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WFMAD Day 23 – Earthquake edition


I had a great run today. On that great run, I thought of the PERFECT WFMAD blog post. I shuffled home, ate, showered, and headed out to run a few errands before I sat down to write. Somewhere in the middle of the errands, there was an earthquake. No, I did not feel it, though several people in my area said they did. (For the record, my kid in Brooklyn, and my kid outside of Philly both felt it rather dramatically.)


As I write this, damage and injury caused by the earthquake seem to be minimal. Since that’s the case, I’m using it.


(I’ll write the blog post I thought up while running tomorrow, as long as there is not another earthquake.)


image from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake


Ready… Make sure you have a clear path to the doorway, in case another earthquake hits and you need to flee. You can finish your fifteen minutes as soon as you are safely settled outside.


Set… “I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence – this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.” Lord Byron


Today’s prompt: Does your story have any earthquakes; some huge, unexpected, and potentially devastating? If not, brainstorm a list of potential earthquakes; a car accident, a divorce, cancer diagnosis, etc. that mght completely upend your character’s life. You probably won’t use this in your book, but it is a useful exercise for getting to know your character’s inner life better.


OR
What kinds of emotional or physical earthquakes have you survived? How does the way you feel about it today differ from your reaction when it happened?


Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 22 – Habit-trails

We are gerbils.

We have our paths that we run daily; kitchen, car, office, school, work. We pause at regular intervals to eat and to (ahem) get rid of what we’ve eaten. Most of us bathe regularly and brush our teeth.

We are the products of our habits. Only problem is, when not enough of our habits feed our souls, we get cranky, gloomy, cantankerous, spiteful, melancholy, and we eat vats of ice cream. Life has turned into a giant Habitrail. We press our paws and nose against the plastic walls, but if feels like there is no way out.

One of the more painful (and useful) lessons in life is realizing that people can say anything, and that what they say can be hot, smelly air. If you really want to understand someone, or you’re trying to figure out what kind of person they are, observe what they do. Actions do, indeed, speak much louder than words.

What do your habits say about the kind of person you are? Is that who you want to be right now?

Ready… Not that I want you to waste anymore time on the Internet, but one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, is sure to help if you are trying to reorient your life. Also, Lifehack has 6 Ways To Make New Habits Stick.

Set… “The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” Samuel Johnson

Today’s prompt: Make a list of habits that either you or your main character has. If you’re writing about your character, make a note of which habits he is aware of, and which ones he doesn’t realize that he does. Which of these habits (yours or your character’s) have begun to stand in the way of obtaining a desire or fulfilling a dream? How? Why?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 20 – Stuck in a rut?

Is your writing stuck?

Maybe not. Maybe the ideas are sputtering along. But you’re not happy, because you know (down deep inside) that what you are writing is a bit mechanical. Bloodless. DOA.

If you have the kind of busy life that makes it hard to develop a consistent writing routine (hence your presence on my blog this month), then it’s a safe bet to say that you don’t have many opportunities to do, see, or experience something new. You work, go to school, take care of the family, make sure the car has oil, deflea the cats, pay the bills, do the laundry, volunteer too much because you are too exhausted to say no, go to church, buy the groceries, negotiate world peace, and put out bird seed.

And you wonder why your writing feels stale?

Ready… Get out your calendar.

Set… “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Anaïs Nin

Today’s prompt: Everyone has a few things that they’ve been wanting to do…. for fun. I’ve been wanting to visit the Canal Museum in Syracuse, and an SU basketball game, and go for a run at Green Lakes. But those things are WAAAAAY outside my daily routine, which always feels overloaded as it is, so they remain only fond desires.

You have a few items on your list, too. Fun experiences. Out-of-the-ordinary adventures. Indulgences. You need to go on them. So do I.

In your fifteen minutes, write a short list of four or five easy, local adventures you’ve been wanting to take. Then commit to taking them. Write down on your calender when you will do it (in the next 30 days, please) and commit to taking someone you care about with you. Make a date.

If you have time left over, write why you haven’t given yourself permission to take these adventures yet. You can also write about the adventures that your character secretly wants to take, but for (fill in the blank) reason, she won’t make it happen.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 19 – Anger is a writer’s best friend


If you haven’t read the post I wrote at 4 am this morning about the lawsuit recently filed that accuses authorities at a Republic, MO middle school of covering up the alleged rapes of a special needs student, please do so now.


We do not have a word in English that adequately expresses how angry I am about this.

But this is a WFMAD post. It is not the place for me to go all fire-and-brimstone on the hindquarters of adults who epically fail in their responsibilities to the children in their care.


One of the tricks to being a balanced, productive writer is to take the emotional fastballs that life hurtles toward your head and transform them into something you can use in your writing. If you want to write for teens and kids, the chances are almost 100% that you care deeply about them. This means you are going to spend a lot of time being upset at the way they are treated.


Anger, stoked in a righteous fire and smoothed with the hammer of integrity, becomes narrative energy.


Ready… Don’t take any time to be ready. Tell the people around you to leave you alone for 15 minutes. Put on head phones. Make the stupid world go away. And don’t give me any back-talk, OK?


Set… “Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth.” AND “I get angry about things, then go on and work.” both quotes from Toni Morrison


Today’s prompt: What pisses you off? What action, person, offense, crime, indignity, injustice, horror scratches your soul like a sulphur-tipped match on sandpaper? I’m not talking about the jerk who cuts you off in traffic, or a parking ticket, or a partner who leaves socks on the living room floor. I’m talking about dangerous anger. World-changing anger. Revolutionary rage.


Write about what makes you that angry. I double-dog dare you.


Extra bonus points if you get so fired up that you write about what makes your character that angry, too.


Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 18 – Getting By With a Little Help


In my humble opinion, Joe Cocker’s version of this song is way better than the Beatles.



What does Joe Cocker have to do with your writing?


Your character needs some friends. We are often so focused on developing our main character and The Forces Of Evil Who Rally Against Her, that we neglect to use the vast potential that a friend can bring to our story. You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep, can’t you?’


Ready… Your character is not the only person who needs friends. If you don’t have someone you can trust (and to whom you are NOT related by blood or marriage) enough to share your writing with, now is the time to figure out how you are going to find that person. (If you are writing for children or teens, your best bet is to join SCBWI. If you’re writing for adults, I don’t have a clue. Sorry.) Once you figure out who that person is, schedule some meetings over coffee, or Skype, or on the phone so the two of you can commiserate and cheer each other on as you push forward on the writing path.


Set… “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” Ernest Hemingway


Today’s prompt: Develop a friend for your main character. Make sure that she’s not a cliche; no “trusty side-kicks” please. How are they different? What irritates them about each other? Why are they loyal to each other? What secret do they know? How did they meet? Don’t worry about how this friend is going to fit into your plot. The answer to that problem will come to you as soon as you’ve developed the character well enough.


OR


Write about the person who was your closest friend in elementary school. Open up the floodgates and let the memories flow.


Scribble…. Scribble… Scribble…