Writers Lab: The Power of the Paragraph
Afternoon, Lab Coats, you Sweethearts of the Storybelly Lab. I have been SO squirreled down in drafting Charlottesville and have loved every second of this week home in a quiet house with no other obligations or appointments other than those I’ve chosen to tackle, mainly the work in progress, but also a bit of cooking, some dishes, lots of reading and writing and sleeping and eating, and I need to change the sheets on the bed, and I can’t get outside to work because of the relentless rain (which I am so grateful for, and will be doubly glad for in the drought of summer).
What a life, I know! It is a rare week, and a present, after the gift of the organized chaos of last week with my people that I loved so much, and a whirlwind time in Charlottesville. It was a week full of people and places and events and moments to remember. It was so rich… and so is this quiet writing week.
Isn’t this back-and-forth rhythm of life just like the Writers Lab Exercises we’ve been exploring?
The Unity of Opposites, (and here is another one)
Writing from the Heart of History,
And of course
The Art of Sifting and “Let There Be Cake,” of course, of course, our Theme Song!
So.
I’ve been writing a lot of paragraphs lately, and this week I’m inviting you to write some with me. I want to try an exercise where we add to one another’s paragraphs. We’ll do it in Chat, AND we can do it in comments below, if you prefer to share there or are having trouble getting into Chat (DM me, if so). The settings for comments within a Writers Lab post are available to Lab Coats only, both for reading and responding to them, so here is your safe, welcoming writing space (same with Chat) and a way for us to play.
This should be fun! If you are a free subscriber and would like to play with us, you can sub for a month or more to the Writers Lab here:
Exercise #13 will be a fun Exercise for the End of May, My Month of May, the end of Spring, where we will play with forms and structures and word play, description, dialogue, whatever strikes your writer’s fancy. All the freedom in the world to make a mess and play.
We’re going to breathe out into the last of this lovely, rainy spring (here in ATL, anyway), and take a deep breath into the heat of June, July, and August. It’s almost time to turn on the a/c here in the Deep South.
Most of the rest of today’s post will be some instruction and word play, aka FUN, and therefore light.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Let’s make some joyful noise and messy mess and just have a blast. Yes? YES.
The Charlottesville writing is really heavy this week. I crave some lightness, some silliness, some playfulness, and some camaraderie with like-minded writerly folks, beginners just wading in, and those who’ve been swimming along for a while — you can drop in anywhere in the Lab and find yourself at home.
So let’s get to it. I’ll stick the paywall here, and we’ll get to work.
One last invitation first, though — come on in! The water is fine, the company is sterling, and the energy is sweet. All are welcome!
No experience necessary (but you do have experience, whether you know it or not!), come join us!
And now:
THE ASSIGNMENT
