The Writing Life Too

You can tell the days are getting longer—5 p.m. and it’s still light out. And yet another day of sun and cold, with a dusting of snow still on the ground. Happy Chinese New Year to all. I’ve been thinking about the Year of the Ox and the qualities of the ox—calm, hard work, resolve, tenacity. Perfect combination for a writer. Thinking about what I want to accomplish—what I’m going to ask the universe for. If you read this blog you know that I’m an author but I’m also recovering from injuries from a car accident that included brain injuries. If there was ever a time I didn’t feel like writing, this has been it. But…well, I’ve been writing. No matter how I feel, I get up in the morning and I write. Many days those first hours are about all I accomplish. I write because it’s become a part of me, I write because I love to write, I write because I don’t know of another way of living.

Years ago I wrote a column called Beginning No Matter What. Here it is:

There are writers who are prolific, driven, confident and born with buckets of natural talent. And then there are the rest of us. Who doubt, despair, and procrastinate. Who have learned while writing a (fill in the blank: a novel, story, poem, essay) that it really is possible to gnash your teeth or gain five pounds over a sentence or plot that won’t mesh. Who conclude that facing a blank page or empty screen is about as much fun as trying on swimsuits. And as we sit staring at its empty vastness, without a clue where to begin or why we’re here, we conclude with a terrible clarity that we’re hopeless (fill in the blank) frauds, hacks, incompetents.
So how do we leave this pit of despair and ascend to the rarified heights of accomplishment? How do we find a way past the silence, the canyon of our first words and onto the page? How do we stir the slumbering or cowering writer who lives in all of us? I believe that one way is to remember why we write in the first place: because it’s a joy. Because most of us have loved words and books and stories since we were small. And can remember the first books we read and the first stories we wrote; the ones that proved we can create magic. That we’re able to touch hearts with our words.
Second, turn back to writing for its therapeutic powers. Writing makes us proud of ourselves, but also, because it’s one part creativity, coupled with one part analysis, it helps us think clearer. We can transform our worries, stresses, and muddles and shape them into a coherent tale. Or better yet, inflict them on our heroine so she can suffer in our place, while we merely pull the strings of her misery.
No matter your reasons for writing, they add up to something remarkable. Writing adds a depth, a quality, a magic that can’t be accomplished by scrubbing or baking or dancing the tango. It comes from somewhere deep inside, and even if we cannot quite understand how the words emerge, they frost our days with fairy-like charms.
So how DO we begin? I suggest that you face, then conquer the fear and the awful blankness by writing just for the fun of it. Write without strings, without proving anything, without showing your words to a soul. Write as if it doesn’t matter if the ending doesn’t jell or the character is a bit too similar to your sister. Just write. And then write some more. Allow the words to work their magic, let them massage your worries and ease your way back into the lovely land of writers.
Here is a list of prompts to take you past your fears and onto the page. Remember, this is just for fun, simply practice. Until you’ve found your way, sure of what you want to write, play around a while.

Jump Start:
Write about a place where the inhabitants are afraid of the changes that will occur when your character moves to town.
Finish this sentence and keep writing: The main difference between men and women is that_______________
Write a story or scene where a lavish meal eaten out-of- doors is featured.
Finish this sentence and keep writing: Whenever I look back to the night when my husband walked out on me, I realize that the no-good _________did me a______________.
Write a story or scene that is inspired by the fragrance of flowers or perfume.
Write about how a ‘new look’ changes a character’s life.
Write a story or scene where somehow ice is featured.
Write a story or scene where somehow candlelight is featured.
Write a story or scene about a character who doesn’t appreciate someone who loves her.
Begin a story with this line: Snow began falling shortly before midnight, and as it drifted down _________________.
Write about a character with an unusual career—professional wrestler, animal trainer, stunt double, race car driver.
Write a scene or story that takes place near a body of water and have the river, lake, ocean influence the events of the story.
Write a story or scene where a child or teenager is wrongly accused of an offense.
Write a scene where characters share a secret in a darkened room.
Write a scene or story where five women gather for a weekend at a beach house or mountain cabin. What do they talk about?
Write a scene or story where a character wrestles with her doubts about her ability to finish a job.
Write a scene or story where a person from a character’s past returns and shakes up her world.
Write a scene or story where something in nature—moonlight, the first days of spring, the first snow---cause events to happen because a character is intoxicated by the influences.
Write a story or scene that incorporates the smells of bread, cookies, or pastries baking.