>>> Item number 33102 from WRITERS LOG9407A --- (41 records) ----- <<< Date: Sun, 3 Jul 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Roll-Your-Own? (The Meta-Exercise?) This is really a writer's exercise - for when they're being a reader. Suppose you are reading along in your favorite book, and suddenly realize the author just made an exceptional swerve, took you right outside the normal everyday interactions, or otherwise did something you like. Aside from just looking at the mechanics of how they did that (you do look at mechanics like that, right? maybe even take notes, try it out yourself, and add it to your toolkit?), try this: Imagine that the author came up with the idea for doing whatever it was in response to ... an exercise! or at least a question... Now, what was that exercise? What was the question that pushed that author into doing something that really excited you? Write it down. Remember that most exercises and good questions have more than one answer, so generalize - if the writer focused on how the expression of a single emotion could be so misunderstood by multiple people, your exercise might involve picking one from a list of emotions, making a list of ways to express that emotion, writing up one, and then considering how various characters could misinterpret that expression. File it away. You may want to keep a part of your journal or an extra file folder just for these "personal exercises." Then some day when you're stuck for an idea, trying to figure out where to start, what to fill the bare page with - pick up one of those exercises and do it. Don't bother trying to figure out what you were reading when you came up with it - treat it as if it was one of those quirky ones handed out without explanation in writers' groups, and go! Sometimes you may want to write them up and post them here, too... WRITE! tink