Unsolicited Prompt

Despite the two beers and pint-sized watermelon margarita I had at Le Voyeur last night, I woke bright and early to the sun soaking my face and birds merrily chirping. My husband is driving a dear friend to the airport - they left at 7:30 a.m. - and though I thought about going back to sleep, I felt compelled to hug them both before they left.

Then, like a good little writer, I situated myself and Somewhere on our porch with some blankets, coffee, and my notepad. To be frank, I had little desire to actually write. Rather, I intended to sit with my notepad in my lap, searching DIY recipes for cosmetics I wanted to buy at Sephora yesterday but...

But while I was sitting there on my porch, minding my own business, I glanced over to the park across the street. A pair of sunglasses still hangs from the chain-link fence. I:

• Thought about taking them. 
• Pondered whether that was stealing.
• Imagined their owner coming to find them and being either 
• elated they remained or 
• saddened they were gone.
• Imagined walking up to their saddened owner and returning them with a knowing smile. 

And suddenly a story about Snow (click here and here to meet her) sauntered through my imagination space and demanded to be translated to my paper. 

Despite my best efforts, I was forced to oblige the story and write. The story didn't surprise me until the end, when I learned something about the story I began during NaNoWrimo last November. It's a small detail, about the lighting in a city called Home. Yet it served to more intricately connect the stories I'm writing now with the stories I wrote in November. 

Even more significantly, this minor detail about lighting solidified Home as an actual place in my imagination instead of a smoke and mirrors allusion to what I wanted to be a place. I don't know if you've ever tried to create a novel out of an allusion, but its exceedingly disheartening and disengaging. 

I've been experimenting with different writing methods and tactics to see what, if anything identifiable, helps me break through writer's block and other writer's ailments. You'd think that, having my bachelor's in writing, I'd have had plenty of time to experiment in college (snicker, giggle). I wasn't very curious for much of my time in school, though. I pretty much stuck with one method: wait until the night before a piece is due, skip all draft processes, crank out a final copy while feeding on my adrenaline. (Sometimes I like to call stress "adrenaline.")

Writer's Itch

Miller's Facebook status yesterday.
click to enlarge

I've got a slew of stories to write in conjunction with my last post, David.  It feels amazing to not only be in the writing mood, but have inspiration to write from as well. Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, posted a thought on Facebook that really hit home for me. I felt like it identified exactly where I've been with my writing for the past few months - or perhaps forever - and exactly where I want go instead.

Today, I asked myself what wants to be written.

I've got posts for The Daily Heretic I've been waiting to write and really should. I want to progress the stories related to David, but I got enough of an outline finished yesterday that I can easily come back to it a few days from now. Burnout is an issue I'm learning to preemptively conquer. Though I want it, the story itself wants to rest.

A filming session crossed my mind. Last Fall, Jeremiah and I filmed our friend Forest Child the Distiller concocting a custom recipe commissioned by his tattoo artist. The footage has rested, partially edited, ever since.

Today, Forest Child's story wanted told.

Write Or Die

Click to enlarge.

I often use Write or Die when I have writer's block. Today I used it because I was short on time before work. Write or Die is a web app you can purchase or use a free version of. I discovered it during NaNoWriMo last year and it radically changed my writing process.

Using the free version, I set my goal at 700 words, 15 minutes on "Evil, Kamikaze" mode. Once you hit go, a blank writing space pops up, with a timer in one corner and word count in the other. If you stop writing, the screen flashes increasingly brighter shades of red until you either start writing again or the program starts erasing your words.

I love it.

Here's a screen shot from today's effort to progress my NaNoWriMo project, Fire Starter. It's not pretty. That's the point.

Click to enlarge.

Unexpected Experiment

Whenever I've got writers block, or I'm itching to write but can't conjure a creative thought, I think about my childhood. I was a freak, so there's ample material nestled back there. 

This piece is the result of such a time. It was written about a year ago, and went through its first edit today. While editing, I was reminded of how surprisingly experimental the work was for me. 

For the sake of context I'll post the entirety of the writing,

Hope this doesn't skew the experiment.

although I'm sharing for the purpose of feedback on the portion that surprised me - a description of a game of dodgeball. The piece isn't particularly long, but if you're not overwhelmed with free time and want to get to the point, I'll highlight the dodgeball scene so you can skip to it. 

I didn't change much in my first round of edits. Perhaps because the memory is mine, so it's easy for me to picture. Childhood memories are so abstract in such vividly clear ways, though. I'm unconvinced I've given the reader anything like the film playing in my head.