Creative Writing Corner

Photo of the Week

at the edge of porteau cove, originally uploaded by manyfires.

Enjoy this striking shot this week, and try and use it to inspire yourself!

What Keeps You Up at Night?

This week, I want you to think about what thing, issue, or worry in your life has the power to keep you tossing and turning long into the night. Is it a relative who's in trouble? Financial woes? A moral quandary?

Whatever it is, it's clearly a powerful force in your life, and the perfect impetus for a story. Good stories are roiling with tension and unease. They keep you feeling anxious for the character, and they make you worried on his behalf. Whatever keeps you up at night is something that has the power to keep your reader worried too.

So is it not knowing about your future? Feeling guilty about something bad you did? Wishing you had gotten more done? Something that keeps you up at night can easily be altered to be a thing that keeps a new character up at night. It's a nagging worry that won't go away, something that can't just be solved with more thought. Stories need problems; too often stories are simply character sketches, showing portraits of people. It's the worries, though, that make it seem like time is really passing and there's a reason to turn the pages.

Maybe what keeps you up at night is worrying about your story! If so, even that is something that could turn into your next writing project.

Photo of the Week

ho il destino tatuato sul collo non posso leggerlo da solo ho bisogno dei tuoi occhi sempre dietro., originally uploaded by Frammenti di momenti_.

Great shot here, both mysterious and alluring. Maybe you can write a piece about how this woman is.

What Is Your Character's Drug of Choice?

Here's a bold statement, but one that I think you'll agree with: we're all addicts in one way or another. That's not to belittle the devastating consequences of drug or alcohol addiction, but it's true that there's something that all of us crave or depend on, something we can't live without, something that we don't feel fully ourselves unless we have. That thing can be harmful (like drugs) or it can be fairly neutral (like coffee) or it can even be helpful (like love). In a way, we don't really know who we are as people or characters until we know what we can't live without.

So this week I want to think about your character and what he or she is addicted to. What is an essential part of their routine or their sense of self and normalcy? Is it a substance, like sugar or coffee or tobacco or cheese puffs? Is it junk in general, or caffeine, or booze? Is it a person? Is it a memory? Is it a pet or a place? There are many things that we may use as our drug of choice, and thinking about it will enable you to see your character in a clearer light. We see our characters best when we understand not only what is best about them, but it is disappointing or frail about them. When we understand what small thing could tip the balance into despair, then we really know a person and what he or she clings to for sanity and normalcy.

It may be useful to think about what your drug of choice is as well. What keeps you sane and feeling complete? Or are you the rare soul that lives a completely independent life? Think carefully before you answer; I bet there's something -- or someone -- you don't feel yourself without.

Photo of the Week

Bamburgh Castle, originally uploaded by Billy Currie.

Photo of the Week

i think i was blind before i met you. (explored front page !!!), originally uploaded by emily :D!.

This one has a very intriguing image that could be the start (or the middle) of a story. Hope it gets you inspired today!

Photo of the Week

, originally uploaded by AAGCTT.

Great perspective in this shot.

Get Inspired by a Museum Exhibit

We're lucky to live in a time and place where there are so many sources of inspiration. We don't have to just read books; we can watch movies, listen to music, go to concerts. One of the ways I get inspired is actually to go to museums. Whether it's the MoMA, the Louvre, the Met, or Boston's MFA, I inevitably find something in an art exhibit that has the power to stop my heart for a moment.

Recently I took a trip both to the MoMA (that's the Museum of Modern Art for you non-New Yorkers) and the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Both of them are terrific and inspiring in different ways. At the Met, I got a chance to revisit some old paintings that I adored. At the right you can see an all-time favorite of mine, Van Gogh's "Wheat Field with Cypresses." I love the dreamy, swimming quality of the sky, the dynamic, wind-tossed movement of the trees, and the fully textured appearance of the wheat. By seeing it in real life, I got to see how thickly the paint was globbed on to the wheat field, giving it that authentic appearance of texture. The Met also has an impressive ancient art collection, which I also find inspiring. As a scholar of religion, for one, I'm very interested in how ancient art can inform us about early ritual and belief. It's art that tells us how a people sees itself, heaven, gods, and the universe. I love masks, engraved swords, religious statues, and all that; to me they represent the dreams of another time.

Then, of course, there is the MoMA, which is an entirely different experience. You first know you are in a different world when you enter the front door. Unlike the classical architecture of the Met, the MoMA is constructed in the clean, spare white walls and cutout window spaces of modern architectural thought. What you find on the walls here is generally far more abstract and more challenging to my easily befuddled mind. The MoMA can be frustrating at times -- there is actually a square of blank canvas framed on the wall -- but can also be deeply inspiring. There are abstract paintings and sculptures there that still capture the dynamism and movement of the world the way we see it, and paintings and sculptures that challenge that very perception.

These two museums are just examples of very affordable ways we can all get inspired by art. Just about every city has a museum worth visiting, and they're not always the big famous ones. A small city often has small, little-known museums housing gems, so try researching museums in your own town.

Photo of the Week

Her Split Personality, originally uploaded by me_on_flickr.

This shot is very cleverly done and may get you thinking. Try writing something about it!

Write About Love Lost

On Mondays I generally offer an exercise suggestion. For those of you new to the site, you can expect to come by on Mondays and have a concrete writing activity to do or thing to think about that will hopefully get you writing.

This week, I want you to try to write about lost love. Either write a memoir piece, or try creating a fictional story. Lost love can be interpreted in a lot of different ways; you could consider a love who has died, or a couple that never quite got together, or someone who fell out of love with someone. You could write about any one of a hundred bittersweet partings and disappointments. The point is to capture that sense of loss that is so keenly felt when we wonder what might have been. Love lost is always a significant part of the human experience because it exposes our rawest emotions and our barest selves. It shows us at our best and our worst, our wisest and most desperate, our most foolish and most generous.

What I do want to emphasize is that this piece should not be a break-up story. While a break-up story can be beautiful, as I'm learning from my current literary magazine internship, it's the most common storyline in the slush pile. It is common and unremarkable, and should be avoided. But maybe you're asking what a break-up story actually is.

It's a bit of a tenuous definition, but the break-up stories that are a dime a dozen in the slush pile tend to be slow-moving, overly thoughtful takes on a couple in decline. The love is gone in the relationship, and it usually ends in a realization that the other person isn't who the first person thought he or she was.

Do you see the difference between a love lost story and a break-up story? A love lost story still has love in it. A typical break-up story is merely the discovery that love isn't there at all. It keeps the characters reserved -- depressed, maybe, but still not baring the best and worst of themselves. So keep your stories interesting -- write about love, not about the lack of it.