Saturday, September 02, 2006

100 sentences

epiphany.jpg I'm going to collect some "writer's block" tips. I don't like the term writer's block. It sounds like a disease that will stay with you until find a cure. Which only turns it into something worse than it is.

Stuck. Stalled. The point is to get moving again, often by doing something different, or off in a different direction rather than sitting there spinning your tires.

This is an idea from 3AM Epiphany, a book of writing exercises by Brian Kiteley.

He suggests writing 100 sentences about a character you're stuck on. Or a place. Or a setting. Or an Idea. Don't lift your fingers from the keyboard through the whole exercise. Let it sit for a day and then revise.

100 *short* -- he lists the exercise as 800 words total -- sentences. (Though 200 or 500 sentences he thinks would be even better but 100 is enough to be useful.) They shouldn't connect. He says just relax and let your mind flow free to find new material. "It is unnerving to have to write so many sentences in a row, and after a certain point the pressure of creating character details overcomes the pressure to tell a story."

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