How Do You Write?

Yes, I know. If I read blogs too much, if I try to do all the writing practices, do all the creative suggestions, leave comments on them all, and participate in any writing game I find, I will never accomplish the true writing I aspire to produce. However, so many good blogs out there give guidance and practice, tips and pointers; good ones are worth the time spent there, and they are hard to ignore. Good writing blogs are worth the time investment.


Recently, thanks to C Hope Clark over at http://hopeclark.blogspot.com/, I found another delightful and helpful writing blog. Actually, Hope was on a bit of diatribe about writing prompts. While she urged writers to ignore the prompts and just write, she did suggest one good blog with inspiring writing prompts at http://thewritepractice.com. Here Joe Bunting not only writes an inspiring blog about writing but actually gives writers a daily prompt and a place to critique each other’s work.


Today the assignment was to look at a boring wall in your house for 15 minutes and then write what you see, feel, hear. Here is what I wrote about the wallpaper behind my desk.


When I chose the wall paper for a bedroom, I thought it pretty. Now the room has become my office and the paper on the wall behind my desk is too repetitive to inspire creativity, shaded in colors too soft to inspire brilliance. The moderate stripes laid out like rulers become railroad tracks in my mind. I hear the clickety clack but sense no destination. The tiny vining flowers that looked so delicate and graceful for sleeping now seem to be ropes choking down my inspiration. Then a lone little daisy beckons to me...causes me to spin a story about a fictional Daisy. The paper fades…the keyboard looms…a story begins.


I had no idea I thought this about my wallpaper until Joe pointed me in right the direction with a prompt and then had me turn lose my imagination. It was fun and worth keeping. Maybe it will be used in a story or a poem someday.


How about you, do you use writing prompts or writing practice? Do you journal first or practice and then write for real?