Ray Bradbury once said if you’re a writer and you’re blocked, well, you’ve picked the wrong subject then, haven’t you? At least he had a subject. For me, writer’s block was never so much about stalling in the midst of writing a story as the lack of a story idea.
Until the late winter of 2013, I had never suffered from writer’s block. If anything, I was a bit of a snob, doubting that writer’s block even existed. I thought it was an excuse on the part of writers to keep from doing their jobs – you know: The Work. I’d written hundreds of features as a journalist for a daily newspaper, and then after seguing into fiction, dozens of short stories and two novels, and they had all come easily to mind. I couldn’t fathom a loss of inspiration, and then one day my mind went blank: I had no clue what to write next. In desperation, I scoured my Idea File – a manila folder crammed with notes, photographs, newspaper clippings – even etchings on fast-food napkins – in the hope that a brilliant notion would sally forth. When it didn’t, I Googled my favorite topics: birds and birdwatchers and the American West, and visited my local library.
Yet after four months, nothing spoke to me. I began to wonder if my writing career was over. When I confided this fear to my writer friends, they said, “You’re tired, Renée, don’t be so hard on yourself. Take the summer off.” So I did. And the relief was immediate.
For weeks I did nothing more than tackle household chores and catch up on errands. I knew I’d made the right decision to take time off when I drove the speed limit day after day (o glorious leisure!), rather than race from the store to the bank and then home again, stressed that I hadn’t yet hit my word count.
But a funny thing happened during that down time: it calmly and quietly occurred to me that if I couldn’t think of a story to tell, I could tell someone else’s story. I selected a favorite, John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” and labored to make it my own. About a month after that, I also spotted an intriguing photo on Facebook, which inspired the premise for my new novel. It seemed that giving myself permission to breathe again had recharged my batteries, but even so, I moved forward cautiously. I signed up for a workshop led by a local writer, Jodi Angel, author of You Only Get Letters from Jail. Jodi is straight-forward, articulate, and utterly devoid of the flowery compliments writers give one another. She’s also a believer in prompts – or windows, as she calls them. I’d never written to windows, and doubted this plan would work for me. Still, I was determined to learn something new, and so I forged ahead. Over the next six weeks, my workshop-mates and I wrote 1,000-word stories based on the following prompts:
- A winter coat in summer. (My first stab at writing a piece in first-person; I had to assume the point of view of a dog, just to get through it.)
- The color yellow. (This endeavor produced a slightly more daring piece on Disney inkers and painters. Side note: Disney inkers were all women in the Snow White era, earning roughly $18 per week to a male animator’s $300.)
- Intense clarity. (At this point we were halfway through the workshop, and I was getting bolder. I wrote a story about a robber who abandons his friends in the Oregon desert, thwarting his own arrest.)
- Disappointment. (This assignment induced panic on everyone’s part, since Jodi asked us to write in second person. I wrote a short-short from Pete Best’s point of view, regarding his sacking by the Beatles.)
- On week five, each writer was given a different genre, with a specific location and an article, which we were asked to incorporate into the story. My assignment: sci-fi / drug-rehab center / wig. (I wrote about a dog who morphs into a woman, in order to kill a killer.)
- In this, our last prompt, we were each assigned a random sentence from a different novel. My sentence: “She had cut her wrist with a knife.” (This produced a piece about a misfit genius.)
What I’ve learned from all of this – the writer’s block, the letting go, the need to embrace a new writing practice – is that it’s crucial to be as kind to myself as I am to others, and to cut the ties of judgment. In moving forward, I now have a strategy to deal with writer’s block: follow Jodi’s lead and pick a word or a sentence – any sentence – and know it will take me where I need to go: from paralysis to action.
Renée Thompson’s latest novel is THE PLUME HUNTER (Torrey House Press, 2011). She has placed in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition on three occasions, most recently taking 2nd place for mainstream/literary fiction. She has new stories forthcoming from Crossborder and Chiron Review. Find Renée at reneethompson.com.
It’s been several months since I’ve written for Two Writing Teachers. In December my son was born, and I was on maternity leave until a few weeks ago. Then, in March I pushed aside all excuses… Continue reading →
Guest post by Deb Lund
Most of you know me as the author of rollicking rhyming romps like my dinobooks, Dinosoaring, and Monsters on Machines, but preparing for a retreat with Darcy forced me to finally complete a first draft of an upper middle-grade historical fantasy. But kidlit isn’t where my writing started. My writing dreams began with wanting to write for adults, so I played with novels, short stories, and poetry. I’m getting back to trying an adult novel right now, but I’m jumping ahead here. Let me back up.
Deb Lund online.
[DebWeb.jpg] Web site link for here and/or in bio below. http://www.deblund.com]
Years ago, I was an elementary teacher librarian who wanted a sabbatical, but my school district didn’t know what to do with me since I already had my master’s degree (which focused on teaching writing). The personnel director said I could plan out my sabbatical year and list activities that I would do, comparable to a master’s degree, and my list had to relate to my job. My first thought was, “But I wanted to work on my novel!” And then the light went on. *Kids’ books!*
These days I find myself teaching more adults than kids. I love presenting at conferences, providing continuing education courses for teachers, and offering writing classes when my schedule allows. I often say that once I figured out I could teach adults the same ways I taught kids, we all learned a lot more and had a lot more fun.
That’s how my 54-card deck and guidebook set Fiction Magic: Card Tricks and Tips for Writers got its start. You’ll find them on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter right now, but they won’t be there long. Why Kickstarter?
Kickstarter makes it possible for people with creative ideas to get the backing they need to pursue those creative ideas. I thought about sending the cards out to publishers, but since this project wasn’t the usual kidlit submission, I didn’t want to face another huge learning curve for this one unique project. In what genre would you place a writing-teaching card deck and book set? And with all the presentations and teaching I had done using my homemade deck, I already knew I had an audience, especially after all the requests I had from writers who saw what the prompts could do for their manuscripts.
Here’s how Kickstarter works: You design your project, come up with rewards for people who contribute to the project, explain your project in print and on a video, have it approved, set the date, tell everybody about it, and then try to reframe the ensuing anxiety as exhilaration and excitement.
Fears About Kickstarter
Failure. It was daunting to put myself out there like this. To be so public about the possible failure. But as a creativity coach, I know taking risks is an important part of the creative process. Failing is part of it, too. And so is picking yourself up after a fall. I’m no longer the person who had her first rejection years ago and didn’t submit anything again for 15 years.
Imposter. And then there’s the imposter syndrome. That’s how I felt today after seeing another big-name author back my cards. This one is not only getting the cards, but paying me to talk to her. I’m used to the imposter syndrome now and I don’t stay there for long any more.
This imposter business is where it’s good to have my own inner creativity coach to balance out my inner critic. Even though I’ve always prodded and been drawn to people who mentioned something they’ve “always wanted to do,” I have to admit that there were definitely selfish reasons for taking creativity coaching training, and even if I never worked with a client it would still have been worth it.
I coach myself pretty much daily. It’s not magic. You can be your own coach, too. I remind myself of my teaching and training. Of all the successes of my students and clients. Of the accomplished writers who seek me out when they hit blocks. I must have something to say. And if I do, you do, too.
Say it. Say that something that can help another find their way, see a new vision, take a risk. A risk like going on Kickstarter. A risk like joining a critique group. A risk like signing up for one of Darcy’s workshops. A risk like writing.
What risk can you take today? Not the big dream. Just one little step broken down as far as it can go. Take that step. Let us know how it went…
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Deb Lund is an author, teacher, and creativity coach. She is proud to be on the Western Washington SCBWI Advisory Committee and to chair the original Inside Story. She babbles on her blogs and dabbles in the arts on Whidbey Island. See what Deb is up to at www.deblund.com.
From Darcy: Support Deb’s Kickstarter Project here. Only 6 Days to Go! The main goal has been reached, but the stretch goal is still looming! Read about it now! (“I want all my writers to have your cards.” Jen Rofe’, Agent)
Kristen Robbins Warren honors her middle school students' independent writing lives by incorporating three literary rhythms (Monday Morning's Muse, Wednesday's Writing Window, and Friday Favorites) into the school week. 
2013 GradeReading.NET Summer Reading Lists
Keep your students reading all summer! The lists for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, include 10 recommended fiction titles and 10 recommended nonfiction titles. Printed double-sided, these one-page flyers are perfect to hand out to students, teachers, or parents. Great for PTA meetings, have on hand in the library, or to send home with students for the summer. FREE Pdf or infographic jpeg.
See the Summer Lists Now!
You know you should try writing your story in first v. third point of view, but for some reason, you put it off. Why? Because you’ve gotten a first draft of a scene or chapter and you just want to keep going.
It’s exactly the feeling that elementary school children have: “Why do I have to revise?”
Your answer is straightforward: because you are a professional writer. Revising will help you write a book.
You must find the right way to tell this story. I often say that the purpose of a first draft is to find the story, but the purpose of all other drafts is to figure out the best way to TELL that story. Pros experiment, play, explore.
Here are some explorations of character that you can complete in an hour. Just set a time for 5-10 minutes and write something on each of these. If the prompt reveals nothing, drop it. But if it strikes a chord—keep going!
- 1st v. 3rd. Write a scene using first person point of view and then rewrite it using third. If you want to play with present tense, feel free. Play!
- Attitude. Choose a scene and look to see what attitude your main character has. Maybe, s/he comes in arrogant, sad, discouraged, or excited. At the top of your page/file, write the opposite attitude and write the scene again, working to make the character’s opposite attitude work.
- Setting. Choose a scene and change the setting. If it’s in the kitchen, send your characters on a picnic. If it’s set on a spaceship, move the story to a cruise ship on the Mediterranean.
- Write a Letter. Give your main character a reason to write a letter to someone. It could be written to a family member or to a Congressman. Let your character vent, rant and cry on paper.
- Put something in your character’s hand. Put a physical object in your character’s hand. Perhaps a mother goes into a grown son’s room and picks up his old baseball glove and sits in a rocking chair and oils the glove and remembers something important about her son. Or, a grandmother is in the kitchen and getting ready to cook and pulls out an iron skillet. Write a couple paragraphs or a scene putting the object in the forefront.
- Cubing is a way of exploring a topic by looking at it from different angles. I’ve chosen just four ways, but you can think of others.
- Describe. Using the character’s voice (your choice of POV, tense, etc) describe something important in your story. Repeat with a different POV, tense, etc. if you have time.
- Compare. Using the character’s voice, compare something in your story. Maybe you want to compare what the character thinks about his/her current situation with where s/he was ten days ago. Or compare two characters. Or compare today’s supper with yesterday’s supper. Any type of comparison that makes sense for your story is grist for this mill.
- Associate. When your character thinks of roses, what does s/he think? This prompt asks you to enter your character’s point of view and make some associations. While most of your writing in a scene should be pointed, there are places where you can slow down and give the reader a glimpse of how the character’s mind works. When faced with X, s/he thinks of Y or Z.
- Analyze. What will your character do next? Stop and let him/her analyze what has just happened, thinking about the ramifications of the actions or conversations. If s/he goes this direction, what will it mean for the rest of the story? What is an alternate direction and why should s/he choose that alternate? Analyze, then let the character decide on a plan of attack for the next section of the story.
Take the time to explore your story and your storytelling choices early in your drafting process. It will probably mean fewer drafts—and a stronger story. Great trade-offs for a mere hour of work.
One of the causes of anxiety regarding the writing prompt, is the unknown. We don’t know what genre students will be asked to write. We don’t know the topic. Test situations are stressful enough, but when we add in these unknowns, the stress levels skyrocket. Here’s the deal, though. Students can have an idea of [...]
One of the causes of anxiety regarding the writing prompt, is the unknown. We don’t know what genre students will be asked to write. We don’t know the topic. Test situations are stressful enough, but when we add in these unknowns, the stress levels skyrocket. Here’s the deal, though. Students can have an idea of [...]
For this week’s prompt, write a risk poem. That is, write a poem in which either the narrator, a character, or whatever takes a risk, or in which risk is involved. For … Read more
Lists I Love
by Betty AuchardI am obsessive about making lists for story prompts, and have more than I can possibly use in a lifetime. Most of my ideas spring from letters I write.
Long ago I started a file called
Stories in Letters, and it’s so large now that I have files within files. A few of the subtitles are
Mom, Grandkids, and
Teaching Junior High (I’m renaming that file
My Gin and Tonic Period). Other categories are
Menopause, Raising Teenagers, Mating the Dogs, Living with 12 Men, Catechism Classes, Escape from Las Vegas, Jury Duty, Student Teaching at 40, College Graduation at 42, and
To Make the Bed or Not to Make the Bed. I get such a kick out of just reading my ideas that I’ve often thought of putting the lists together and sharing them with other writers in a program called
Lists I Love.
In addition to computer folders, I have a drawer full of spiral notebooks filled with first drafts and notes about writing. Some notebooks are completely full and others contain many sheets of clean paper. (Does any of this sound familiar?) When I get an idea that I don’t want to lose, I grab a half full tablet, make sure I put the date on my new notes, and then start writing by hand. One tablet I grabbed recently is dated December, 2001. The date on the next page is January 1, 2011. The note read, “I am
not making resolutions this year—period!” I love reviewing these entries. Some became published stories.
There’s also a Ziploc freezer bag full of stuff that is just as much fun to sort through as the notebooks. The bag is an odd assortment of first drafts dated 1998, thoughts I didn’t want to forget the year my husband died. These old drafts are written on all kinds of paper—used envelopes, napkins, the white margin of a torn out hunk of newspaper. I scribbled on scraps and journaled on junk. Writing kept me afloat.
One item I cherish from that plastic bag is a white paper placemat from The Fish Market. An idea struck and I just
had to get it down. I pushed my almost empty plate a little to the left and wrote on the placemat over stains of tomato sauce and salad dressing. The shape of the story is curved like the plate on the left and straight at the edges on the right. I cried privately while writing, glad that I had already eaten most of my food. That story ended up in my first book.
Idea lists are precious. We might want to mine them for stories more often.
* * *
IPPY Finalist Betty Auchard is a popular speaker and the author of two memoirs. She lives and writes in northern California. Blog with the author at http://www.bettyauchard.com/.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love words. I even love them – *especially* love them, come to think of it – when they’re kind of screwed up. It’s just too simple, and too fun, to play with a sequence of letters, put things where they aren’t supposed to go and surprise yourself with a totally new meaning.
One particularly fun way to do that is with a Spoonerism. It’s easy: You do it by taking two words that usually go together (like Top Hat) and switching the beginnings around (Hop Tat).
The switch is named after the estimable Reverend William Archibald Spooner of Oxford, who was reputed to misspeak in this way quite often, my favorite example being one he probably never said but everyone liked to say he did: “Well-boiled icicle” instead of “well-oiled bicycle.”
This already makes for some interesting ideas for illustrations, I’d think (though a well-boiled icicle would have to be, well, a puddle, wouldn’t it?), and sure enough I see now that Jon Agee and Shel Silverstein have already published whole books of illustrated Spoonerisms, but you can have a little fun yourself by making Spoonerisms out of the most meaningful words of all – names. Most of us have a couple of those lying around anyway, right?
Mine’s not too funny: “Dolin Cullaghan” is only slightly less pronounceable and just as vaguely Gaelic-sounding as “Colin Dullaghan” (the g is silent either way), but as I browse through the list of the other IF bloggers a few new, more fruitfully Spoonerized names present themselves. For instance, “Cernanda Fohen” strikes me as a character from Cervantes or Marquez (or Tolkien), while Meve Stack could be a burly Venusian gangster or some arcane line of programming code.
(Occasionally your name can become infinitely more dramatic through the process of Spoonerization, as my old coworkers Charlie Hopper and Kelly Houle would attest. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be “helly cool” on a Harley Chopper? And Sarah Palin’s is perhaps the best one I could even imagine. Then again, my sister-in-law Niki Kline suddenly shifts to “Klicky Nine,” which is either a button you shouldn’t push on the elevator or an equally inadvisable handgun.)
So that’s fun. But have you ever tried swapping the beginnings of names with your spouse or significant other? How about a family member? Looking at it that way, Penelope and I become “Kenny and Pollen,” and suddenly sound like an allergy list or a lite-rock duo from the early 80s. *Much* cooler than before. (“Helly cool,” you might even say.) Our friends Simon and Jamie become Jimon and Samey, which isn’t all that flattering (she’s quite individualistic, actually), but our other friends Ryan and Sarah turn into Sighin’ and Rare-a!
Try it with bygone elections: How would you have voted between Gush and Bore? Dincoln or Louglas?
Famous television duos: Bread and Farney, Lo and Buke, Shaverne and Lurley. Momer and Harge. Heck, Lart and Bisa, while we’re at it. I’m not particular about whether the new versions are real names (or words) or not.
The beloved ice cream entrepreneurs – I just now noticed this – take on the name of a lady I just talked to this morning: Jenn (&) Berry. How about that?
So if you’ve got a second, and a counterpart, give it a try to switch around the beginnings of your names. I’d be interested to hear what you come up with.
Mucho extra bonus points if you make art from the results.
At any rate, pope you liked my host.
Go through old magazines and chose pictures that depict interesting activities or locations. Try the following activities to inspire your children to write.
1. Use construction paper to make an 8 1/2 by 11 scrapbook. Put pages together using brads or yarn. Choose one picture and paste in to the front page. Rule the inner pages. Ask your child to write a story about the picture.
2. Put a stack of pictures in the middle of the table. Ask each child to choose a picture and write a story about it. When they finish have them read the story aloud.
3. Choose one of the pictures. Have any number of children each write a story about the picture. Have them read their story aloud when they finish. Point out how the same picture means something different to each child. Their writing styles may even be different.
First day back . . . and I had the pleasure of working with all of the 4th & 5th grade teachers in our corporation to SCORE WRITING PROMPTS! (Does the emphasis of the capital letters make it sound all glamorous & fun?) Here’s a few things on my mind after a day of scoring [...]
By: Rebecca,
on 12/10/2007
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Gerald M. Oppenheimer and Ronald Bayer are the authors of Shattered Dreams?: An Oral History of the South African AIDS Epidemic which uses interviews to tell the story of how physicians and nurses in South Africa struggled to ride the tiger of the world’s most catastrophic AIDS epidemic. They wrote such a compelling piece for World AIDS Day that I thought it would be nice to delve deeper into their book. The excerpt below looks at how doctors responded to the AIDS epidemic in South Africa.
Coming to AIDS (more…)
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By: Rebecca,
on 10/1/2007
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A little while back someone in the office pointed out this interesting piece about the rise of AIDS among young men in NYC. I started wondering what could be done and I took my query to Mary Ann Cohen a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the co-editor of the Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry. Cohen wrote me back with the following illuminating response.
During a century when rapid advances in medicine led to near eradication of infectious diseases throughout much of the world, the emergence of HIV infection in 1981 led to an unexpected crisis in health care that has not yet resolved. (more…)
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I also have lots of notes written haphazardly. My question is: how do we organize them so we can locate similar threads so we don't have to reread every half-full spiral?
Dear hobbymom of 4...
Good question. There's no way I could do this with all the notebooks full of vignettes that fill my top dresser drawer. They served a purpose at the time of the writing, and they still serve a purpose. I look at this way--I love reading them now because they've been composting for a long time and they seem ripe. If I feel that one of them must be used, I'll stop everything and get it ready for the stage. Those notebooks are like messy, disorganized diaries that are really fun to read 1 to 12 years after they were written.
HOWEVER, The Stories in Letters are written on the computer, so they get popped into that folder immediately...after mailing of course. Later, I put them into their "own" folders labeled "Mom Stories," or "Jr. High Teaching," or "Menopause Tales," or whatever. Those folders are the only clues that Betty Auchard actually does organize a few things.
Organizing my cumputer files is something I do only when I'm in the mood for simple work and not under pressure. I trash as much as possible, but I ALSO find old stories that I tossed into My Documents, which gives me a chance to file into an existing folder OR start a new folder. My most empty folder is labeled "Fiction Attempts," because I've tried writing fiction a few times. They are pathetic and never shared.