Writing Wednesday: Storytelling

 

What triggers your memories? Is it one of your senses or an emotion? There are a lot of stories to tell, and a memory is a great place to start.

When I collaborated with Jamie Stonebridge on Family Thanksgiving, I started with the memories, traditions, and favorite things that connect me to that holiday. When I changed my point of view to an older character, I was able to create something wonderful to share.

A lot of my writing prompts, exercises, and inspirations typically start with a memory. Whether it continues with a perspective in the present or an exaggeration for a work of fiction, it all comes together with something that can be relatable or engaging.

Need some ideas for your own prompts? Try this one and take it as far as you want.

Writing Exercise:

Start your story with two words: I remember. Make it something that can prompt the recollection of a family tale or create the beginning of a fictional piece. Here are some examples:

I Remember

I remember only one thing that night. There were only three words spoken: “I hate you”.

I remember the moment we kissed. I took a breath and my bones exhaled along with the air as I felt my body turn to mush.

I remember when we all sat around and laughed. I don’t remember what caused the gut-aching topic, just the tears of joy and good-time vibes.

I remember the look on his face when I told him goodbye. He tried so hard to make it all work out, but nothing could ignite a spark and make me love him as much as he loved me.

Writing Wednesday: Journaling

 

Mental health has been on my mind a lot these past few days. May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and the resources couldn't come at a better time. As the country opens up more after the Covid-19 pandemic, we see how much it has affected our friends and family to be isolated or reliant on social media and technology to stay connected.

It's hard to ask for help, especially when you are stubborn enough to think that you can still do everything on your own. There is also a need to be completely open with yourself to reflect on what has happened, how you have reacted, and how those actions have affected the outcome. Our memory is not enough.

Facebook Memories recently showed me a quote that I posted on my personal page. 

"It's the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time." - Tallulah Bankhead

I wrote a lot when I was a younger girl. Maybe I was a good girl. I wrote notes and kept notebooks of things that happened in my life. Maybe it was for historical purposes, but I kept track of what I was doing and how I was feeling. Of course I wasn't a total angel. I mean, I had to write something that was interesting or my alibi!

And what about the bad girls? Were they bad because they could not communicate their most intimate thoughts through writing? There are other outlets for self-expression, but writing can tell a story in a narrative way that all good storytelling share. Journaling is recommended to promote mindfulness and perspective. It can track behaviors and triggers, like those that define a "bad girl". These days I find it challenging to vent to a friend like I used to because they have their own issues they are dealing with. My boss is less likely to ease up pressure at work because they too are struggling with the work load. Journaling is my Writing Wednesday exercise, not just for writing prompts and story elements, but for mental health benefits.

Writing Exercise:

It's time to bring out the journal again. How you do it is up to your own style. There are plenty of notebooks at your fingertips from traditional school supplies to beautifully bounded notebooks. Most are blank but some have prompts and ideas to springboard where your expression can fly. 

Not enough time to journal? Pish posh! Do you type better than you write? Consider typing in a document and save your entries. You can write paragraphs for 30 minutes or purge words and phrases in less than five. Your conversation to your paper or doc can benefit your mental health today and every day. Give it a go and whatever level you are comfortable. If you feel like you have been a bad person lately, maybe it's time to let go of those behaviors and discover yourself again through journaling.

Writing Wednesday: Character Development

 

Character development can be a fun activity for those who love to create a story. Some of the best novels are memorable because of the main and even secondary characters that voice their thoughts and opinions. What is the author thinking when they develop unique individuals unlike themselves?

A little creativity can be sparked by a number of things. Sometimes it comes from people you know, but that gets into tricky business. Who wants to find out that their quirks and idiosyncrasies are in print for the world to see? There is a way to develop fictional characters and actually keeping them fictional.

Writing Exercise:

Think about the first time you saw someone. You took in their traits, demeanor, and behaviors and make your own assumption of them. Sometimes these impressions are heightened and quite absurd. Only when you get to know the person do you find out how close or far off your judgement was. 

Take the first impression of someone you observed or met. It can be as true or wild as you can dream up. Do you want them to stand out or be relatable to most readers? When you struggle to find someone unique, your first impressions may lead the way to an awesome character.

The following is a variation of a first impression. 

He thought he was the son of Satchmo. You could tell by the way he puffs up his cheeks blowing, leaning far, far back to take in all of the air possible and not sharing with the other brass players. It takes balls to gyrate with all of that confidence in the middle of a song. In the entire high school band, you can easily pick him out as the fool in the back dancing and grooving to the music whether it was John Phillip Sousa or Johann Sebastian Bach. He knew he was good, but was he?

Writing Wednesday: Poetry Part 3

 Writing Wednesday: Poetry Month part 3

Tanka

In keeping with my love for brief, my last poem of focus for Poetry Month is the tanka. This Japanese poem structure has 31 syllables and means “short song”. Think of it as a combination of a haiku and couplet because:

🇯🇵 line 1 has 5 syllables

🇯🇵 line 2 has 7 syllables 

🇯🇵 line 3 has 5 syllables (so far just like haiku!)

🇯🇵 line 4 has 7 syllables 

🇯🇵 line 5 has 7 syllables

Traditionally the entire poem flowed in one line, but don’t let the fear of a run-on sentence deter you from creating this poetic form. Just like haiku, it can be about nature. Just like a couplet, you can add rhyme and rhythm. 

Writing Task

Take the time to draft a tanka poem. It is a short verse that can help you play with word choice or analyze a part of nature or theme. 

When the tulips bloom,

I take a pause to reflect 

On its erect stem,

Vibrant shades of yellow and 

Red that inspire this verse.

Writing Wednesday: Poetry Part 2

 

Writing Wednesday: Poetry Part 2

Continuing with the theme of poetry, this Wednesday is focusing on the couplet.

From the elementary perspective, poems are lines that rhyme, typically in an AB pattern. However, two lines are so simple to rhyme because you can just get it over with right away. 

Is today the day

To come over to play?

(You can get a child rhyming every sentence said with that, so be careful what you start.)

If you love playing with rhyme or want to start small and build stanzas like blocks, look to a couplet.

Couplets are another great brief form of poetry, recognizable with its two lines. After that, there is some flexibility in the form. 

• Most couplets rhyme, but not required. 

• A couplet can be closed (ending with punctuation) or open and carrying into another couplet or verse

• Couplets can stand alone, or they can be stanzas in a longer poem.

• Traditionally it has a rhythm such as iambic pentameter, but there are also free form couplets.

Writing Task

The great thing about writing couplets is that you can take as little or as much time creating one. Your creativity can go as far as you want to take it. I actually found inspiration searching for rhymes on websites like RhymeZone.com. Challenge your word choice, grammar structure, and even rhythm with a couplet. In my example below, I felt that my first couplet could easily stand alone, but just like the lines in this form of poetry, it needed another stanza to make a pair.

A simple, yet worthy poem of spring;

A couplet that rhymes and ends with zing.

Cheeky and brief, like a smile passing by

Not long or drawn out; a blink of an eye.

Feel free to share any of your couplets in the comments below.

Writing Wednesday: Poetry

 

In this new series Writing Wednesday, I want to address different ways to express yourself in a variety of written forms. It may feel like school, but that was when some parts of writing were easy and fun. And if writing wasn't fun for you back then, maybe a fresh start will help you take another look at it. 

School notebooks were my favorite writing medium. From passing notes to jotting down inspirations, there were always notebooks close to me. I still use them from time to time, and there is often a treasure to find in any spiral notebook around my house. 

Most of the notebooks held poetry. There is something about words full of imagery and lyrics that express my thoughts. Even better, poetry is often brief. I love brief. Sometimes it is hard to tell a whole story when all you want to do is freeze a moment in time or encapsulate an object for further study. 

One of my favorite lessons I recall from student teaching was poetry writing during April for Poetry Month. Before we worked on our own poems, I would read aloud to the second graders from some of the greats like Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein because they made poetry fun. Later I discovered Brod Bagert. Look up Giant Children and see if you can find "Booger Love". Yes, an ode to snot. 

While many poetry is seen as schmaltzy and rhyming, some forget that there are other forms. There are numerous forms and structures of poetry. Haiku is the epitome of brief to me with the challenge of lines and syllables. But there are others that are even simpler than that.

Acrostic Poetry

What could be more simple than taking a word and writing a word for each letter? Primary students describe themselves with their name:

Red

Apple

Cards

Happy

Elephant

Laughs

What else can be said about RACHEL other than she likes the color red, eating apples, playing cards, and is a happy person who likes elephants and laughing? Or what about a more witty version such as:

Ravishing

Adorable

Charismatic

Humble

Effervescent

Lunatic

Everything changes with the right vocabulary.

Writing Task

Each Wednesday it is a good time to take a few minutes to channel your creativity in writing. It will be brief and fun. Make your own acrostic using a word of your choosing. All you need is one word for this exercise, but you can always expand to phrases too. Here is my writing example for your reading pleasure.

See if you can find the message

Embedded in my unrhymed verse

Created in fun

Rather than laborious, lengthy structure;

Every word thoughtfully placed

To create an acrostic poem

Feel free to share your acrostic poetry results in the comments below.