In the Park
Good day to you. Thank you for coming. The sixth session already. These sessions can be good to keep your writing muscles toned or to build new strength. It just depends on where you are along your writing journey.
Field Notes:
The next time you walk past a park, stop and watch a group of people involved in an energetic game. Pay attention to the interactions between them, and between them and the surroundings — people and backdrop.
What is it about one or more of them or what they are doing that makes this scene interesting? Look behind the obvious. Find what we would not see with a quick glance. Take time to delve into the scene.
We do not want a story about a group of people talking, or maybe we do, but what is the twist? The obvious movement is there in front of us, but what is it that draws us in, wanting more? What can you find or imagine that is out of place? What does not seem quite right? Does it all make sense? If it does, change it.
WARM UP
10 minutes
Think about the questions posed above and begin to form a scene from one of your future novels. How are you going to manipulate this everyday scene into something worth reading?
Change the scene, ever so slightly. Make the characters do something to make a reader love them, hate them, laugh at them. It is up to you. Jot some lines into your Field Notes.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a scene to tantalize a reader. Leave them gasping for more. Otherwise, why write fiction?
WRITING
25 minutes
Write for 25 about minutes.
Today’s target is 250-300 words — just to test your writing muscles. If you are already reaching it, then your muscles are building nicely.
COOL DOWN
10 minutes
Before you read, get up and take a short break. Let your mind relax. Grab a breath of fresh air or a drink. Stretch a little. Then settle down and read your work. The purpose of the longer break it to remove some of the remnant flow from this piece in your mind. Then you can read it as though the words were written by someone else.
Will your reader feel they have an itch to scratch after they read it?
What did you want that itch to be?
Did you find something unexpected when you read through? Maybe a clue or maybe the seed for more chapters.
Was there something missed or misleading?
Are you enjoying these challenges?
Be proud of everything you write. You will improve your skills as you meet these challenges and make blank pages infinitely more interesting. Enjoy any projects you are working on. Write about anything.
See you soon for more exciting challenges.
Damon