Write Anyway

For the last day of “favorites” week, write about your favorite day or holiday. Free write for as long as you can stand it (at least 10 minutes) about what happens on your favorite day or just what it is that makes it so great. It can be a favorite day of the year, a special holiday, or just a favorite day of the week.

I don’t know about you, but I’m darn sick of favorites. Next week, we’ll try something different. Promise.

(My warm-up on “favorite car/vehicle” is posted over here until I can figure out Word Press pages and such. Have a great weekend!)

(My warm-up for “favorite car/vehicle” will be up after lunch.)

Continuing with the favorite theme for warm-ups, let’s try free writing about a favorite person. To mix it up a little, try to include dialogue, real or imagined. Or describe the person’s physical characteristics from head to toe (stay clean, please). Your favorite person can be someone you know, someone you admire, or someone you would like to meet.

(Another option may be to write a short scene of what could be a longer story – or – *gasp* – even a novel – by using stream of consciousness. There is no better way to develop a character than to crawl inside their head and walk around in their body for a while. Using someone you know makes it even more interesting.)

Try it. Try to write for at least 15 minutes without pausing (too much). See what happens when you wade through the “I just can’t” and Write Anyway.

I had a tough time with the writing warm up with “favorite food” with the topic. That is probably because I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love food – I hate that I love food and it knows I hate that I love it and goes directly to my love handles just to spite me.

Let’s move on.

For today’s writing warm-up, write about your favorite car or vehicle for at least 15 minutes. Write about your first car, a family camper or a favorite motorcycle. If you do not drive, write about what you would drive, if you could. Write about specific memories or what the car or vehicle makes you feel. Go wherever you would like with it. If you get off topic, don’t worry about it. Just keep writing.

When time is up, post what you have written in the comments here, or provide a link to your site. (This topic will be easier for me, I think. I already have some ideas!)

This week, I am going to use “favorites” as a theme for the writing warm-ups.

For at least 15 minutes today, write about your favorite food. Write about the recipe itself, for example, if it is particularly fun or difficult to make. Alternatively, if you would like, go a more emotional route and write about how the food makes you feel. Describe how it smells, tastes or what memories are evoked every time you make or eat it.

Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or paragraphs – just write. At first, this might be difficult, turning off the constant editor in your head, but keep at it. (Personally, I spend an excessive amount of time leaning on the ‘backspace’ key.) After some practice, free-flow writing can open you up to all kinds of ideas. So clear your minds of everything except the writing warm-up topic, set a timer or check the clock, and write.

When time is up, allow yourself to re-read what you have written without being critical or changing more than a typo or two. Post what you’ve written in the comments here, or provide a link to your site.

Writing is hard, but it is also rewarding – much like exercising. You don’t want to do it, but after you do, you are glad you did. And like any good exercise routine, you need a warm up. You need a chance to stretch, flex, and limber up your writing muscles, before launching into a new project or continuing an old one. Your warm up can be as simple as taking a writing prompt posted here and making a list, typing/writing nonsense, or just writing whatever comes to mind regarding the topic for 15 or 20 minutes.

So “Write Anyway” – my little addition to 451 Press– will be a combination of prompts, encouragement, constructive criticism, and examples of writing (my own and otherwise). I will use a variety of sources for ideas, but I will also draw on my surroundings and experiences. However, I don’t want to be the only voice; we all need feedback from time to time. I am hoping Write Anyway will be a site where readers will find inspiration from the prompts to write and then post links in the comments to their writing on their own sites for everyone to read. By sharing our efforts, we can find the support every writer needs.

Composing an essay, writing a novel, creating a short story, structuring a press release, drafting a play, cranking out another blog post, or whatever your project, can be intimidating, frustrating and exasperating when the words just wont come. So warm up, write a little every day, and no matter how daunting your task, just write anyway.