Editor's Note: : This is a guest post by Dana Flannery. Read more about Dana in the footer.
Brain Yoga
Two cups of coffee and you’re still not feeling any inspiration? When you’re working on that novel, it’s hard to make every day a productive day – and it’s even harder to find the right words, not just wasted words. So here are a few tips to stretch your mind and get it ready for a day of inspired writing!
1. Search your Facebook, MySpace or Bebo friends list and select one childhood friend. Try to remember as much as you can about their personality, mannerisms and beliefs. Write a character description for that person as they would be now, based on how they were as a child.
2. Open the newspaper or a magazine at a random page and cut out the first picture you see. Then open it again on a different page and cut out the first headline you see. Write a piece of micro fiction that combines the two – this is a great exercise for comedy writers!
3. Open any book at page 68. Use the last line of the fourth paragraph as the theme for a piece of micro fiction.
4. Select any object from your room. Tell the story of a craftsman, inventor or merchant using the object as inspiration. Choose a peripheral or under-developed character from your novel.
5. Imagine how that character would react to a local event or current news article. Imagine how they would behave, what they would do or how they would fix the situation. Try to discover a new personality trait for him/her and incorporate into future scenes.
6. Google “toys”. Select a picture of a toy and try to imagine it how a baby would see it. Look for intricate features and think about the colors and textures and shapes, not the whole object. Close off your adult brain and suppress the impulse to see it through experienced eyes. For example, don’t see it as a truck; see it as spinning black circles, and moving parts, colors and clear parts to look through. Describe the toy through a baby’s eyes; write a piece of micro fiction using only adjectives and descriptive narratives.
Next time you’re sitting there, staring at that flashing cursor, uninspired and completely blocked, flex up your brain and go out and grab your inspiration and make every word the perfect word.
