Gabe Redel's Blog: FRYING POTATOES BLOG - Posts Tagged "prose"
Beautiful Stories, Practice!
One of my favorite writing exercises is something I like to call "discovery writing." If I hadn't sat down one day and decided to write those discovery pieces, I definitely wouldn't be the writer that I am today.
What I did was decide that I needed to practice writing. And to practice, I didn't want to set out to write a formal piece of writing, such as a short story, a poem, or biography or anything like that, because that would make me think too hard. My goal was to get my brain kick-started like a mini-bike. My goal was to develop my instinctual skills as an artist. In other words, athletes don't get better at playing a sport by playing only the games. They accomplish the most growth during the long hours of practice they do each week.
Not only that, but practice gives us the opportunity to work on things that we are bad at. Taking a look at the areas that we need to improve the most is one of the most valuable things we can do as skilled writers. Because, when we know our own weaknesses, we then have the information we need to turn those weaknesses into strengths.
All I did to do my own practicing was sit down in front of a blank page and begin to write about the first thing that came to my mind. You see, I needed to get better at turning my thoughts into clear language.
Often, my discovery pieces would begin looking like a journal entry. I would simply tell myself about all the things that I cared about within the last few days.
The first few discovery pieces I wrote were rather pitiful. They didn't read well and they weren't interesting. Because, again, my goal was to practice at what I was not good at. I wanted to strengthen my mind to develop a flow or a stream of conscious to my words in a way that was natural, in a way that was trained and would, in all hopes, become second nature to me.
As I got into later discoveries, they began to get really good. I was taking the real stories of my life and adding attitude, conclusions, and greater meaning to the story at large. I was beginning to not only train my mind to continue a thought and turn it into clear language, but I was also training it to put the puzzle pieces of life together for me. I began to learn about myself. I began to learn about the people around me, learn about what made them tick, why they did or said certain things, why, in the greater scheme of life, I could use their experiences to learn and grow from in my own personal way.
And as a result, my writing got better and better. And by writing, I mean my "real" work where I set out to get something sold.
The more interesting my practice writing became, the more interesting my real writing became. And here's why: Not only did I learn how to use the English language better, but I also learned how to take my real life situations and draw out of them what mattered most. I learned how to take my own thoughts and feelings and make sense out of them in a way that I could put on paper.
So, I applied that to my real writing. I was able to take my fiction, develop a beautiful flow to my prose, and draw out of each thought in mind what mattered most in a way that was completely natural, trained, and instinctual.
And because my prose became instinctual, I no longer had to stop and think about where to take a thought or how to put a thought into words. It freed my mind up to explore my own imagination as I wrote in a completely unhindered way.
What I did was decide that I needed to practice writing. And to practice, I didn't want to set out to write a formal piece of writing, such as a short story, a poem, or biography or anything like that, because that would make me think too hard. My goal was to get my brain kick-started like a mini-bike. My goal was to develop my instinctual skills as an artist. In other words, athletes don't get better at playing a sport by playing only the games. They accomplish the most growth during the long hours of practice they do each week.
Not only that, but practice gives us the opportunity to work on things that we are bad at. Taking a look at the areas that we need to improve the most is one of the most valuable things we can do as skilled writers. Because, when we know our own weaknesses, we then have the information we need to turn those weaknesses into strengths.
All I did to do my own practicing was sit down in front of a blank page and begin to write about the first thing that came to my mind. You see, I needed to get better at turning my thoughts into clear language.
Often, my discovery pieces would begin looking like a journal entry. I would simply tell myself about all the things that I cared about within the last few days.
The first few discovery pieces I wrote were rather pitiful. They didn't read well and they weren't interesting. Because, again, my goal was to practice at what I was not good at. I wanted to strengthen my mind to develop a flow or a stream of conscious to my words in a way that was natural, in a way that was trained and would, in all hopes, become second nature to me.
As I got into later discoveries, they began to get really good. I was taking the real stories of my life and adding attitude, conclusions, and greater meaning to the story at large. I was beginning to not only train my mind to continue a thought and turn it into clear language, but I was also training it to put the puzzle pieces of life together for me. I began to learn about myself. I began to learn about the people around me, learn about what made them tick, why they did or said certain things, why, in the greater scheme of life, I could use their experiences to learn and grow from in my own personal way.
And as a result, my writing got better and better. And by writing, I mean my "real" work where I set out to get something sold.
The more interesting my practice writing became, the more interesting my real writing became. And here's why: Not only did I learn how to use the English language better, but I also learned how to take my real life situations and draw out of them what mattered most. I learned how to take my own thoughts and feelings and make sense out of them in a way that I could put on paper.
So, I applied that to my real writing. I was able to take my fiction, develop a beautiful flow to my prose, and draw out of each thought in mind what mattered most in a way that was completely natural, trained, and instinctual.
And because my prose became instinctual, I no longer had to stop and think about where to take a thought or how to put a thought into words. It freed my mind up to explore my own imagination as I wrote in a completely unhindered way.
