Exercising You Literary Muscles Through Free Writing by Connie Vines

Free writing—Improvisation, or raw writing – is a good way to loosen up, to renew or maintain a writing practice.  One writes without a particular plan.  Free writing encourages a pouring out of ideas or ways of expressing them that one may not have produced before.

If one theme keeps surfacing, in free writing that theme can be developed further.  Of course, to improve the craft, writers need to read and study the craft of writing by enrolling in workshops, writers’ groups, and receive input from other writers.

This can also be practiced in your plotting group, or critique group.  When I was a new writer I attending monthly workshops and met weekly with a critique group at a local coffee shop.  Often, we practice free writing and would look over each other’s work and give feedback.  I can’t say that these sessions resulted in finished pieces.  I did begin a short story that was later published and I began a number of projects that I was able to incorporate in later novels.

I still have several folders with my free writing papers.  When I pull out my folders and begin reading, more than a few surprised me with word play, sharp descriptions, or a twist and edge to some ideas. 

These are my rules for free writing:

Write whatever comes to mind without censoring, and keep the pen moving (pens let you write more quickly than pencils). One may use a keyboard; however, studies show that the pen to paper stimulates creatively in a different manner—which is true for me.

If prompts help, many books offer them, although I’ve found that when given too many choices I cannot settle on any. 

Often my free writing seems bland.  Then I remind myself that I had to get those works down in order to think and write my way to something more promising.

How to Improv Your Short Story

• Start with a black paper/ screen and start writing the first story idea you get, and then keep going. Don’t edit in your head; don’t block your creativity. Where will your story go if you let it develop naturally? Will you have a badminton racket in your story? A flying cat?  Or are you clinging to a run-away horse?

• “The key to great story, as with great improv, is to take the ideas that are there and build upon them rather than thinking the ideas won’t work.

• If you prefer to plot your story before you write, use the same approach to your plot outline. Allow your creativity to flourish and see where your story leads you. (Notice I said where your story leads you, not where you lead your story.)

Have fun!  Enjoy the ride.  This is how I work out my Fantasy novellas. 

“Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow” Sassy & Fun Fantasy

Chapter One

“You and Elvis have done a great job on this home,” Meredith said as her older sister led the way down stairs toward the kitchen where the tour began. “Sorry I couldn’t get over until now, but…well, I’ve been sort of. . .well, busy.” Slipping her Juicy Couture tortoise-shell framed sunglasses into a bright pink case, Meredith crammed them into her black Coach handbag.  She hoped her sister didn’t ask her to define busy.  Becoming a zombie, and dealing with the entire raised-from-the-dead issue over the past six months, was not a topic easily plunked into a casual conversation.

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post and the snippet from my novella :-).

Happy Reading & Writing,

Connie


Amazon.com Author page

Books2Read

A new series, set on a space station, yay! by Vijaya Schartz

Read the latest sci-fi romance release from Vijaya, ANGEL MINE

Announcing a new sci-fi romance series set on the Byzantium space station. Byzantium books 1 and 2 will be out next year, and Book 3 in 2020. Each book will be a complete story with high octane action and a hint of romance.

The Byzantium series is a spin-off from the Azura universe and will cross paths with it many times. The space station figures prominently in the Azura Chronicles series, the first book of which, ANGEL MINE, was released in May of this year. Book Two, ANGEL FIERCE, is set for Februrary 2019, and Book Three will come out in 2020.

But this imposing structure in space called Byzantium, is a character in itself. It deserves to serve as the setting for many more stories. It’s a tourist destination, has many casinos and gambling dens, and the slums harbor the most dangerous gangs and illegal drugs and weapons traffic rings. It’s also a large trading port and contains a high security prison holding the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy.

So, starting next year, you will meet more strong female characters, some in uniform and others in full body armor. There will also be more genetically engineered cats. You can never have too many cats on a space station. How else would you get rid of all the vermin? New brave heroes will visit Byzantium, some human and some not. Some will rebel against the crushing authority of the GTA (Galactic Trade Alliance), others will exploit the turmoil for a higher purpose. Others yet might embrace the broken system and try to change it from the inside.

As usual in my stories there will be a bitter fight between good and evil… although sometimes, it’s difficult to tell which is which. Things are never quite what they seem…

In the meantime, hurry to read the first book in the Azura Chronicles series, ANGEL MINE, where you get a glimpse of what Byzantium is all about. Oh, and there will be angels on Byzantium as well. Here is the blurb for the latest release:

What in the frozen hells of Laxxar prompted Fianna to pursue her quarry to this forbidden blue planet? Well, she needs the credits... badly. But as if crashing in the jungle wasn't bad enough, none of her high-tech weapons work. She'll have to go native, after the most wanted felon in five galaxies. It's not just her job. It's personal.

Acielon has never seen an outworlder like this fascinating female, strangely beautiful, and fierce, like the feline predator loping at her side. He always dreamed of exploring the universe, despite the legends... and the interdiction. Is it truly a hellish place of violence, lies and suffering? If it spawned this intriguing creature, it must also be a place of wonders, adventure and excitement...

Fianna's instincts tell her someone is watching. Sheba, her telepathic feline partner, doesn't seem worried... yet, something on Azura isn't quite right.

"I don’t know how Vijaya continues to write books that both aggravate you to no end and keep you on the edge of your seat. You can’t put it down until you know what happens next. Before you know what happened, you are at the end of the book and wondering how you got there so fast. It is hard not to get caught up in and lost in the imagery created on the pages of the locations. You can even smell what is in the air. Yet another page turner I couldn’t put down! Thank you Vijaya for keeping me entertained." 5-stars - Beverley J. Malloy on amazon

Happy reading!

Vijaya SchartzHigh Octane Romance with a Kick

http://www.vijayaschartz.com  

A few of my scribbles--Tricia McGill

Find purchase links to this and all my other books here on my Books We Love Author page

It’s cold wet and dreary in my part of the world as I write, so here are just a few snippets of Aussie whimsy from my collection of scribblings to cheer things up.

Glorious Day

I set out for a walk on a fine spring day

The flowers I saw in merry profusion

Into a lake ran a stream so fey.

I thought it was a grand illusion

Beneath my feet the grass was green.

From new mown fields I smelt the hay

It really was a peaceful scene.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

Children ran by—so full of joy,

picking flowers and singing beneath the sun

I bent to smile down at a tiny boy,

but he took off away at a sprightly run

How carefree they were, these girls and boys

Like splendid shafts from a sunny ray

Not worried unduly, but sharing their joys.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

A horse in a paddock called out to me.

A dog barked from a farmhouse just over the hill

Some magpies flew up to the branch of a tree.

Kangaroos were feeding near a windmill

Some joeys amongst them prepared for flight.

A kookaburra laughed loudly, and then flew away

To soar on the wind to a magnificent height.

Oh glorious world. O glorious day.

The woes of the world are all left behind.

On days such as this my cares slip away

Problems disperse like dust in the wind.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

The Stockman

The bush and plains are the stockman’s home.

The pine clad mountains and valleys to roam

His hat rests low on his proud set head

and covers his hair of the brightest red.

His dog lopes close by his horses’ side,

and the pair never tire through a long day’s ride.

Old Irish has dreamed since he was a lad

of riding all day across this wide land.

His mother and father had both been rovers.

His dad was a man well known by the drovers

They’d died up along the Murrays’ side

and were buried near that great river so wide.

Irish knows well how to laugh and to cry;

to share life’s sorrows ‘neath God’s clear blue sky

He knows all there is about herding cows,

about riding all day when the wind just howls.

Once on a trek though the great desert land,

he almost got lost as for gold he panned

Old Irish has been where black parrots fly,

where the mulga and scrub reach well past the thigh.

Past rivers so dry that the cracks split the earth

and no one can say what the red land is worth

He’s been where the ‘roos jump high in the air,

where wallabies roam over land green and fair.

He thought once of settling, of taking a wife,

but decided with forethought that wasn’t the life

No drover would fit in a life in the city;

to leave all this space would be more than a pity.

In a place like Sydney or Melbourne or Darwin

where the people all flock and there’s plenty of sin

No woman in town would put up with his roving,

this need to be moving, and constantly going

To the back blocks and endless wide open plains,

far away from the city and shops and the trains

There’s no female around who’d put up with the hide

of a man who yearns just to be free to ride.

The man who knows joy in a good horse beneath you,

a dog for a pal and restrictions so few

The hard times and good times; the dust and the heat,

where no man gives in to a thing like defeat.

The bush folk have ways the townsfolk don’t know.

They’ll greet you with pleasure, and then let you go

To wander the wide open plains that you love,

where at night all the stars fairly blaze up above.

On a night when the air is crystal clear,

you’ll sit ‘neath a sky where the stars seem so near

You can reach out and touch them in the frosty sky

and be closer to God than you’ll be when you die.

A stockman knows all about drought dust and heat,

but in his way of life won’t put up with defeat.

His life’s filled with pleasures no town man would know.

Old Irish is off where the wanderers go.

This last one is set in the doc’s waiting room, where I seem to be spending far too much time of late.

The Doctor’s Surgery

Are you shorter than you used to be?

A strange but smart enough query

It’s listed there with many more

on the inside of my doctor’s door

With other questions about your health,

asked bluntly and without much stealth

Do you require a cholesterol check?

Or some acupuncture for a pain in the neck?

Perhaps the others that sit with me

In this my doctor’s nice surgery

Have bunions or wind, are feeling weak,

or maybe like me have come to seek

A reason for what is making them crook,

why they often feel dizzy while reading a book

Did that one over there wake up with a pain?

Perhaps she is simply feeling the strain

With a boy who plays up, shouts and screams

She’s probably coming apart at the seams

Ah, here’s the doctor, I think it’s my turn,

to unload my problems so I can learn

What’s wrong, what’s the trouble with me?

It will all be unfolded in his surgery

He’ll tell me I’m well, I’m fit and fine, 

and I’ll leave with a smile until the next time

When I want the assurance of someone so wise,

who’ll look in my ears, down my throat, in my eyes.

Some reassurance will see me right,

Some kind words of comfort; some doctorly insight

I’ll leave his office on jaunty feet,

glad to get out on the sunny street

It’s good to know that I’m fit and whole.

I know I feel fine for my doc told me so.

 

My Web Page