To keep myself from writing until I hear back from the powers that publish, I've been reading writing craft books. Today I cracked open Fiction Writer's Workshop. The first section is Sources of Fiction, basically where to find your stories. So I try the first exercise. Write one page glimpse of a scene. One page.
I couldn't stop. I wrote a short story. Dang it, I can't even follow these directions.
Other exercises were to write your first three memories and try to make a story out of them. I don't have any early memories that I don't think were fed to me - retold over and over until they are stories, not memories.
I found this hard because I've programmed myself only to write things I can at least attempt to publish. Writing just a one paragraph description goes against that. Here's hoping I do better tomorrow with the lesson on Setting.
4 comments:
Hey, Jenna,
Sorry I missed your birthday! Hope you had a great day. I wouldn't stress too much over not being able to write a paragraph on early memories etc. I always hate it in workshops when I *HAVE* to write something. Hmm, I am currently writing a talk where I will inflict that pain onto many :-)
You crack me up. I've decided it's natural for you to write something you want published. You never seem to stop! When you're supposed to be taking a break, you just write something else! Too funny...
All of this hard work is going to pay off in a big way, I'm sure!
Thats just because writing is your passion. Its hard to take a break from something you love so much.
Happy late birthday!
LOL, you can't help it that you're driven to write. It's natural or you wouldn't do it. And even if you don't follow an exercise precisely, if you've gained ANYTHING from it, then it was worth it, right?
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