Write About an Object

We try to find ways to write about abstractions such as love and fear, friendship and pain. The use of concrete objects assists writers to tell their tales.

Describing the item takes an excursion into details. Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance coaches a writing student to focus on describing a brick.  "The more you look," Pirsig writes,"the more you see."

Creative Write:  Choose an item that evokes memories.  Hold it in your hand. Feel its texture and warmth or coolness. Add color and shapes. Does it have an odor?

Delve into it with words like opening an artichoke. Discover its center and heart. What would it say about its experience with you? If you flick it with a finger, does it have a ring or sound?  Will it break easily? Or is it broken in places, chipped in spots?

Use it to connect to an abstract idea.

Jump Start a Write Renewal

New Year's resolutions cause frustration.  Jump start a Write Renewal instead.

1. Write about what you've learned at this stage of your life. See how far you can go with this for fifteen minutes.

2.  When you catch yourself thinking about what's broken, the economy, ill health and adversity, consider what you want to happen and how you can make it happen on your scale. Keep writing.

3. Believe in living in the moment. Don't dwell on negativity. Write beyond it.

4. Write about what you truly need to be content. Delve into why you think, “I'll be happy when I have this or that,” or “when I live over there,” or “when this happens.” 

5. Write your successes. Examine mistakes and if you have failed to meet objectives. You have choices. Examine your priorities. 

Additional Points to Ponder:

6.  Choose wisely what you read, listen to and the people with whom you associate. Avoid letting negative individuals populate your world.  You cannot change them.  Move on.

7.  Learn to listen with both ears. Evaluate before disrespecting another's opinion.

8.  Examine how you take responsibility for yourself with healthy choices of diet, exercise and mind push ups. Nurture a spiritual force that supports your efforts.

9.   Take pride in the natural world and explore it daily with all your senses. 

10. Work on the power of You. Write on!

Most Alive

"We never know what is going to happen, do we?  Life is always throwing us this way and that.  That's where the adventure is.  Not knowing where you'll end up or how you'll fare.  It's all a mystery, and when we say any different, we're lying to ourselves. Tell me, when have you felt most alive?"
                                                - Eowyn Ivey from The Snow Child

Write about when you felt most alive! 

Move in with sounds and scents. Add texture and taste. 

Bring the reader into your experience from a variety of angles.