I’m sure you’ve all heard about pre-writing, and you’ve all been taught a ton of different ways to go about it–some even by me.  However, the mental process that underpins the writing cannot be overstated in its importance.  Before you dive deeper than you ever have into one of your character’s minds, you must dive into your own.  As writers, we’re expected to produce compelling, believable characters.  How can we be expected to do that if we don’t look at ourselves under the writer’s lens?

The following is taken from Writing from the Inner Self by Elaine F. Hughes, which is sadly out of print.  If you can find and buy a copy–absolutely do so.  I treasure mine deeply.  This activity can be done if you assume the role of one of your characters–this is, however, extremely difficult.  You should do it authentically first–you might be surprised at what you find out about yourself.  Further, the practice in uncovering motivation and developing detail is unrivaled.

Fifteen Minutes Under the Microscope

On the surface, this is a simple exercise.  You will examine yourself doing something that takes about fifteen minutes.  However, as you look closely at these fifteen minutes, you will discover layers and layers of complexity–probably enough material to warrant a small novel.  If you’re familiar with the writings of William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce, you’ll recognize the technique.

Mentally Recount All the Things You Did Today or Yesterday
Think back over your day and mentally recount all the things you did.  (You can go back to an earlier day, but choose a recent time.)

Pick One 15-Minute Segment from That Day
Choose one segment of your day in which you were doing something that took about fifteen minutes.

Close Your Eyes and Visually Re-Create the Experience
Put a beginning and an ending to the segment and observe yourself in action from start to finish.

Rerun the Event in Slow Motion
Go back and watch the whole experience again, this time in slow motion.  Examine more closely what else was going on as your progressed through the fifteen minutes.

• See each action as completely as possible.
• Pay attention to the transitions between actions: What prods you to finish one action and begin another?
• Notice what else is going on around you that is outside your frame of reference but which you still observe.
• Tune in to how your body is feeling.

Go Back Once Again Through Each Movement and Trace Back Each of Your Thoughts
Go back through each moment once again.  This time, trace each thought you’re aware of as you undertake the different actions.  You now have a dual mental screen–one for your external action and one for your internal thoughts.

Slow Down Time Even Further
Slow down time until you are looking at each mental and physical event as if it took much longer to transpire than it actually did.  Mentally record every turn of thought and feeling that you can remember.  You may have to rerun the scene several times in your mind’s eye in order to uncover everything.

Once you’re completed the exercise, spend enough time writing to get down everything that you remembered.  As you’re writing, you will probably remember other things, so add them in.

A good follow-up exercise is to take any one of the threads of thought that ran through your mind and let it write its own story.

If that seems like a lot, it is!  In their Young Writer’s programs, you can set your own goals.

That’s really the point of this entire week (or two weeks) of the group.

This activity is bare-bones at the core.

Set a daily writing goal.  Write that many words per day (or pages per day or whatever) no matter what.  We’ve concerned ourselves with interesting hooks, settings, dialogue, and all that.  Now we need to make ourselves write.

If it helps, make a calendar.  There’s a great motivational tool called Don’t Break the Chain.  Read about it here.  Basically, you have a calendar and a daily goal.  You only get to cross out a day if you meet your goal.  If you’re more software oriented, you can use Don’tBreakTheChain.com to do this activity, popularized by Jerry Seinfeld.

You can also use the Post Your Progress sub-forum, of course.

Daily writing will break down walls, kill the I’m-going-to-write-for-an-hour-but-really-the-first-45-minutes-are-staring-at-the-screen stalling, silence your inner editor, and give your writing reckless, relentless abandon and enthusiasm if you let it.  Sometimes we need a little bit of insanity to keep us cruising.  The first few days might be hard.

Okay, that’s a lie.  They will be hard.  Then, around day six or seven, you’ll want to go to bed early.

But you’ll also want to keep the chain.  You’ll be 30 minutes or an hour sleep deprived, but you’ll do it.

And, more than anything else, that will make you a writer.

Gilbert’s Goal: 500 words per day until April 1st, 2011.  Three pages per day April 1st through 30th.

Helpful tools for this sort of thing for me…feel free to add to the list.

http://editminion.com/Who hasn’t wanted a minion to help them edit?
http://writeordie.com/ Serious motivation, word challenges, timers, kamikaze mode…
http://www.ommwriter.com/ So much more serene than the two above.
http://dontbreakthechain.com/ Seriously, don’t break it.

Anyone else have useful writing tools for consistency?

Some of these are inspired by Writing from the Inner Self by Elaine F. Hughes (which is sadly out of print–and you can pry it out of my cold, dead hands).  Head to the forums when you’re ready to do some writing!

Check out the newsletter/flyer: 3 – Prompts and Kicks

Is anyone else ready for Script Frenzy?

I couldn’t think of a better problem to have. The truth is, we all–as human beings–have stories inside of us that we wish to let out. The only difference between someone who’s a writer and everyone else is that we have learned to listen to the voices in our heads. We’ve learned to want something more than just Facebook updates, phone calls, and Twitter. We want to climb our mountains and scream for all the world.

The good news, though, is that those mountain trails have been walked before. What you scream at the top is entirely your own, but you don’t have to get there entirely by yourself. You can follow in footsteps. You can hoist yourself up on shoulders.

That’s what this week is all about.

As inspiration, I’m going to point to short stories that I think does these things well: setting, character description, and dialogue.

You’ve already got stories to tell.

For the poets, I have excellent examples of imagery, ironic comedy, allusion, and brevity.

Pick something that you’ve written or that you want to write. Once you’ve got that, pick piece related to making yours better. Try to learn from the piece that you’ve read. Change your writing or write something inspired by what you’ve read. Post it in the forums.

Here’s the list.  Find them online or see me for them.

Setting: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin

This dystopian future story lets the city itself, the powerful setting, tell the story.

Character Description: “Other People” by Neil Gaiman

Hell is other people, according to Jean-Paul Sarte. This story explores that idea.

Dialogue: “The Short Bus” by Marsheila Rockwell

It’s amazing the things a NO TALKING sign can–and can’t–accomplish.

Imagery: XXXVI from Chamber Music by James Joyce

An army marches on the land and terrible horsemen make metaphor for lost love.

Ironic Comedy: “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith

A hilarious–and tragic–misunderstanding in a short poem.

Brevity: “It’s all I have to bring today” by Emily Dickinson

Dickinson says a lot by not saying much–everything she has to bring and say.

Allusion: “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot

The emptiness of modern life lit up by countless references to religion, myth, and more.

See you in the trenches!

This means that it’s a place for us to share writing and receive feedback without posting it for the entire world to see.  All of the students in the writing club presently can sign up for Nabble using their OHP email addresses.  I’ve already got you on the list of authenticated users using those addresses.

All of the comment areas on this page allow threading for ease of responses.

I also will be posting Writing Group updates on Twitter. I’ll use the hash tag #ohpwriting when I post something to do with this group.  My Language Arts Facebook Page will also get these updates.  Basically, this should make it easy enough for you to follow the updates that I have planned, right?

If you don’t have it yet, you can get the first handout from the group here: Writing Club Activity #1: Block Busters

When you’ve got something put together, stick in in the Nabble forum.  We’ll be discussing each other’s writing on Friday.