Listed - writercize #168

What is in a name, and what does it say about a character?

A few months ago, I challenged readers to write a brief character study "Inspired by a Phone Book." Cecilia Guerra was the name that popped up for me, and I wrote a fictional account of a person whose real name appears in a local phone book.

Today, I am challenging you to a similar exercise with a slightly simpler task. No grammar or paragraphs necessary, just a list of things to know about your character. 

You can approach the list by stating facts, such as demographics and career, by acknowledging major events that have happened in a character's life, by compiling a list of adjectives to describe the character, by their passions in life, whatever you would like to do. You just have to list it. If you want to take it to the next level today or at some point in the future, you will have something to work off of!

writercize: Go to a random name generator. Get your random name and compile a list of 10-20 things about that character. 

(If you are currently working on a novel or short story, skip the name generator, and pick one of your characters who is giving you the most trouble. Use them for this exercise to get to know them better!)

Please share your results here, and feel free to leave your website if you'd like me to reciprocate the visit.  (This post inspired by the GBE2 Week 44 - "Make a List and Title It." GBE, aka the Group Blogging Experience, is open to membership and housed on Facebook.)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Santa: Around the World in 26 Hours? - writercize #144

Ever wonder how Santa could deliver gifts to all the children who celebrate Christmas around the world in one night? 

Thanks to the earth's rotation and long nights in some areas, The Dinner Party hosts told Madeline Brand of NPR last Friday that Santa has about 26 hours to deliver the gifts. That still breaks down to a LOT of gift giving, chimney sliding, sled flying and cookie eating per second. 365,000 to be exact. And they only included Christian children in the world, who are clearly not the only ones who celebrate the holiday. I know plenty of agnostics and atheists who hang stockings for the kids!

So, how does Santa do it? Magic? Science? And how does he get in the houses without chimneys? Does he still wear the toasty red suit while delivering in the southern hemisphere?

Let your imagination run wild, and tell us how it's done!

writercize: Create an argument for how Santa Claus manages to deliver gifts to 365,000 children per second.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response using the space-time continuum.

This post partially inspired by the prompt "wonder" through the Group Blogging Experience hosted by the "wonder"ful Beth Grace. There's always room for more group bloggers - check it out!

Question of Ownership - writercize #129

ABC's Modern Family, in its infinite genius, tackled the hilarious question of mistaken car ownership a couple of weeks ago on the "Go Bullfrogs" episode.  Mitchell and Cameron are given the wrong car by the valet only to discover the error when rifling through the glovebox and searching for music.  Comedy and misunderstandings ensue.

It's probably not every driver's *worst* nightmare, but I would be lying if I said I'd never worried that the wrong car in the mall parking lot would beep at my remote's signal.  I can't remember how many unique key designs and signals there are, but I do know that it's fewer than the number of cars on the road.  Hey, it could happen!

Questions of ownership are rife with possibility for comedy writing, as well as mystery and horror.  

Just think about the possibilities.  A wronged wife selling her husband's treasured possessions on eBay after discovering he was cheating.  Flowers from an anonymous source delivered to a woman in the wrong office complex.  Squatters in an abandoned building.  A work of art that is discovered to be a fake.  A work of art that is knowingly purchased illegally on the black market.  The wedding dress of the century during the annual Running of the Brides at Filene's Basement.  The crisp hundred dollar bill dropped on the casino floor.  Any unique idea or invention up for patent or copyright.  

Literally endless possibilities.  Today you get to pick one and run with it.

writercize:  Create a dialogue centered around a question of ownership.  Ownership may be real or imagined for the character, and may be based on any object or concept of your choosing.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about an airplane seat.  Note I am not working on comedy or any specific genre here - it's dialogue practice.  Hopefully it could be interpreted with a small chuckle somewhere along the way.

This writercize created based on the prompt "ownership" over at GBE2, hosted by the blog world's most popular hostess with the mostest, Ms. Elizabeth Grace.  Faithful readers may notice that this week has been overwhelmingly inspired by GBE2 prompts.  Prompts are given weekly on Sunday, and there have been so many great ones lately that I was delayed in writing that I decided to make a week of it.  Hope you enjoyed!

The Inner Battlefield: Nature vs. Nurture - writercize #128

A few years ago, a good friend of mine posted a status update on his Facebook along the lines of: "Why can't we all just get along?"

I chuckled momentarily and headed to the park with my toddlers.  It took all of two seconds at the park to recognize the answer to his question.  

"Because we are programmed not to."

Every essence of our being is made to compete - for space, for attention, for affection, for food, for shelter, for the chance to say to everyone - "you see? I was right!".  

At the park, a swing set is a guaranteed war zone when the number of children exceeds the number of swings.  There is a battle to be first down the slide.  It is absolutely natural for a child to push, stomp, cry, scream or otherwise act in a completely unreasonable manner to get his or her way.  It is innate.  I know I did it.  And I'd bet money you did it too.  

By two, a child may be stubborn and throw a temper tantrum, but they ultimately know that they will eventually have to give in to society's whim and engage in civil interaction.  But between a year and about twenty months, heaven help the unlucky one who gets in the way of a full-on all-natural wild child.

Nothing natural tells us to work together, to cooperate, to accept and acknowledge one another's strengths and weaknesses.  That's all learned.  (And sometimes forgotten.)  Head to a playground at 10 a.m. any weekday morning, and you will see what mothers around the world work to nurture out of our truest nature.

Now, this is not to say that we don't also naturally crave warmth and love and human touch.  We do, but that comes from a rapport based on mutual recognition and trust ... and perhaps a few genes.  

The first six months, I was shocked to observe that my twins did not like each other.  At all.  They wanted my attention, only my attention, twenty-four hours a day, and not divided with one another or any other person in the world.  They wanted my smiles, my coos, my cuddles, my milk.  

When the second came home from the hospital two days later than the first, the first hit, kicked, pushed and even tried to lick her away.  They were two weeks old.  They would cuddle while sleeping and wanted to be close during the night, but in the day a glance at the other would set them off.  

At six months, something magical happened and they realized they did not have a choice in the matter, and started a friendship.  

When the were in that crazy toddler stage, they ganged up to support one another against all the other baby strangers at the park who might actually want a turn walking up the stairs or heading down the slide.  Not the proudest moment for a Mama, but hey, it's natural, and at least they could stand each other by that point, right?

Somewhere deep (or perhaps more shallow) inside of you, there is a natural instinct that wants to scream and shout and let it all out. You may work hard to nurture it away, and you may know that it's best to play and work with others, but a part of who you are is knowing who you are not, and that leads directly to a comparison with others and an enemy.  

It is natural to define ourselves as much by what we are not as by what we are.

That which we are not is at best unknown or confusing, and at worst an enemy.  This is especially true in societies, which are prone to reflect and magnify the weaknesses of our nature despite our attempts to civilize and nurture strength of character on a personal level.

Try to imagine the United States without an "enemy."  To feel as though we are a superpower, we need someone to defeat.  We have a long history of opposing forces, from the way we overpowered the Native Americans to the way we broke away from the British, fought North against South, worked to defeat the Germans, feared the Russians, fought in Vietnam and Korea and now wage war in the Middle East.  

How much better would the world be if instead of countries our enemies were poverty (in our own country and abroad), the oppression of women and trafficking humans and arms?  How much more could we do if we battled those injustices with the strength and force and resolve that we fight wars with nations, using science and education and agriculture and incentives over military power?

There is something in us that fights a constant battle between that nature that we have as members of the animal kingdom, and the nurture that we are raised with to set ourselves apart as human.

A glimpse into that battle within your character, whether it is a children's book, a journalistic expose' or the next great American novel, is fascinating.  It touches all of us on a level that we may not even want to admit to ourselves.

writercize:  Write a brief inner dialogue of a man or woman facing a personal battle of nature vs. nurture.  

This could be any situation you like - the beginning or end of a relationship or career, a pivotal moment in a person's morality building, a fight vs. flight response - your choice.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about a man and his ex who can't resist ignoring him.

This writercize created based on the prompt "nature vs. nurture" over at GBE2, hosted by the blog world's most popular hostess with the mostest, Ms. Elizabeth Grace.

The Popular Pollster - writercize #127

Who doesn't love a completely meaningless popularity statistic from a poll that has no bearing whatsoever on real life every now and then?  

You know what I mean - they're the polls magazines like US Weekly run, like: 

• Who's hottest without a shirt? Leo, Brad or George?
• Which celebrity mom snapped back into the best shape two weeks after giving birth? Heidi Klum or Angelina Jolie?
• Which celebrity baby name trend is the coolest?  Naming children after fruits, Greek gods or emotions?
• Which couple has the best chances of surviving the relationship based on popular nickname?  TomKat, Brangelina or Bennifer?

(Hmm, apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie can be worked into any popularity poll - congrats to them on being the winning popular pollster couple, appearing in three of the four fake poll questions above.  Another fun, meaningless statistic to reflect on.)

Today, you get to make your own.

writercize:  Create a fake celebrity poll to measure popularity.  Choose any topic, and give three to four options for the reader to choose between.

Bonus points (towards absolutely no tangible prize, but the pride of knowing you've contributed to research - wink, wink) for answering everyone else's polls.  Extra bonus points if you choose to give a witty reason for your answer.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about celebs participating in reality TV.

This writercize created based on the prompt "popularity" over at GBE2, hosted by the blog world's most popular hostess with the mostest, Ms. Elizabeth Grace.

Create a Space - writercize #123

There are novels that focus on dialogue, novels that focus on a plot, and then there are novels that are really written to expose the atmosphere or location that they are set in, where the characters and story serve as backdrop to highlight the nuance of place.

Romantic versions of Italy and Ireland are abound in novels, as are India, Paris, New York and a handful more "otherworldly" places.  At times, the story and characters themselves are as strong as the novel, but other times the reader walks away with a vivid image of the place and rough memory of the characters.

Edward Rutherfurd is one author who focuses on place and builds characters and situations around the story of a city or country.  His stories fascinate because they give the reader an intimate knowledge of the vibe and history of a place.

Today's writercize challenges you to focus on one place in much simpler terms, with a single paragraph or two to describe a space.  If you can start small, and notice the details of something simple, you can eventually build on it to describe the bigger picture.  The reason Rutherfurd's books work is because they do not focus entirely on major landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge; they look to the random street corner or the crowded bar sitting just below the bridge to describe the nuances of place and time, of unique atmosphere, while the landmark is mentioned in passing for placement.

writercize:  Describe a place that you (or your fictional character) are drawn to for comfort, peace and quiet.  Use subtlety to make your safe haven come to life for the reader.  Think about sights, sounds and smells as you write.

(This writercize inspired by "safe haven," the Group Blogging Experience 2 word of the week.  Bloggers of all ages, backgrounds and experience welcome to join GBE2 on Facebook, run by Elizabeth Grace, Oct. 7 guest blogger.)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about a tree from her childhood.

Animal, Adopt Human Trait - writercize #108

Loyal as a dog.  Clever as a cat.  Skittish as a horse.  

Who hasn't heard a person compared to an animal?  Metaphors identifying animals with human traits, giving them broad characteristics, and comparing them back to humans, is a useful way to paint a picture of a person.  The metaphor evokes a natural association while inferring other characteristics of that animal back upon the person.

When I hear that someone is loyal as a dog, I also might assume they are obedient, or strike back when someone attacks a loved one, or defer to authority.  When I hear someone is clever as a cat, I may assume they are also a little sneaky, independent, selfish.  And skittish as a horse, well I'd assume they are strong-willed and would buck anyone off for getting in their way.

It's not that I've never come across a disloyal dog or a cat that's missing a few of its marbles, but that's the way generalizations are - they discount the exceptions.  Today you get to generalize away and play with an animal characteristic.

writercize:  Pick an animal and give it a human trait.  Now work that reference into a short scene.

Click "read more" for writercizer fictional sample response about a person prickly as a porcupine.  Leave your writercize as a comment!

I Name Thee - writercize #101

Before I continue - did you know there's a contest going on here at writercize?  Depending on where you live, a pizza meal or a cup of coffee is on the line - enter here: It's a Pizza - writercize (for a prize) #100.  Contest closes Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Ok, onto a fun little game, in honor of parents, children, simple word inspired games and the Group Blogging Experience.  

One of the most important things a parent will give a child, beyond the normal love, attention, food, shelter bit, is a name.  Expectant parents often put weeks, even months, into finding just the right name for their bun in the oven.  

My mom's parents and siblings squabbled for such a long time that she was born without a name and referred to exclusively as my Grandpa's nickname for her "Tuni" (from petunia) for most of her life.  After she was born, she was named "RoseAnne" but hates the name and never introduces herself as such.

My husband and I were luckier.  We chose family names for our twins - one is named after his favorite grandma, the other after mine.  We didn't tell a soul what their names would be until their birth; we just kept up with the doctor's "A" and "B" designation and never had to hear a word of dissent over their monikers.  It was a pretty good way to go about it, I think.

My parents gave me the unique name "Alana" and the ubiquitous middle name "Marie" so I have the simple with the rare which works for me.  They had some hurdles.  As two teachers, inevitably each name they considered came with an association of a previous student, whether they were an overachiever, troublemaker, lazy, bright, etc.  Makes things rough!

It's always amazing to me how many people compliment others on their name as if they had something to do with it.  I often get, "wow, that's a cool name" or "I really like your name."  I generally say, "Thanks, I like it too!" or "Yep, I'm lucky my parents picked a good one."

It's always fun to find out how people chose names - after mythological characters, family members, because their names are simple and they want something unique for their kids or vice versa, from name books, etc.  So, today you get to name an entire family however you like.  

In The Pocket Muse, a fun little book for writers, the author Monica Wood suggests that when a writer is totally stuck for inspiration, they should take advantage of their job which allows them to make up names all the time.  She points at that most people only get the chance when getting a new pet or a new baby, but writers can do it all the time!  You may even come up with a name you love so much it inspires a whole new story.  I like her train of thought and wanted to take it to the next level.

writercize:  Name a family of two parents and at least two children - any combination of sexes.  

Take into account who they are and what they are into.  Family history?  Pirates?  Literature?  Movies?  Geography?  Horoscopes?  Foreign languages?  Syllables, rhyming or first letters?  Run with it ...

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about a family of nature lovers on the hippy side.

Lost in the Longing - writercize #99

When I was younger, I was struck with a malaise sense of what I liked to call pre-longing.  During summers, while I was hanging out with friends who had graduated while I was still preparing for another year of high school, I would imagine the idea of missing them in my future.  Though they were right in front of me, I felt a sense of yearning for days gone by.  As I grew older, and my grandparents aged, I would get that same uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, imagining the loss and the hole in my heart that would remain when they were gone.  I would work hard to remember every conversation, every laugh, in hopes that I would harness the feeling of warmth and family when the time came that I couldn't be around them. 

These episodes of pre-longing were generally much stronger than the actually feeling of loss that would occur after the fact.  When friends moved away to college, I missed them but was busy with school and activities and new friendships.  When my grandparents passed away, rather than feeling as though I needed to gasp for air, I took comfort in my children, babies at the time, and held them close as I watched the full circle of life unfolding before my eye, from cradle to the grave.  When we lose something, we live with it and move forward.  When we imagine losing something, we imagine we will not be capable of doing so.  At least for me.

Now I imagine what my house will feel like in 15 years when my children are ready to leave the nest, and I can hardly stand it.  I love them for the little people that they are now, small and cuddly and full of imagination, and I want that forever.  I know that when the time comes, they will be ready, and in some way, so will I.  I also know that I waste a lot of energy and time thinking about this when I should be fully in the moment and enjoying them today.

In general, I'm quite satisfied with life and the way things go; I appreciate the past and look forward to the future.  At the same time, I am a huge planner and daydreamer, so I sometimes forget about today, which is the day that I will one day look back upon fondly as "the good old days."  I don't miss any particular part of my past, from childhood to the college years to singledom and now marriage and family, but at times I long for bits and pieces of my past.  The ability to jump on an airplane and travel when and where I want with minimal preparation.  The comfort of being a child ready to sleep in her family home.  The energy on a college campus.  I wouldn't want to go back, but I do long for some of those bits and pieces of the life that I've lived to this point.

Why all this talk of longing?  It's the topic of the Group Blogging Experience, a.k.a. GBE 2, a weekly blogging challenge that has attracted nearly 200 bloggers of every type.  There are spots open.

Now, after that long background on the topic of longing, I will pare it down for you with a poem.  I challenge you to think of what longing means to you, when you've longed for something, and break it down short and sweet and poetic.

writercize:  Tap into your emotional attachments to people and things.  Write a poem on the topic of "longing."

Click "read more" for writercizer very brief sample response.

Where Are The Rings? - writercize #92

I'm feeling ready to be back from a bit of a drought with the Group Blogging Experience - aka GBE2, managed by the fabulous, witty, talented Elizabeth Grace - at least for the immediate future.  

Summer hit me hard with blogging; I had no idea how much thinking ... and relaxing ... and refreshing ... and energizing ... I was getting in the 20 minute drive to preschool twice a week.  My deepest apologies to those whose blogs I have been lax about visiting; I shall return to you in the fall, and in the meantime, I really, truly do appreciate your comments and visits to my page!

Ok, so all that touchy stuff out of the way, this week the GBE2 prompt is a photo, and I'm a big fan of image-inspired writing.  Get ready for your photographic muse, thinking outside the box and a little short fiction!

writing exercise:  See the lovely photo of rings to the right.  Now, imagine where those rings might be.  Write a scene, poem or short story about it.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about two brothers and some missing rings.

What's That Smell? - writercize #83

A writer's job is to communicate all five senses using only words.  Sound like a challenge?  It should.

Really, books don't smell.  At least rarely as the space they describe, unless it's an old book written about old books in an old library and the reader is reading it the old-fashioned way without some fancy e-reader.  They don't play a soundtrack or give you the voices of the dialogue or taste like the gumbo or coffee or spaghetti they might describe.  They don't splash pictures in front of you, unless it's of the children's or comic book variety.  You can't close your eyes and touch the world that the writer sees in the mind's eye, feel the main character's hands and nose, run into their front door, swing in the trees.  And speaking of the mind's eye, as if describing the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell weren't challenging enough, the sixth sense of intuition generally gets thrown into a good book as well. 

It's exhausting just to think about, let alone throw a story and some characters at.  So, today I'm tossing the characters, ignoring the story, letting five of those six senses fall by the wayside (well, somewhat) and focusing on smell.

Go ahead, breathe deep.  Smell your surroundings.  

And when you are deep in a story, this exercise will help you and your character breathe in the scent as well.  Knowing when to use the nasal sense to describe the putrid smell of day-old garbage, the musty scent of a humid basement in the thundering months of summer or the sweet lingering perfume of a girl on a shirt after a boy's first kiss will take you far in describing your scene.

Now, snap out of your own surrounding and breathe in the prompt below.

writing exercise:  It is morning; you turn the corner and catch a whiff of the bakery down the street.  Do you enter?  What does it bake?  What does it smell like?  Describe the setting.  (Again, this is not about the story or the character; this is a study on smell.)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.  Truth be told, I'm not a big bakery girl, but I hope I can fake it enough to make you believe I am.  ;)

100 Word Liar - writercize #79

Brevity has the power to be a writer's best friend.  A great writer has the ability to compose lyrical prose one moment and cut to the chase the next.  Brevity will help a journalist stay within maximum word counts, a greeting card writer pack a punch, a novelist write a successful query and a copywriter create memorable slogans.

When writing, challenge yourself to summarize the main points in one to two paragraphs and make sure that the summary is at the heart of the matter.  Anything else should support that core story.  You can do this before or after writing, depending on your personal style.  Those who outline and prepare first can do it before sitting down to write the story itself and use it as a road map; those who allow the words to tumble out first and find the story later can use it to guide rewrites.

Today's writercize, inspired by the Group Blogging Experience, challenges you to be succinct.

writing exercise:  Using exactly 100 words (including title), write a story with a beginning, middle and end inspired by the topic of lying.

Click "read more" to see writercizer sample response about how Naomi (meaning: honest) learned deceit.

Tending The Money Tree - writercize #74

I'm a big lover of fables because they are short, sweet and impart a nice lesson that can be referred back to when reminding young children of what they should be doing.  Sometimes, I believe adults could use a little return to the world of fables themselves.  Check out the Aesop's Fables website for more than 600 fables by the infamous author, thoughtfully indexed both alphabetically and by lesson.

For those unfamiliar with fables, or curious about the difference between a fable and a parable, something I had never even though to ask, check out Wikipedia's definition:  

"A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind."

I'm currently trying to think of a way to alter "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" into a more feminine story to make my girls understand the concept of not whining or crying unless it's totally worth it.  I'll let you know if I find success.  In the meantime, I have a photo prompt for you thanks to the Group Blogging Experience that I'll work off of to find another moral to impart.

writercize:  Using the photo of the elusive money tree below, pick a moral and write a fable to match!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about Joshua's money tree.

For the Love of Dad - writercize #70

In case anyone missed the Hallmark signs, targeted advertising campaigns and proud men in restaurants, yesterday was Father's Day.  I do realize it was not Father's Day in the entire world, so if you are outside of the United States and were not aware, you are hereby excused.

In my house, Father's Day fell on this past Thursday.  That morning, the girls and I headed to a friend's house to decorate Popsicle stick photo frames for cute Daddy and me photos to put on the fridge.  Absolutely fun and adorable craft for young tots.  

On the way home, we stopped to buy cards for my husband and my dad and picked up a statuette for my husband of a Dad with his two girls.  When we got home, they decorated the cards full of Mickey and Minnie Mouses and their rudimentary (but adorable!) handwriting and we wrapped the gifts and hid them away, saying "Goodbye 'til Sunday!"

Thing is, the instant my husband walked in the door Thursday evening, my youngest hopped of the couch and shouted, "Daddy, I got you Mickey card!  I have to show you right now!"

A Thursday night Father's Day it was. 

(Bear with me as I pause for a moment: This is my fifth week blogging with the Group Blogging Experience 2, a group of 150+ bloggers who write on a single topic for a post each week.  This week, the prompt was "first love" which combined with Father's Day got me thinking of the earliest love we experience in our lives, the love of our parents, grandparents, siblings and other family members.) 

I am fortunate to have a wonderful mom and dad who have been role models for enduring relationships, treating people and the earth with respect, pursuing creative passions and lifelong education.  Though we may debate at times about the state of the world, I value their insight to my core.  They have always, always made sure that my sister and I knew that family was the most important thing to them, and they would dedicate all the time and love in the world to helping us grow.

There are certainly first crushes and first romantic loves and first loves of hobbies and passions, but rarely is a love as enduring as that for family, so today's writercize focuses on a child's love for dear old Dad.

writing exercise:  Write a Father's Day greeting card.  May be humorous, poetic, sentimental, therapeutic - writer's choice!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Turning Frowns Upside Down - writercize #69

Thoughts are powerful.  Negative thoughts have the ability to stifle creativity and success in an all-consuming manner.  Positive ones have the power to make it happen.  "Yes, we can."  A simple phrase that boosted one man on a presidential path.

It is important to reflect for a moment on the idea that we can control our thoughts rather than allowing them to control us.  

A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop with the Torrance Children's Book Writing Group run by the lovely Nutschell Windsor, aka The Writing Nut, called Re-energizing Your Writing.  Nutschell (pronounced new-shell, not nut-shell, in case you were trying to figure it out!) asked the group how many were having trouble with their writing, and several raised their hands.  She then pointed out that generally writer's block is instigated by a fear.  The key to getting back to writing is to identify that fear, address it in a sentence, and turn it around into a positive.

Example:  

Fear: I am afraid that my character will take me outside of my story's outline and I won't know what to do.

Positive Statement: I am glad that my character has developed enough to take me on his/her journey and am excited to see what adventures s/he takes me on.

Nutschell gave us all a few minutes to identify the fear, and I have to admit I was wary.  I really just recently came to the realization that writing is a plausible career path.  I am enjoying this blog and doing some freelance journalism.  However, it is true that I am interested in eventually writing something that will have a longer shelf-life than a weekly paper, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to work towards that point.  I pointed to "time" in my mind, but I'm the first to say that's a shoddy excuse - we make the time that we prioritize.  Though I wish there were more hours in the day and admittedly terrible at e-mail correspondence, the way I choose to spend my time is entirely on me.

At any rate, I was feeling pretty fear-free at the moment, but wanted to be a good participant so I gave it a shot.

I wrote down, "Writing is exposing myself, and that is a scary thing.  Even if I am writing something that is not personal, my brain is the conduit and it may leave me feeling vulnerable."

As I said it, it didn't really ring true.  It would have, several months ago, but that was no longer the case.  When I began this blog, I posted an entry called "Why Write?" and addressed that vulnerability.  Through blogging and frequent writing, that fearful ship had sailed.

On my way home in the car, I mulled over the question and realized that there are two writing fears that I grapple with (well, if we're being totally honest, let's go with 2 1/2). I then turned them around in my head to make them shining, happy, smiley thoughts.  I invite you to do the same. 

writing exercise:  Think of something that you wish you were doing right now, but are not.  Once you have dismissed all those surface-level excuses from your mind about why you're not doing it, dig deeper to identify the fear holding you back.  Write it down.  Now examine the sentence and decide how you can turn it around into something positive.

This does not need to be writing related - it could be taking the next step in a relationship, learning to surf, admitting an end to something, making a large purchase, traveling alone, anything you wish you were doing but are holding back. 

Click "read more" for writercizer's sample response about fears of being pigeon-holed, the family-work balance and understanding the business side of the writing industry.

On Recovery - writercize #68

Over the weekend I was listening to an interview with poet and blogger James Nave.  During his recovery from surgery related to prostate cancer, he vowed to write 100 poems in 100 days chronicling the process. On air he read a poem in which his legs were filled with thousands of colorful butterflies flapping their wings.

The interview got me thinking about recovery, the many meanings of recovery, and how poetry has the power to bridge the gap between fiction and non-fiction with vibrant images and emotions to communicate both the beauty and stress of living in a society.  

I thought about how recovery can apply to life after disease, addiction, a natural disaster, a broken heart, a financial crisis, abuse.  It's pretty incredible how one word can tie together so many negative experiences, and inject them with a new feeling, that of hope.  Recovery is one powerful noun.

I've been lucky in my personal life that I've only had to recover from surgery and heartbreak, but those two recoveries were enough to not wish for many more!

In truth, lucky may be only part of it.  Incessant concern to remain in full control of my body and thoughts probably did a lot to steer me away from many addictive things too ... when I know my hormones are affecting my thought patterns, I start to freak out, so imagine anything else! 

writing exercise: Write a poem inspired by the word "recovery." The poem may be any style, including freestyle.

Click "read more" for the writercizer sample response, The New Joneses, on economic recovery.

A Lost and Found Relationship - writercize #62

Relationships are complex, organic, complicated, confusing things that can often take on a life of their own.   Each person brings his or her own ideas and expectations to the table.  Many of these are never communicated out loud, or in the right words or context, so we may involve ourselves in a web of unidentified disappointments and missteps.

Eventually, if we're not careful, these disappointments and missteps can lead to resentment, outrage, intense frustration and we can completely lose it.  "It" being patience, respect, passion, our temper ...

We may lose it by lashing out in anger and hurtful words or by closing off a part of our hearts in stone cold reserve.  We may lose it by suppressing the values that matter to us or by ending the friendship or relationship.

However we lose it, the person we hurt the most is ourselves, until we find a way to accept what has happened and move forward.  Whether moving forward is acknowledging and working around a relationship road block, finding peace within our hearts to accept our faults or those of another, reaching out to the other person, or finding peace with the natural end of a relationship, the only way out of the purgatory of an uncontrollable emotional state is to work towards acceptance.

When working on a character in a work of fiction or non-fiction, it is very important to understand the status of their relationships with others and with themselves.  A writer must intrinsically feel when the excitement of getting to know a new person seeps into the comfort of familiarity, and when that bleeds into the yearning for something new or the resentment of interdependence, then whether that splits off into a renaissance of the self or acceptance of the relationship and eventual contentment at growing together.

One of the best ways to feel your character, of course, is to tap into personal experience.  So, today's writercize asks you to do just that.

writing exercise:  Reflect on a time when you've lost track of a personal relationship, and what it took to find resolution.

Click "read more" to see writercizer sample response on the mother-in-law relationship dynamic.

Multidimensional Character - Success & Secrets - writercize #58

When I open up a novel, I like a character with layers and undertones and some good old-fashioned internal strife.  Give me hope, vulnerability, frustration, insecurity, sadness, relief, deception.  Realistic desires and relationships mixed with slightly exaggerated reactions and behaviors.  Characters who are all good or all bad just don't do it for me - they aren't a challenge to get to know, and I bore easily of them, put down the book, forget why they mattered.

I find that characters I am drawn to in literature would most likely drive me insane in real life; they may be too self-absorbed or conniving or generally screwed up, but I love to escape into their nutty worlds.  Give me a character who's successful with a dark and dirty backstory or a character deemed as a failure by all around them but internally the greatest success there is (Holden Caulfield, Ignatius J. Reilly).

Today's writercize is all about building depth and exposing a character's layers to see straight to the core.

writing exercise:  Take 5-10 minutes to write a short story or character study using the sentence below as your prompt. 

prompt:  To the outside world, everything about Alex screamed success - good looks, supportive family, a plenitude wealth - but beneath the surface ...

You may interpret it any way you wish, and expose the character from any angle (his/her own POV or that of an omniscient narrator or other character in the story).  Feel free to delve into fantasy or sci fi if that's your thing too!  Copy and paste the prompt into the comment section and type away.

 

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Hey, What's Your Goal? - writercize #54

It is my belief that there are two primary types of people in this world - those whose expectations of themselves far exceeds that of what anyone else could possibly think to expect of them, and those who set the bar so low of their self-expectations that others are continuously trying to pull them up.

Both types of people are set up for disappointment, the first disappoint themselves and the second disappoint others.  

That is not to say that disappointment is necessarily a negative thing; at times it can help us better recognize our strengths, weaknesses and limitations.  In this way, we have the power to alter either our thinking or behavior to change future outcomes.

I am a classic example of someone who sets the bar higher than I can reach.  However, I feel that as long as I am able recognize my limitations when necessary and forgive myself for my perceived short-comings (oh so important!) this quality of setting high expectations is a very good thing.  It allows me to dream BIG.  Most of these dreams remain in my head and I enjoy playing them out every once in a while (win Pulitzer, discover mosquito repellent so effective that insect-born disease is obliterated, win Oscar for Best Actress, encourage all citizens to take part in community building, and the list goes on and on and on).  

Clearly these are not true expectations of myself, but when I find a dream that is important enough to grab onto, I try to convert it into a reasonable goal, with attainable results within a practical time frame.  Sometimes, my goals will aim a little high to keep something just out of reach, so that I can keep striving and challenging myself.

Speaking of challenges, since I do love them oh so much, I've decided to check out the Group Blogging Experience - aka GBE 2 - brought to my attention by Marie over at Write, Wrong or Indifferent.  It's basically a group of people who receive a weekly prompt to incorporate into their blog sometime during the week.  Great concept.  You can sign on to Facebook to receive the prompt by looking for a group called "GBE 2: Blog On."  This week's prompt was expectations, which was very convenient since I was planning to write on goal setting anyhow!

Now that intros have been taken care of, onto today's writercize.  Please post your writercize result as a comment!

writing exercise:  Think of yourself ten years into the future.  Allow your mind to wander and dream to identify your achievements - personal and professional alike.  Identify 3-5 of these achievements that you would like to pursue as a goal, and write it down.  

I like the ten year time period because it allows you to dream bigger than short-term one or two year goals.  It also allows you enough distance that if for whatever reason you are unable to achieve the goal, you haven't fallen as short of your own expectations as a short-term goal.  You can always chock ten years up to a different path life decided to take rather than a personal failure, and that flexibility feels good.

Click "read more" to see writercizer sample response.