Weekend Writing Workout
Found this little gem over at a great blog called The Accidental Novelist. I thought I would give it a try.
The Precious Object Exercise
1) Decide which character you are going to develop / work on for this exercise.
2) Pick a random object, let's say a drum.
3) Imagine that this object is the MOST precious object in the world to your character.
Set your timer for 5-7 minutes. Using the start line below, write (without stopping, without editing) until your timer goes off:
The most precious object in my character's life is her...
_________________________________________________________________
The most precious object in Sarah's life is her statue of Bast. All of her life, she had been drawn to cats. As a child, kittens would follow her home from school. She had posters of cats hanging from every available space on the wall as a teenager. She couldn't get cats out of her head. She also had these recurring dreams of being in ancient Egypt as a priestess of cats. She couldn't understand it.
One year, her mom had bought her a statue as a gift. Her mom didn't know who the statue was, she just saw it as a pretty cat lady. This statue was one she had seen in her dreams growing up. There was a huge statue just like it outside of the temple in her dreams. Now she had her very own for in her house. She couldn't believe she received one. She searched high and low trying to find out as much information as she could on this statue.
It was during this search that she found out about Bast and her followers. There were people even today that followed in the beliefs of Bast. She needed more information. She was drawn to this. It felt like she belonged. She now felt like the world made sense to her. She felt like she finally came home.
________________________________________________________________________
(If you have the time, you can go into the MIDDLE of this exercise and pull out a line and write for 5-7 more minutes, using that line as a start line. I think doing this THREE times is best. It gets you quite deep into it all)
4) Decide what scene you are going to write.
5) Decide who will be in this scene with your character. (example: Helen's mother and brother)
6) Write your scene, incorporating your object, and starting with this line:
"What are you doing with that?"
_________________________________________________________________
I don't really have the time right now to do that part. I am going to come back and finish that later.
The Precious Object Exercise
1) Decide which character you are going to develop / work on for this exercise.
2) Pick a random object, let's say a drum.
3) Imagine that this object is the MOST precious object in the world to your character.
Set your timer for 5-7 minutes. Using the start line below, write (without stopping, without editing) until your timer goes off:
The most precious object in my character's life is her...
_________________________________________________________________
The most precious object in Sarah's life is her statue of Bast. All of her life, she had been drawn to cats. As a child, kittens would follow her home from school. She had posters of cats hanging from every available space on the wall as a teenager. She couldn't get cats out of her head. She also had these recurring dreams of being in ancient Egypt as a priestess of cats. She couldn't understand it.
One year, her mom had bought her a statue as a gift. Her mom didn't know who the statue was, she just saw it as a pretty cat lady. This statue was one she had seen in her dreams growing up. There was a huge statue just like it outside of the temple in her dreams. Now she had her very own for in her house. She couldn't believe she received one. She searched high and low trying to find out as much information as she could on this statue.
It was during this search that she found out about Bast and her followers. There were people even today that followed in the beliefs of Bast. She needed more information. She was drawn to this. It felt like she belonged. She now felt like the world made sense to her. She felt like she finally came home.
________________________________________________________________________
(If you have the time, you can go into the MIDDLE of this exercise and pull out a line and write for 5-7 more minutes, using that line as a start line. I think doing this THREE times is best. It gets you quite deep into it all)
4) Decide what scene you are going to write.
5) Decide who will be in this scene with your character. (example: Helen's mother and brother)
6) Write your scene, incorporating your object, and starting with this line:
"What are you doing with that?"
_________________________________________________________________
I don't really have the time right now to do that part. I am going to come back and finish that later.
Comments
Maybe I'll try it too if I can get myself to concentrate on it, hehe
:)
It was a fun writing exercise to do.
You inspired me to leave a Mr. Linky at the bottom of the weekend workout exercise so that people CAN share their work with others. I usually post them on Fridays, but sometimes not until Saturday morning. I hope you don't mind, I put you first on the link.
Kristinaq - I love green tea icecream!