scribbledposts

One of the many challenges all writers face including the ones that have been doing it for years is the task of getting started. I also have the same problem where I sit and stare at the screen or a piece of paper, my mind a complete blank as I agonise over how to start and how get into the right frame of mind for writing. The big question is how do you get into that ‘zone’? Recently, one of my lecturers sent me a website to the work of David Morley who is best known for his textbook The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. The website listed several audio tapes from Morley himself on tips and advice for writers including ‘A Mental Switch’.  The idea of this particular writing challenge was addressing how to get yourself into the writing zone and how to ‘translate the desire to write into the will to write’.

The best thing about this challenge was that it was straight forward and is suitable for all types of writers whatever genre you prefer. I have personally myself used this technique before and I know it is widely known by writers but to those who do not know then I will share. The idea of the challenge is for five minutes everyday you are to sit and just write. That’s it. Just write. The only catch is, you can not stop. You are not allowed to pause and think about what your going to say next. Essentially your pen should not leave the paper or your fingertips should not move away from the keyboard. So what do you do if you go blank whilst doing this? I was once told to incorporate ellipsis (…) but to continue until I eventually got out of the funk but I suppose you can choose whatever you want. Obviously, this piece of work is not going to be perfect or make any sense. You are basically writing out your train of thought at the time and these thoughts can change and alter so quickly so do not expect grammar, spelling and coherent sentences to be present whilst doing this task. This task, however, can also be useful for generate ideas if your suffering from writer’s block as you are not under the pressure to produce a great piece of work. This challenge takes writer’s back to the very beginning of the creative writing process and I recommend all writers to attempt this challenge. If five minutes is too long (which sometimes it is) I would suggest only doing it for a minute a day.
If you want to check out some other writing challenges, take a look at the link below and have a listen. You can download all these challenges as a MP3 format so it’s easy to listen too whilst your on the go.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/podcasts/media/more/writingchallenges/

Let me know if you try any of these and what you think!

In my previous post I discussed (more like despaired) over the writing challenge I had been set for my seminar class. For all those who missed this post you can see it below this one but I basically had to do three pieces of writing: A Rant, A Cultural Artefact and A song I would like played at my Funeral. I was pretty much stuck on all three and spent longer than I really needed to choosing my topic/subject for each. In the end I only did two out of the three and read out one which received some very helpful constructive criticism – after all what are lecturer’s for?
Therefore, after all this I decided I might as well post the one that I actually read out with the changes that my lecturer suggested in the seminar. So I give you all my rant…

A Rant

Isn’t it lovely when you are trying to watch your favourite program or read one of your books and someone is talking to you at the same time and you are just trying to concentrate but you can’t. This has been happening to me quite recently and to top it all off on a daily basis as well. Teeth grinding alert! Whilst on a Saturday night watching X Factor my dad decides it’s a good idea to sit throughout the entire show saying how shit it is and why am I watching such crap for the entire hour that it is on. Now, some people might think there’s nothing wrong with that but let me tell you, if someone was saying how shit your TV show was – whether it be X Factor or not – I’m quite sure you would be unhappy as well. It is rude and quite frankly it put me off watching as I could not even hear half of what was being said (or sung) anyways over the moaning in the background. To top it off, when I did it back out of revenge when my dad’s program was on he did not like it one bit!
Another example is when I was reading a book or the newspaper and I’m being constantly asked questions or talked too as if I am part of the conversation 100%. So in reply to the background noise I make a couple of appropriate hums at the right time to make it look like I’m listening but really I’m not. This should be a subtle hint but it never works so I have to resort to saying “I’m watching this right now” or “I’m reading at the moment.” However, once this has been said there IS a moment of peace before the talking starts up again! So what do you do when the person is not getting the message? You either give up, carry on or find some polite way to say shut up. Anything just so you can read or watch what you want without someone’s voice droning on in the background. So, to all those who have suffered the same problem as me, don’t worry, I sympathise.

For tomorrow’s seminar with my life writing lecturer we had to think about in advance three things to write about for specific topics. These were: A Rant, A Cultural Artefact and What song do you want played at your funeral?  Personally I cringed at the funeral one as I do not like to think about death and have not really thought about my own or my funeral. Therefore being perfectly honest I am really struggling with this one. Most of the songs that I listen to at the moment are not appropriate and are more suited to singing or dancing along to on a night out, not whilst mourning my passing. At the age of nineteen I would not say my music taste is limited but I don’t have a ‘funeral’ playlist on my IPod and I do not listen to a song and think “Oh that would be lovely at my funeral.” Besides, I always thought if you had not stated in your will then family members will choose for you. But then I wondered what someone else would pick for me. Would they pick something slow and depressing, or a real up beat song to remember all the good times they shared with me?  At one point I was tempted to text some of my friends and ask this question but then changed my mind. However, this does not solve my problem. I don’t think blasting out Iggy Azalea or Beyoncé at my funeral would be ideal however amusing it sounds to others as I’m trying to think about a serious answer. Maybe I am over thinking it too much to really answer the question? So for the time being I’m going to leave this one and probably end up choosing a random song at the last minute.
The Rant topic I did not have a problem with as there are many things in the world to rant about and I do rant a lot, however when asked to think of something to particularly rant about…I suddenly developed a blank mind. A couple of things went through my head like the weather and the lateness of trains but they all seemed a bit basic. I’m was hoping to pick something a bit more personal rather than generic things to rant about. Yet again, this is one I’ll have to come back too.
Finally, the third topic Cultural Artefacts. Now my lecturer said it could be anything so this obviously made the choices a bit more broader – whether this is a good thing or not I don’t know. According to Wikipedia Cultural Artefacts can “provide knowledge about technological processes, economy and social makeup, and a host of other subjects.” This is pretty much going to be anything then including a pen as that allowed man to write.
So for now, I’ve probably completed one out of the three tasks easily, the other two I will sit and ponder over some more.