11.28.2012

Welcome Guest Kelsey Clark - Color Quandary

Please join me in welcoming guest Kelsey Clark to writercize! As many of you know, I love playing with colors and fanciful words, and Kelsey's great writercize brings the two together. Please read on, then give it a try. My writercize attempt will be in the comment section. Everything you read below is by Kelsey!
 
Color Quandary 
by Kelsey Clark
When I am stuck for ideas on what to write about it seems like I will never be able to write again. Sometimes I get stuck because I have too many ideas and just can’t seem to get them out. Other times I feel like I have no good ideas left at all. When either of those things happens to me, I know that I just have to start writing again and I will get back into the swing of things. One idea I have used to get writing again is this:
Writercize: Focus your attention on color. Pick one basic color and start your story from these. It can be a poem, a description, or even an entire story can start from your color choice.  
All you have to do is come up with a color and get started writing. If you have trouble or get stuck just think of things that are that color and include them in your writing. Here are some colors and objects to get you started, or you can think of your own:
·       Red – blood, cherry, lip, rose, crimson, rust, ruby, fire engine, barn, raspberry
·       Blue – moon, blueberry, sky, sea, navy, cerulean, cobalt, sapphire, indigo
·       Yellow – sun, star, buttercup, sunflower, butter, wheat, rubber duck, taxi, lemon
·       Green – tree, leaf, grass, mold, broccoli, kiwi, lime, jade, emerald
writercizer sample response:
It was a blue day. There was just no other way to describe it. I knew that I was feeling down, but it wasn’t just my imagination. The glimpses I got of the night sky were dark blue, almost navy, as the rain clouds hung heavy and grey-blue, trudging their slow path across the horizon. The rain, a pale, translucent blue, gathered in the upside down umbrella before me; it’s happy, bright, bluebird blue almost glowing in the dim light of a, you guessed it, blue moon. If I had ever liked the color blue before, the fondness had now been driven completely from me. Besides, blue was his favorite color and I had enough reminders of him, thank you very much.
The bright yellow taxi that pulled up in front of me seemed as blinding as the sun, and the taxi driver that got out was equally as surreal. His canary-yellow rain coat squeaked as he splashed through the puddles to open the rear passenger door for me. He stood in a several inch deep puddle, grinning at me as I stared at his lemon-colored galoshes. I got into the taxi, the blond faux-leather seats ripped but clean, and we set off. As he drove I watched his hands move across the wheel and wondered at the mustard tinted fingertips. How many cigarettes must he smoke to make his wizened hands so spectacularly stained?
Author Byline:
Kelsey is the editor in chief for www.findananny.net/. She loves to write article and ideas that parents & nannies would be interested in hearing. She helps society on giving information about nannies through nanny services. She is a professional writer & loves writing on anything.

11.26.2012

Welcome Guest Katheryn Rivas - Finding Motivation

Please welcome Katheryn Rivas to the writercize platform today. After college, Katheryn temporarily lost her passion for writing - see how she found it again! Her story is compelling and easy to relate to!
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How I Re-Discovered My Motivation to Write After College
by Katheryn Rivas
I majored in creative writing in college, and spent pretty much every day of my college career working on some writing project for one of my classes. When I graduated, I thought this trend would continue. I imagined myself completing a book of poems and a novel the year after I graduated, while I idly passed the time at some office job and applied to MFA schools. Then life happened. The economy was a wreck. I had to move back in with my parents. I spent most of my free time writing cover letters, not poetry. By the time I finally found a low-level editing job, I hadn't written anything creative in almost six months.
My editing job was mentally taxing, and I rarely felt like writing when I got home. I rarely felt like reading either. A year passed, and I still hadn't prepared the portfolio I planned to use to apply to MFA schools. I started to wonder whether I even wanted to go to graduate school for creative writing. Was I even good enough to make it as a writer? Without the validation I received from my peers in college, I started to seriously doubt my writing abilities, and I nearly lost all the motivation I had to be a writer.
I've heard this happens to a lot of writers. It's even happened to many of the people I know who've completed MFA programs. Some writers don't know what to do with the lack of structure in the real world. Unless they're forced to write for their jobs, they find it difficult to produce any written work.
Fortunately, over the past year, I've started writing again. I write a poem or work on a short story almost every day now, and I'm getting close to completing my novel. One night, in the middle of a deep phone conversation with a friend from college, I realized that life had become dull and lifeless because I didn't write anymore. And I thought of the Rilke quote from Letters to a Young Poet:
"Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all—ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write?"
I asked myself Rilke's question over and over again for the next few days after my realization. My life had lost meaning because I wasn't writing anymore, but was I not writing because I intrinsically didn't need to? My feelings about this matter confused me. I knew it was time to stop thinking and start writing.
Writing had always helped me sort out my feelings. So, I sat down at my computer, started typing, and all of my pent up creative energy just seemed to pour out. What started out as a simple electronic journal entry turned into me writing a short story about a girl who struggles to define herself after she graduates from college. It was similar to The Graduate in many ways (minus Mrs. Robinson), and it wasn't very good. But it was something, and writing it made me feel amazing. So, I kept on writing. Sometimes I didn't feel like it, but I didn't stop.
Now, I keep myself motivated by reminding myself that, for many reasons, I must write. My life loses meaning if I don't. I've joined a local writing workshop group to help keep me focused on completing projects in a timely fashion. I set aside at least thirty minutes every evening for writing, no matter how tired or busy I am. I keep myself healthy by eating well, sleeping enough, and exercising. This gives me more energy to write and helps keep my brain as sharp as I need it to be to produce quality work.
Writercize: Make a list of what prevents you from writing. Then make a list of what motivates you to write. Think about how you can eliminate some of the factors in your life that stifle your motivation.
Katheryn Rivas is a freelance writer and blogger who contributes to a variety of sites about her experiences as a writer and human. When she's not working on professional writing projects for www.onlineuniversities.com, she's working on her novel and staying up late writing poetry.