Friday Speak Out!: Warming Up (It's Not Just for Exercise Freaks Anymore)

by Sioux Roslawski

In my past life as a quilter (now I've been reincarnated as a knitter) I used to have a “junk” project to work on. There would be a wall hanging or a bed quilt that I was working on, but each day that I quilted, before I worked on the project I truly cared about, I'd quilt a bit on some smaller, not-so-important piece. It might have been a wall hanging for an in-law (a relative I was not very fond of, so I didn't care how large my stitches were). Perhaps it was a placemat that was going to be very utilitarian, so if the quilting was not my best, I didn't care. After working on my warm-up piece, I'd set it aside and start working on the sewing I did care about.

Because then, my fingers were warmed up and ready. My needle was nimble. My stitches were so tiny, a microscope was needed to see them. (Okay, that is a slight exaggeration. Forgive me.)

The same technique can be used when writing. Julia Cameron, in her wonderful book The Artist's Way, calls it the daily pages. You write a few pages to get the junk out, so that creativity can really flow once you start working on your novel/short story/article that day.

Recently, I've been working with some middle school and high school teachers. They're working on a graduate class and get the opportunity to explore themselves as writers as well as themselves as teachers of writing. One of the course requirements is a daily writing prompt; every day we begin the class with some sort of quick “exercise” to get us started writing.

One morning, a teacher told us to “Write a story about a girl named Dot without using any words that have a dot in them.” That meant we couldn't use a word that had a lowercase i or j in it. We became word contortionists as we crafted flash pieces, tossing out words that had those dreaded dots.

Another teacher instructed us to write a story with only commands and exclamations. We couldn't use any statements. That was great fun as well.

Along with Cameron's book, I'd recommend Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston. It's filled with 200 prompts like the “dot” one and ones like “Describe someone who looks bored. Don't use any form of the words yawned or stared or sighed,” or “Create an impression of a person, real or imaginary, by describing only the person's hands. Use only three sentences.” (See? Some of these exercises might be useful when working on your “real” writing project, so you can double dip!)

So, today before you get working on your YA novel ...Before you start your revision-of-the-day ...Before you begin writing the article you've got on your to-do list ...Warm up your fingers. Get your laptop heated up. Get rid of the “junk” that's in your head—and get ready to really write ...

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Sioux Roslawski is a proud member of the notorious (and sometimes felonious, at least in their fantasies) writing critique group, the WWWPs. During the day she is a third grade teacher. In the early mornings and late at night, she is a freelance writer. Her stories can be found in Chicken Soup collections (soon to be 10) and Not Your Mother's Book anthologies. This summer, she is busy cleaning up puppy pee puddles. More of her writing can be found at http://siouxspage.blogspot.com 
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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