure you do some writing exercises on a regular basis. 

I'll leave you today with a Freewrite prompt:  I remember when...

An Exercise to Set Your Writer's Voice Free

I've encouraged you to do freewrite exercises many times. Many times because they are worth your time and effort. The poster today gives you one reason to do the freewrite exercise--to set your writer's voice free. 

The exercise is quite simple. Pick up a book, open it, close your eyes and point to a page. Whatever word your finger lands on is your prompt word.  Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write the word, then let your fingers go as fast as you can writing whatever comes into your mind. It need no be a story; it can be a jumble of different sentences that have no relation to one another. Or, it can morph into a vignette, or slice of life piece. It's whatever comes from the recesses of your mind. 

It's possible that what you write ends up being pure drivel, or it can be something that has real merit, something you can build on. 

You're going into parts of your mind you don't always use by making this a no-holds-barred exercise. Opening closed doors in your subconscious can help you with future writing. 

If you don't want to use the 'pick a word blindly from a book' method, here is a list of word prompts. Choose one today and freewrite for 10 minutes. Don't stop and ponder. Just keep writing. Try another tomorrow and the next day. Most of all, have fun with this one.

• sky
• field
• dynamite
• sorrow
• fun
• carousel
• train
• elongated
• misery
• flower
• storm

Hope and Despair: A Writing Exercise

When we write about feelings, we shouldn't skim the top and move on. It's quite easy to do that. Why? We don't always want to dig deep to see what we find about our feelings, especially the negative one. Writing about our feelings helps us face them and act upon them. We might want to tone them down a bit or rev them up, depending on what kind of feeling you're viewing.

Learning about our own feelings and how we deal with them can only help with the characters fiction writers create, the ones that memoir writers feature, or the people in our family stories.

The weekend is upon us. Maybe you'll have a little more writing time. For an exercise do a freewrite on the two feelings in the signpost above. Hope and Despair. Two opposites, for sure.

To freewrite:  Put the word first, then let your fingers fly across the keyboard or with your pencil and let all thoughts about the word spew forth. Don't stop to think. Keep writing even it seems like gibberish. When you do it this way, thoughts from the inner recesses of your mind will be found. Set a timer for 10 minutes, but if you're still going strong then, just keep going. You might be very surprised at what you have when you stop. No one but you will see this, so don't spare your own feelings; let your thoughts emerge.

My online writing group does a freewrite exercise each week. One member chooses the 4 or 5 words for the month, sends them on the weekend, and those who choose to do them take off. Doing two freewrite or, as we call them Random Word, exercises a month count for one submission. Let's face it, anyone can spare 10 minutes out of the day to do a simple exercise like this. Many of us have expanded on our exercise and written full stories or essays.

Hope prompts:  Think about the hopes you may have had as a child or a teen. What about your hopes for now and in the future? What is hope? How does it figure in your daily life?

Despair prompts:  When were you filled with despair? What did you do to change? Did you ever enjoy the feeling of despair? How can you keep despair out of your life?

The prompts above are only to help you get started. You'll come up with plenty more. Have fun with this, then try applying some of what you found for your characters.

Using Songs To Inspire Writing

Songs and Writing

All things that serve as memory triggers are definitely a writer's friend. We see something that brings us back to our mom's kitchen. We hear a noise that suddenly makes us think of Dad's workshop. We taste a piece of cake that shouts "Grandma!" to us. Those memories give us story ideas, fuel for memoir pieces, and inspiration to write many things.

Songs are one of the greatest memory triggers. Maybe even a few lines of the lyrics of a song that meant something to you or returns your thoughts to a certain era of your life. Even the title of a song can give us the inspiration to write. 

For a writing exercise today, choose any of the song titles below and start freewriting. It could be just words in the title that inspire you, or it might be what experience or time of your life that the song title triggers. You may be a fan of the composer or lyricist, or know the history of the song. What about the Happy Birthday song pictured above? Do you know who wrote it? When? Why? 

The List of Songs:

• Body and Soul
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
• Greensleeves
• We Are The Champions
• Little Yellow Submarine
• Crazy In Love
• Eye of the Tiger
• Mack the Knife
• You Always Hurt The One You Love
• Stairway To Heaven
• Happy Birthday
• Stormy Weather

Eight Writing Exercises

My husband and I are going away for a few days so there will be no new post here until Monday, August 8th. I'm posting four photos below that you can use to do the photo prompt exercise. Below that, you'll find a list of words that you can use for a freewrite exercise. That should keep you busy until I can post a new topic next week. 

Photo Prompt Exercise

Study the photo, then write a paragraph, several paragraphs or more using the photo as a base.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Words For Freewrite Exercise

For each word, write 10 minutes without stopping. Write whatever comes into your mind.

• tasteful
• torrid
• bagpipes
• shy

Random Word Writing

No reason for this picture other than the spectacular full moon we saw last night. Truly an awesome sight. Is it any wonder that poets like to expound upon the moon, plus the fact that it rhymes with a lot of words? 

But on to today's post. In my critique group (writersandcritters), we do a weekly Random Word exercise. Members take turns in posting a word a week for a full month. They select the words in various ways. Some open a book or even the dictionary, close their eyes, and point. Wherever the finger lands determines the word for the week. Others use a theme, so they might post words that are seasonal or all action verbs. They might choose words that have to do with the military or schools or whatever else they come up with. 

The word, and sometimes a dictionary definition, is posted. The members who choose to do the exercise freewrite for no more than ten minutes. At the onset of the ten minutes, the writer is to write as fast as possible whatever comes to mind without self-editing. It can be drivel. It can be rhyming words. It can be fiction, something true or a memory the word triggers. Anything! 

When the ten minutes are up, stop writing. Some put Time... at this point in case a thought is interrupted. Sometimes, what you've written really is drivel and worth very little. However, there are many times when something you've written has keywords that will help you write a new essay, story, or article. I've seen members in my group who have expanded on the ten minute exercise to a full piece ready to submit to the group for critique and then hopefully to submit for publication later. 

A Random Word exercise is a great way to warm up before you start your serious writing for the day. 

You can do your own Random Word by opening any book in your possession, close your eyes and let your finger land on a word. Then set the timer for ten minutes and write nonstop. Keep those fingers on your keyboard and write whatever comes to mind, no matter what it is. I've seen people write a few sentences then say something like this is worthless, where am I going with this? but that's OK. They are still writing.

To get you started, I'll give you a Random Word for today. The word is:  obnoxious

ob·nox·ious

   [uhb-nok-shuhs]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

highly objectionable or offensive; odious: obnoxious behavior.

2.

annoying or objectionable due to being a showoff orattracting undue attention to oneself: an obnoxious littlebrat.

3.

Archaic . exposed or liable to harm, evil, or anythingobjectionable.

4.

Obsolete . liable to punishment or censure; reprehensibl

Writing Exercise Number One

1.  Today, we begin our series of writing exercises. Practice like a concert violinist. Practice like a pro football player. Practice like a ballerina. But practice your writing skills on a regular basis.

Freewriting Exercise:


A Freewrite Exercise may seem like pure nonsense to you, but it can bring interesting results and ideas for future stories/essays/articles.

1. Pick a word from a book, a dictionary, thesaurus--anywhere. Close your eyes, point your finger and use the word where that finger lands.

2. Set a timer for ten minutes

3.  Start writing whatever comes into your mind and don't stop until the timer announces the end of your ten minutes.

It may be gibberish at the beginning, but the brain kicks in and sometimes you end up with good results. Occasionally, it will continue to be gibberish, but that's OK. I often start with words that rhyme with the word chosen and an idea will come from one of those. The randomly selected word may trigger a long-buried memory of an actual event or experience. Or it might give you the beginning of a fiction piece, or at least the bones of a story to be fleshed out later.

Try one of these Random Word Freewrites each morning as a warm-up to whatever your writing project is for the day. Ten minutes is all it takes, and it will be time well-spent. My critique group does this exercise and sends the result to the rest of the group. One little word brings interesting and varied responses.