Sunday, May 15, 2016

Inspiration, Part III

Last week, I mentioned freewriting and was asked to delve a little farther into the subject. The key to freewriting or stream-of-consciousness writing is to relax your mind from the pressures of life and allow your subconscious to have center stage. 

When I first began freewriting I wrote something such as: 

I planted the flowers in pots and wondered how long they would survive. Should I have placed the planters in the shade or sun? My green thumb has a tendency to turn brown. 

I was merely reflecting in writing what was rattling around in my brain, conscious thought. Later, I attended a workshop and heard a speaker say that he used freewriting to discover poetic expressions and creative images.  

I sat with pen and paper and imagined a boy running. In my make-believe world, he ran down a country lane at breakneck speed. I played with the image and wrote, “he sure could make the dust fly.” This little tidbit became a line in my book, TROUBLE IN TROUBLESOME CREEK.  

I use freewriting to the greatest extent when I’m revising a story. I wrote, “James ran” in the first draft of the manuscript just to get the story completed, knowing that I would polish the words in one of many drafts to come. So “he ran” became “James sure can make the dust fly when he picks them up and puts them down.” The exercise was not only fun, but productive. 

Try freewriting for inspiration and create words that paint pictures.  

Call for submissions for Adult Writers

The Shell Game. Within the recent explosion of creative nonfiction, a curious new sub-genre is quietly emerging. Hybrids in the truest sense, "hermit crab" essays borrow their structures from ordinary, extra-literary sources (a recipe, a police report, a pack of cards, an obituary…) to use as a framework for a lyric meditation on the chosen subject. In the best examples, the borrowed structures are less contrived than inevitable, managing not only to give shape to the work but to illuminate and exemplify its subject. 
Submission guidelines at http://theshellgameanthology.blogspot.com/

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