Finding the Drama in Daily Life

During an author interview conducted after the publication of her collection Babylon and Other Stories, Alix Ohlin shared this creative writing exercise, which she often assigns to her writing students to help them find the drama in everyday moments: 

Write a scene in which a man and a woman go into a mattress store to buy a bed. The couple can only talk about the bed, but must nonetheless reveal through the conversation the real situation between them. (For an example of how this kind of scene can work, read Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants.")

To begin, you might consider the many different stressful situations that develop between couples: divorces, pregnancies (as with "Hills"), substance abuse issues, transfers, etc. If you're having problems thinking of a conflict, start with a situation from your own experience. The situation doesn't matter as much as the conversation. The exercise will force you to think about how couples communicate, how much goes unsaid between them. At the same time, when you're done, your reader should have a very good idea of what is happening in the lives of these two people.

In doing this exercise, you may want to review the basics of writing dialogue first. For more insights on writing and teaching, read the entire interview with Alix Ohlin.

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Verb Workout

1. Sit down with a stop watch or set the timer on your microwave and see how many action verbs you can write down in two minutes. Now, use your dictionary and/or thesaurus to find at least three synonyms and three opposites (antonyms) for each one. Memorize them all.

2. Find a passage from a book or magazine story you’ve recently enjoyed and re-read it, marking (or making note of) all the verbs you can find. Analyze the passage critically, taking notice of such things as active vs. passive voice; action verbs vs. linking verbs; the specificity of the verbs (does the author use a lot of adverbs or do the verbs paint a clear enough picture all on their own?).

3. Now look at that same passage on another level: Note any images that particularly touch you or spark your imagination. Can you identify what is affecting you? If so, try duplicating the technique in your own work (at this stage, imitation is a perfectly legitimate way to start finding your own voice as a writer).

This Creative exercise is from Ements of Creative Writing I: Grammar And Mechanics

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Storyteller Exercise

This writing prompt is based on one in Julia Cameron's book The Right to Write. Fans of her better-known book The Artist's Way, will enjoy this exercise, which exercises the subconscious.

Instructions
Imagine that you're sitting against a tree. A storyteller is sitting on the other side of the tree. On a piece of paper, list five stories you would like to hear. Choose one of the ideas, and write down what the storyteller says.
Use the exercise as an opportunity to free associate. The goal is to let go of your conscious mind as much as possible and force you to listen to your subconscious. Think about what it was like as a child to have someone tell you a story. Try to recreate that experience with your imaginary storyteller. What kinds of stories did you like to hear as a kid? What stories do you like now?
If you're having trouble getting started, you might begin by describing your storyteller. Does she look like a librarian or like a gypsy? Maybe he has a long beard like a wizard or a tramp. Who would you like to have tell you a story?

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Capture A Dream

Dreams are strange and wonderful things. We have only tantalizing hints at what function, if any, they perform, what service they provide. They could be as simple a thing as the semi-conscious mind attempting to turn flashes of memories into sense, into stories. Or they could be more complex, as if your mind were turning over thoughts and ideas on its own, unbidden by you, working out problems, thinking of outcomes. Perhaps, at the extreme of possibilities, when sleeping the mind enters or opens to different quantum states and see into the infinite dimensions and parallel universes. The least likely possibility is that dreams are prophetic.

Dreams are often fragmentary, strange, and unsettling. And they are the place where writing begins.
The telling of stories, the act of experiencing them, is so fundamental to humans that it’s literally built in. Some say that movies are dreams made real, but I say that movies are pale things in comparison to dreams. Someday, perhaps, when fully immersive virtual reality is perfected, we might spend time, fully conscious, inside dreams. But for now we must rely on our fading memories of what we dreamt.

For the writer, paying attention to dreams, recording them, playing with them, is a potential gold mine. When you write, you strive for unleashed creativity and it’s very difficult to achieve, but in dreams that’s the natural state, the place where you begin. It is very useful for writers to jot down their dreams, to capture what they can of the experience of dreaming, and record not just the events of the dream, but the emotions, the experiences, and the turning points. When you wake, what did the dream make you feel? That may be as important as the dream itself.

I am personally very poor at capturing and recording dreams, but I intend to get better at it. I don’t think I can immediately wake and capture a dream, but I can try and let dreams echo around until I have the time to sit down and make a few notes. You can do the same thing.
For today’s writing assignment, record a dream. It could be a dream from last night, if you can remember it, or it could be one that stuck with you, even one that reoccurs. Try and capture everything you can about it, the events, your dreaming thoughts and emotions, and what it made you think and feel upon  
                                                                                    waking.

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“Thirteen billion years ago the universe exploded...”

Yeph. That's right! Write a story with that.

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Working With Cliches

This week’s writing assignment is as easy as pie. We all know that idle hands are the devil’s playthings, so pick up your pen and put your shoulder to the grindstone.

Yes, today we’re working with cliches.

I remember when I first read Hamlet. As I was working my way through it I couldn’t help but think, “This the most cliche-ridden piece of hack work I’ve ever read!” It took me a bit to discover that Shakespeare wasn’t the hack I thought he was. It’s everyone after him who reuses his phrases that has made them into cliches.
Cliches, the little phrases, the shortcuts, that litter our common speech and language, aren’t necessarily the poison that English teachers have led us to believe. They’re the way that people talk, and if you’re writing dialog you can’t avoid them without sounding stiff and unnatural. And they do offer shortcuts, easy ways to quickly pull a reader in, to convey complex information.

As long as you don’t overdo it. Limit them to once in a blue moon.

You can also twist a cliche to change its meaning, to redirect a reader, to make them pause and say, “Wait. What?” This is especially useful when you combine cliches in interesting ways. It may help you get out of the woods and into the frying pan.

For today’s assignment, write a short piece packing it with as many cliches as possible. Your object is to have fun, but also try to communicate an idea or thought.

For help finding cliches, use the helpful http://www.clichesite.com/site.

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Copy! Its Good.

One of the best ways for an artist to practice a craft is to emulate the style of its masters. It’s harder than it sounds. You have to do more than just copy surface attributes. You have to understand how they do what they do, what makes it work, and why it affects you. As you practice and emulate different artists, you’ll discover your own style.

Musicians work this way, and in their early careers they’re often labeled as “a young Charlie Parker” or “the new Jerry Lee Lewis” (we still have the old one, by the way, no need for another). Some never grow out of copying and fade away, but others develop their own sound, their own style, and become the models for future artists.

For writers, it’s particularly easy to fall into copying great writers and that’s a perfectly cromulent way to practice one’s craft. Write a piece like Jane Austin or Ernest Hemingway. Write like Edgar Allen Poe or Arthur Conan Doyle. Try Vonnegut or Capote or Greene. I dare you. It’s much more difficult than you might imagine.

I, for one, have been reading my favorite books from my favorite author, Mark Twain. These novels are masterworks. I find that as I lose myself in these books that his style creeps into my own. It’s fun to try and see how the language works in practice. And it’s damned difficult.

For today’s exercise, select one of your favorite authors and write a short piece using their style. You do not have to use their subject material, just their personal style. For example, write a short piece about preparing a meal using this appropriated style.

This is a good assignment to repeat as often as you can.
You may leave your completed assignment in the comments section below. 

This assignment is from Writing Assignments by Randy Murray.  

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