Last night, I attended a class on free writing. Basically, clearing your mind and trying to write without thinking and seeing what comes of it. I try to do this in my journaling, not to use it for anything but to clear my head of any worries and concerns in the evening before bed, or to wake up my brain in the morning.
So, the instructor led us in 3 exercises. The first was unprompted, the other two had prompts. All were timed. We started out closing our eyes and taking 3 deep breaths to gather our focus. And then 3, 2, 1, go! Write for 5 minutes. The first unprompted exercise, I came up with a scene for book 3 that I couldn’t wait to expand on when I got home. Maybe I’ll share it once it’s fleshed out a bit more. It’s a character backstory so not really spoilery. I do know that when I do go to finish it, I’ll probably be wrecked. The emotion just in that little bit was amazing and it’s a really hard hitting event.
In exercise 2, we wrote about our favorite place. I liked what I wrote and, again, I might share it one day. I wrote about a place in the park I always seem to end up when I’m upset or have time to kill or just need introvert time. I even took my daughter for a walk there recently. A little bit of fresh air before it gets frigid and snowing this weekend.
Exercise 3 was 10 minutes long instead of 5 and it was our favorite sound. I wrote about the sound of laughter. It could have been a lot longer. I don’t like how I ended it but time was up. So, I’ll clean it up and share one day.
Then, we were asked if we wanted to volunteer to read anything we wrote. So, I read the first one. Keep in mind, I hate public speaking! My chest gets all tight and I find it hard to breathe. So, this was a major step for me. And, I had some tough acts to follow. One lady had everyone in tears because she wrote about the sound of her son’s laughter reminding her of her father who passed at a young age. One lady wrote about the sound of the ocean and her descriptions took my breath away. But, I figured, what the heck. I’ve got nothing to lose. Not like they’re going to ban me from the writer’s center if it sucks. And, it’s never going to be your best work in 5 minutes of thought dump.
I left the class feeling energized and ready to write. Got home, talked with Joe for a bit, peeked in on Anna, and grabbed my notebook so I could get to writing until I passed out in bed… I expanded the scene a little so it almost fills a whole sheet of notebook paper rather than half of my Happy Planner notebook and then all of the energy evaporated and I needed to go to bed.
So, here I am now. About to grab my second cup of coffee and get to work on more of this story. At least until I hear the cries of a hungry baby. Even if all I get done is a bunch of scenes that I have to somehow tie together. It’s a start. And then I have something to go off of. I can expand and fill in the gaps for at least a rough outline. I don’t plan on doing a first draft until April for Camp NaNoWriMo so I have 2 1/2 months to come up with something to follow so I’m not spending my editing time chopping a huge rambling mess.
So, my question for you, dear reader, is what kind of writing events have you attended? Does your local library host anything? Talks? Workshops? Conferences? If they do, I encourage you to take advantage. You should never stop learning and developing your craft. And, if they have talks about the business side of writing, definitely go to those if you plan on publishing someday.
Have a good rest of the week!