Post by Old Dragon (Al) on Oct 27, 2005 10:00:33 GMT 1
Keeping a diary or journal is a marvellous way to ensure you write a little on a regular basis and it helps to preserve precious moments otherwise forgotten.
Reading entries back a few days, weeks, or even years later can be fascinating, too. A journal can provide material for future writing and an indicator of changes within our attitudes and personal growth. Insights into our own and the personalities of others exposed via journal entries can provide invaluable material for fictional characters.
As a quick, warm-up exercise at group workshops we often start with writing a simple sentence or two commencing, ‘Today…’
These glimpses into our thoughts and/or the events of the day can be memorable, insightful, inspiring, amusing, educational, cathartic or a host of other things, and the secret is usually not to think too hard about what to write but simply let the first thing that comes to mind flow out.
This is an example of one Jack wrote recently: ‘Today, upon return from a walk in the rain, wit deserted me when a neighbour remarked, ‘you should get rid of that old dog, it smells.’
This opened a door for the group to write some short pieces examining attitudes to neighbours and relationships – these being ever popular themes or ingredients for articles, short stories, and longer works. Every fictional work depends upon conflict for interest and reader involvement.
As a dog-lover in this group, imagine your own feelings if confronted by a neighbour telling you to get rid of your dog. How would you react or respond in these circumstances? How might a fictional character do so? Straight away, the mind is able to begin the creative process of plotting and developing a story, and all the potential characters and points of conflict are contained in that sentence.
Reading entries back a few days, weeks, or even years later can be fascinating, too. A journal can provide material for future writing and an indicator of changes within our attitudes and personal growth. Insights into our own and the personalities of others exposed via journal entries can provide invaluable material for fictional characters.
As a quick, warm-up exercise at group workshops we often start with writing a simple sentence or two commencing, ‘Today…’
These glimpses into our thoughts and/or the events of the day can be memorable, insightful, inspiring, amusing, educational, cathartic or a host of other things, and the secret is usually not to think too hard about what to write but simply let the first thing that comes to mind flow out.
This is an example of one Jack wrote recently: ‘Today, upon return from a walk in the rain, wit deserted me when a neighbour remarked, ‘you should get rid of that old dog, it smells.’
This opened a door for the group to write some short pieces examining attitudes to neighbours and relationships – these being ever popular themes or ingredients for articles, short stories, and longer works. Every fictional work depends upon conflict for interest and reader involvement.
As a dog-lover in this group, imagine your own feelings if confronted by a neighbour telling you to get rid of your dog. How would you react or respond in these circumstances? How might a fictional character do so? Straight away, the mind is able to begin the creative process of plotting and developing a story, and all the potential characters and points of conflict are contained in that sentence.