Writing classes often include exercises with prompts like “Write the view from your window,” or “Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.” The idea is to provide something that can get the creative juices flowing by having the student connect with simple and concrete images they are familiar with. The writings can veer in different directions emphasizing setting, activity, characters involved, or whatever strikes the writer’s fancy.
When I’m in a writing class and a prompt has been given, I watch the people sitting on either side of me scramble to finish pages of words before time is called. I watch because I’m sitting there, with a word or two jotted down, frozen. My mind shuts down when given a writing prompt in a class.
Things are a little better when the prompt is part of a submission call. Then, I try to twist my thoughts into interpreting the prompt in an imaginative manner different than the path other people will choose. Bending my thinking is what unlocks my creativity.
But, for your benefit, here are my answers to the writing prompts above:
“Tell us what you did during your summer vacation.” – Nothing. We were locked down because of
“Write the view from your window” – Until a few days ago, there was no view. The curtains were drawn. I sat with my laptop, facing a TV, with the window to my back. If I wanted to use my desktop computer, upstairs, I saw grey-shingled housetops, a black-topped street, and a few lawns. It was a pretty view when it snowed.
We moved this past week. The room that I have chosen to be mine (off limits to anyone else) for writing is called a Florida room. It has one wall that is sheetrock; two that are glass windows; and a fourth with paned glass doors I can open or close to the rest of the house. Because there is an easement behind the house, the trees stand tall beyond my yard. Although we fenced the yard traditionally on the sides, we used a faux wrought iron fence along the back of the yard. That way, from my window, I see the trees in the splendor of their full height.
There is one tree, though, that has died. It stands, a third of the height of any of the other trees, bare leafed with a part of its trunk jutting to the side. Although a storm should have knocked it down, it hasn’t. This plucky tree is my favorite because it reminds me that amid a beautiful forest, there can be one thing that is different.
As authors, we strive to write that one different thing. When we do, we accomplish something that makes us proud, happy, and a bit tentative wondering if readers will like it. I’m hoping that in my new Florida room, I will write many pieces that resemble the tree I love.
To win a free copy of Three Treats Too Many (one U.S. winner picked randomly), the newest Sarah Blair mystery from Kensington, leave a comment about what you did on your summer vacation or the view from your window.
Debra, I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who freezes at writing prompts in classes. It's so embarrassing to sit there staring at a blank page as everyone else is writing like mad! Moreso because I also TEACH writing workshops and GIVE prompts to my students. Do as I say, not as I do.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new home and new view. I hope it proves to be inspiring!
The view is lovely, Debra! I am certain you will find it inspirational, especially as the seasons change.
ReplyDeleteThe view from my screened-in porch has changed dramatically in the last week. I'm adding additional solar capacity, which required additional sunlight, which meant taking down a lot of trees, most of which happened on the porch side of the house. Instead of seeing a forest of maple with a scattering of pine and balsam, we now see a scattering of smaller trees between us and the forest. I'm liking the open view -- I can see the birds at our feeders fly in and out, watch the chipmunks gather seeds from the ground and while outside, it is easier to spot the eagle flying overhead. As a bonus, there are a bunch of trees that won't hit the house the next time we have one of those hard straight winds that his us with some frequency (and one of the big ones close to the house I discovered looking at the stump was hollowing out and a real candidate for causing damage.
ReplyDeleteThe open area looks raw right now with the logging just complete (and my hauling out the tops not yet complete), but that will change as new things sprout next spring. (And once the snow starts, it will be covered in white anyway!)
Enjoy your new writing space, Debra (and I, too, don't do writing prompts well).
Congratulations on your latest move! I wonder if you'll have woodpeckers pounding the dead tree?
ReplyDeleteSummer vacation? No such thing this year.
ReplyDeleteI do have a great view from the window, though. We have seven sloping acres, most of it woods.
My view is of a very narrow "garden" area (mostly daylilies, although the deer have discover how much they like daylily buds, so the flowers have been mostly absent this year) past a shed and onto the woods.
We do have lots of woodpeckers, including a pair of huge pileated woodpeckers. We let the dead trees stand for them and the other creatures.
Hope the new book sells well! And I hope I win the copy!
Lovely view! Enjoy your new home, Debra!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you now have the perfect writing space. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. It is so nice to know that writers I respect like Annette and Jim freeze during workshops, too. The first time it happened, I wrote it off, but now....I live with it and just focus on the class materials.
ReplyDeleteAs for the view, sounds ike I am not the only one who finds a peaceful atmosphere helps with the writing. No woodpeckers in the tree, but on the little iron fence at the back of the mini yard, birds keep stopping for a moment. I've already seen at least one cardinal, one blue jay and I assume robins based upon their coloring. There is something very peaceful about viewing something new every day from the window.
What a lovely view! What a whirlwind move you've had. I'm glad you have such a peaceful place to dream and write.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who freezes up at writing prompts!
I hope your move doesn't affect your productivity adversely as my move did. I'm just getting back into the groove (okay, not quite, but I'm getting there). We too have a view of trees with some half dead from hurricanes. The last two hurricanes took down most of the stumpy trees. We still have some standing--those are the ones that provide a good look at bird nests due to a lack of leaves. Perhaps those trees symbolize transparency--or truth--the authenticity of what we write. It's not all pretty, especially when murder is involved!
ReplyDeleteYour Florida room sounds lovely. Here's to a lot of happy writing in your new home!
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