What does a marathon runner, a heavyweight champion, and a writer have in common? They all have to train. The brain is not a muscle, but it nonetheless needs flexing and guidance. I’m not talking about wobbling your head around or massaging your scalp; I’m talking about reading everything you can put your hands on, from newspaper articles to song lyrics to novels, and writing. Every day!
As a writer, taking days off is pretty much unheard of. When I spend time away from my computer, my mood dulls and my imagination spills over, threatening to burst out of my scalp. That’s usually the point when my husband hands me my computer in total silence and walks out of the room to give me some space.
So, besides writing novels and short stories, I’ve found that the best training is a writing prompt. It fires up your imagination and forces you out of your comfort zone. It allows you to try new styles of writing and round-out characters that you would never have thought of in the first place.
The way a prompt works is that you start out with a sentence or a picture from which you create an entire story. For motivation, you should pick a few writers with whom to do this. Each week, one of you sends out a prompt to the group. Everyone writes half a page to three pages (I’m a half-pager sort of girl whereas my sister is the other sort—the one you read after you submitted yours that makes you drum your fingers with jealousy).
To get you started, here are some of my favorite prompts:
– “Well, Robert,” said one of the guests, “tell us about your latest discovery.”
– As the plane lifted off the runway, the woman next to me leaned over and whispered, “I have a secret. I have to tell someone…”
– “John, why is there a table on the ceiling?”
You can also use pictures, like the one at the top of this post.
Or… and this is the most fun, but requires you all to be in the same room and have an extra person present: the 10 word-10 minute prompt. Last year, the Geneva’s Writers Group organized a conference in Geneva and one of the speakers had us do this prompt in his seminar. The way it works is, one person gives out a random word every minute. You have to weave that word into your story without ever stopping the flow. Have you ever tried to find a connection between a pineapple and a wolf? Let me tell you, it’s hard and not very obvious, but such, such fun.
Did I mention I love writing?