A
smorgasbord of exercises that have helped me as a writer and instructor.
If you would like me to post your writing on MW, contact me at
joanna.norland@gmail.com.
·
Ultimate
Poetry.
take the 10 poems in 30 minute challenge. This is one of the key warm-ups
in Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. Goldberg
suggests coming to the page impromptu, but I find it helpful to have a few
ideas in mind before sitting down.
·
Fairy
Tale Monologues.
Tell a favourite story from a quirky PoV--Cinderella's ugly step sister,
the Lizzard-turned-into-a-footman . . . and what did the glass slipper think of
it all?
·
In
Your Kids' Words. Describe
a recent event from your child's point of view. This can be hysterically
funny or brutally serious.
·
Journals
and logs. Essential
stock of raw material to fuel the rest of your writing lives. Some
writers pen journals into lock-and-key notebooks, others blog on the web. I use
a Google Docs spreadsheet with one column for each child, and try to update it
with a sentence or two a day--I save it to Google Docs so that the long
distance grandparents can log in and keep up with our lives. I plan to
give my kids their journals as an 18th birthday gift ("Golly gosh,
mum! I was hoping for a Vespa, but this is way more def!!"). For
now, it's the best gift I could give myself as a mother/writer, and my
safeguard against mom-nesia. Sample log.
·
Page-a-day
story,
starring your kids (or their super-hero alter egos) -- Dually effective at
overcoming writer's block and encouraging recalcitrant readers.
·
Photo-narratives. Tell a story
about a family vacation, a home baking project, or a development in your
family. Picassa is great for putting slideshows together and adding
captions. To prove you don't have to be a crack photographer to have fun,
check out Dad's Shoes & Puzzled.
Adopt a song. Choose a favourite song and write your own version for a child in your life.
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