Develop a Character

Select a fictional character from a favorite book or movie.  Place this individual in another stage of life.

How would Huck Finn act as an 70 year old English professor?  Could you write about Cinderella as a grandmother discovering her grandson has a problem?  

Follow Hamlet one day as a teenager whose girl friend has rejected him.  Imagine Juliet as an entrepereur on Wall Street.

Write about your favorite characters with their different age challenges and circumstances.

Continue experimenting with character traits.  Build a character with dimensions.  

Choose an uresolved relationship.  

Add a chat with a mysterious family member. 

Provide a frustrating situation.

Include a problematic love interest. 

Create irritation from a co-worker.  

Stir in some feelings of bliss.  

What do you have?

Find the Meaning

Meaning by Carl Dennis If a life needn't be useful to be meaningful,  Then maybe a life of sunbathing on a beach  Can be thought of as meaningful for at least a few,  The few, say, who view the sun as a god  And consider basking a form of worship.  As for those devoted to partnership with a surfboard  Or a pair of ice skates or a bag of golf clubs,  Though I can't argue their lives are useful,  I'd be reluctant to claim they have no meaning  Even if no one observes their display of mastery.  No one is listening to the librarian  I can call to mind as she practices, after work,  In her flat on Hoover Street, the viola da gamba  In the one hour of day that for her is golden.  So what if she'll never be good enough  To give a concert people will pay to hear?  When I need to think of her with an audience,  I can imagine the ghosts of composers dead for centuries, Pleased to hear her doing her best with their music.  And isn't it pleasing, as we walk at dusk to our cars  Parked on Hoover Street, after a meeting  On saving a shuttered hotel from the wrecking ball,  To catch the sound of someone filling a room  We won't be visiting with a haunting solo?  And then the gifts we receive by imagining  How down at the beach today surfers made sure  The big waves we weren't there to appreciate  Didn't go begging for attention.  And think of the sunlight we failed to welcome,  How others stepped forward to take it in.

Carl Dennis questions what it means to make a contribution by exploring different notions. He wants to believe that despite appearances everyone in the poem has a part to play. 

Watch simple situations, scenes and human interactions today that provide meaning.

Let them connect to develop a story or poem.

When to Relent to Process

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."  

~ Michelangelo

Writing projects require a target, aim and follow through to the goal. When energized in a flow, writers keep writing. Other times we stop inches from the finish line and feel the frustration of an incompletion. 

How do we learn the timing of when to push or relent?  Often distractions become vital to forward progress. Self-trickery may force solutions not considered if we're too focused on the task. 

All writers face times of struggle when the words move in slow motion. They defy us in a spurt, bubble or a trickle from the pen when we want Niagara Falls. We need to understand our process and give ourselves permission to aim lower at times. 

The lower aim might move us into a different direction of productivity. Often a barricade to an unreachable goal enables us to change aim and devise other creative means.  

To disagree with Michelangelo, the low accomplishment might keep us going in preparation for our shot to the moon.  W. Clement Stone wrote, "Aim for the moon, if you miss you may hit a star."

During a writing project, If you feel stuck, take a break and move into a boring area of life like laundry or refrigerator cleaning. Pay bills. Take a power nap. 

Playtime becomes necessary. Force the brain to escape. Walk in the garden and look for faces and figures in flowers. Soon, ideas will percolate and you'll find a way into the gush of words.

Write about aim. Ponder times you have set goals and discovered ways to reach them you never thought possible. 

How did you persevere beyond doubts?  

When you backed off and let your creative powers take over, what did you learn? 

To Honor Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Caged Bird


The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with fearful trill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom. 

-    Maya Angelou

Fly free, Maya!            

Freedom Flight

Body grounded by a virus,

my mind begs a break from

Discomfort.

"Come for a ride," a peregrine falcon coaxes.


As I launch into the sky, 
"I'll be back," I say to my body.

Just a moment's 
ride, feathered

on the peregrine's

back.

A chance to watch the mock battle of fledglings.

From a peregrine's view,

I marvel at my body

as it maintains 
the pace without me.

One-foot-after-another

It continues to conquer

our challenge.

Renewed,
I slip back in

and off we go 

to breakfast.

Applause arises
from the sea.

In Gratitude on Memorial Day

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Dream of battled fields no more.

Days of danger, nights of waking. 

-Sir Walter Scott

After the Civil War, the government created a holiday to honor the Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in battle. Union general John Logan chose May 30th because it did not honor the anniversary of any battle.

When World War I ended, they extended the idea to honor all United States soldiers who died in any war.

In 1968, Congress's Uniform Holidays Act severed the link between Memorial Day and the original date, changing it instead to "the last Monday in May" to allow for a three-day weekend.

Memorial Day has become a holiday for families to remember anyone they have lost (veteran or otherwise), to lay flowers at grave sites.

For those unable to travel to the graves of their loved ones, there are websites like FindAGrave.com, where one can create a cyber-monument and leave a "virtual" note or bouquet.

Write into Solitude

On a leafless branch

A crow's settling

autumn nightfall

               - Basho

Basho's Haiku investigates the value of a singular moment. In Japanese, the word sabi describes an alloy of beauty and sadness. Sabishi expresses loneliness and solitude. An essence of impermanence pervades his observation.

What does alone feel like?  Notice if sensations of impermanence percolate.  

Define words like loneliness, freedom, or solitude.

Develop metaphor and sensory imagery.

Invite the reader into a moment of solitude.

Questions Spark Imagery

How do the seasons know
They must change their shirt?

Why so slowly in winter
and later with such a rapid shudder?
- Pablo Neruda

Constructing a scene with sensory details permits the writer's spirit to percolate into writing. To define emotions, an image from nature assists.  

Clouds over the sea present a beginning. From there, shapes and sizes frolic into a variety of forms.

Asking questions of the senses increases details. 

What would clouds feel like on the arms and legs when someone passes through them?  

If clouds ran along the beach which sounds would accompany them?

Which questions evoke nuances?

What do clouds reflect in a puddle? 

Do they smell like carnations and taste like a vanilla and banana milkshake? 

Will the mood change by adding chocolate?

Once the imagery floats upon the page, it provides the possibility to add layers.

By asking questions to expand the image, the writer does not have to tell the reader what to feel. 

The message resides in the details. 

Write the True Self

Sail forth - steer for the deep waters only,

Reckless O soul, exploring, 
I with thee and thee with me.

For we are bound where mariner 
has not yet dared to go,

And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.     

                 -Walt Whitman

Do we travel away from who we really are because of the many roles we play? A few of the characters we inhabit during our life experience might include: spouse, parent, sibling, friend, employer, employee. 

As a result, our true self may stay hidden. Or, we haven't taken the time to study the authenticity of ourselves because of the myriad role responsibilities.

A writer's quest involves the process of discovering an authentic self. It takes a lifetime to explore and delve into the depths of one's inner world in writing beyond the chaos of daily life.

Take time for curiosity. Investigate beyond your mistaken identities for an inner voice.

Describe with concrete details what this voice sounds like. 

Where do you come from?

Where do you belong?

What is your contentment?

What questions do you have about the real you?

As you write into your depths of discovery, listen for a haunting voice of your true self.  What "other self" keeps you company as you dive deeper into your self-enlightenment process?

Start a dialogue and respond to it when frustrated, angry, needy and happy.  

Return to ask and answer questions.

Write about something unimaginable that might define you.

Plant the Seeds

A Buddhist saying indicates that when you plant seeds, you don't dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted. You water them and clear away the weeds.

Plant metaphorical seeds in writing you will cultivate in the coming days.

Set a time to write for fifteen minutes a day without a goal. Let the notions and nuances scatter on the screen or page.

When you keep up with writing exercise,  ideas and projects will take root and bloom,word-by-word.

Rebel Against the Usual

 

"Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules." 

~ Mary Oliver

Consider the joy and power of rebellion. A determination to revolt against the usual may stimulate discoveries in writing. 

Rise and overthrow a stale notion, overworked idea or any status quo you've experienced. 

Vitality will soar as you shed numbing habits and traditions.

Blaze the page with a personal rebel call of nonviolent disobedience. Toss letters in the air and see where they land. 

Write one word sentences. Verbinate!

Extend the rules. Pursue a rebel's jubilee. 

Frolic. Flap those wings.




Stimulate Awareness and Creativity

Discover the duck.

Curiosity

      Revelation

             Eagerness

                   Awareness

                       Timing

                           Imagination

                                  Verve

                                       Intrigue

                                           Travel

                                                 Yeses

Daily, respond to the letters of Creativity to see where they lead.

Think in opposites of your first responses.

Try something never attempted before.

Go for a walk on a different route than usual.

Search for images in pavement, water splots, clouds.

Change routines. Get up earlier. Sleep later.

For five bad experiences, substitute five great ones.

Ask children how to do something and observe their creativity.

Connect a sport to your work.

Try tasting food for its variety of texture.

Choose a color, sound and scent you do not like. Connect them.

Squint and find a different view.

Make a list of five impossible things.  How will you make each possible?

Think about five common items and how they were invented.  Do you have an invention?