Weekly Writing Exercise

Since this week's topic concerned creating a writing space - or learning to write in whatever space presents itself - this week's writing exercise will play with the same idea.

Use characters from your work in progress, or characters created specifically for the purpose of this exercise. Then send them on a scavanger hunt. Flex your creativity by deciding what items are on their list, but there's a catch. Only one item can be obtained from a location. So if - for a lame example - the list of items to be retrieved contains a golf ball and a golf club, your characters can get only the golf ball at Location A and must proceed to another Location to get the club.

While your characters move about town on paper, you are going to move about town figuratively. Write each items successful (or even unsuccessful) find in different locations. Example, sit in your kitchen to write the finding of item A, sit in your bedroom to find item B. If you can really move about town, "find" items in the coffee shop, the library, the park. Try to include elements of sound (music, water) or silence, or include fragrances, or even try changing shoes.

Once your characters have obtained all items on their list, YOU sit back and evaluate: was there any space easier or harder to write in? any "trigger" (music, silence, lilacs, coffee) that made a difference? Make note of these differences and use it those notes to help "decorate" your writing space - whether real or virtual.

Feel free to let us know what you've discovered about your writing process when you did this exercise.

Good luck and Get Writing!