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/
