 I don't make resolutions. This year will be no different. Instead, I'd like to acknowledge what I've accomplished for 2015. If I did make resolutions, I'd make ten. (Hint: click on each one to share in my discoveries.)
In other words, this is my ICYMI list. 1. Find writing tools that accelerate my craft. 2. Create a doable to do list. 3. Read more great books. 4. Discover an amazing writer's website. 5. Enter a contest for the last time. 6. Learn from others. 7. Read/write more poetry. 8. Develop a writing routine--and stick to it. 9. Win NaNoWriMo. 10. Find an agent...oops, that will need to go onto next year's reverse resolutions. (fingers crossed!) What's on your writer's to do list? I hope you will continue to write and share with me. Writing can be a lonely craft, but there is so much to learn from others. Thanks for being in this writer's life. Happy 2016, and may all your writing dreams come true! Write on!
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 This past week, my students explored the wonderful use of personification in their writing. When not overused, this form of figurative language can enliven tired writing. The trick is knowing when to employ it.
December has been a month of writing exercises. We've written about who we are not and--with the assistance of Kobe Bryant--taken time to say goodbye to something in our lives. This week, let's play around with personification (attribution of a personal quality or human characteristic to something nonhuman; representation of an abstract quality in human form). As soon as my new crop of young writers turn in their permission to be published forms, I'll share their clever lines. In the meantime, it's your turn to try. Before you tackle the usage in a current piece of writing, practice. Our parents and coaches told us "practice makes perfect," and they were right. Nearly. Practice makes the game easier. Perfection is a whole other story. Personification practice. 1. Have a seat in your favorite writing space with your favorite writing tools (pen and paper work well for this exercise). 2. Create a T-chart on your paper (or simply draw a dividing line down the middle). 3. Look around the room and select one object that's not alive (a book, clock, floor tile, painting, curtain, chair...). 4. Record that object at the top of one side of your T-chart. 5. Beneath it, list the item's traits and/or actions (one per line). For example, if you choose a clock, you might list: face, hands, quiet, numbers, glass, ticks, tocks, hangs. 6. On the other side of the T-chart, list human traits and actions--again, one per line. It helps to think of one person when you do this. For example, using myself, I might write: laugh, stand, cry, listen, ponder. 7. Now, consider the two lists, and find a trait from each side that complement each other. In my examples, I might pair face and ponder: The quiet clock listens to the children's conversation. Some examples to get you started: The tired leaves dropped to the ground. The empty paged mocked me. The angry sea tossed the boat. Still stuck or want a challenge? Study the picture above and write your best personified line. Share it below. Considering sharing your personification practice or other writing tips with us. Write on!  A few weeks ago, Laker phenom, Kobe Bryant, announced his retirement from basketball. While I was not a huge fan of the sport or even the player, I am now. Kobe wrote a lovely tribute to his passion in a goodbye poem published on a sports website. (Of course, he's not the first athlete to put pen to paper. Check out this book.)
I shared this poem with my writing students as they viewed highlights of his career. They were equally impressed with the man's words. Then we wrote our own goodbyes to past-times, passions, or activities in our world that we will soon give up. For them: middle school, friendships, sports, hobbies, habits. A girl wrote goodbye to horse tournaments, another said so long to a K-pop musician, a quiet boy wrote a moving tribute to cross country. This week, I continue a month of writing exercises. Today's is inspired by a professional athlete. Here's mine: Dear Television, it's time we part ways. Time for a long commercial break. You offer me nothing now. Once, we cried together over MASH, the goodbye. We laughed with SNL. We wondered with the Wonder Years. Sitting with my dad and Marlin Perkins Sunday nights, we marveled at animals in the Wild Kingdom. Now my time is better spent elsewhere. Not with you. So goodbye, television. Thanks for the memories. What will you say goodbye to? Share yours below. Write on!  “There is freedom in being a writer and writing. It is fulfilling your function. I used to think freedom meant doing whatever you want. It means knowing who you are, what you are supposed to be doing on this earth, and then simply doing it.”
― Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within As I wind down my energy from the amped up NaNoWriMo writing sprints of November, I return to my usual routines. One of which includes my own writing exercises courtesy Natalie Goldberg's book, "Writing Down the Bones." One of my favorite exercises in that book is one that has you focus on who you are not. I will be using this prompt with my new batch of creative writing students this week, so I thought I'd share the exercise with you as well. Grab your writing notebook and favorite pen. Goldberg says the heart speaks best through a flowing pen rather than a computer. I often write on the computer because it's easier. Plus, I'm a messy writer. However, when it comes to writing exercises, I write freehand in my journal. You have your notebook and pen. Now find a quiet space and set a timer for at least ten to twenty minutes. Get ready, set, write. Who are you not? Here's my unedited flow of words: I'm not the kind of person to own a snake, ride a unicycle, be an astronaut when she grows up, order a burrito with extra hot sauce, dance naked in the street after midnight like my neighbor in college, wear orange tights, get a full sleeve tattoo (or any tattoo?), spank my child, not care what people think of me. I'm not the the person who complains all the time, laughs when someone is hurt, or orders a different ice cream flavor every time she visits the ice cream shop. I am not loud or very quiet. I am not the smartest or dumbest person in the room. I am not sophisticated nor pedestrian. I am not obscene or rude. I am not perfect or happy not being perfect. I am not the person you sit next to on the plane who talks nonstops or doesn't give you elbow room. I am not likely to hurt myself, drive recklessly, or dive off a cliff. I am not likely to scale a building or walk a tightrope higher than one-foot off the ground, sky-dive, or learn to fly a plane. Who I am not says as much about me as who I am. Who are you not? Share with us. Write on! |
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