Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Rise and Write: Daily Writing Sketches

I find myself more in the writing mood lately, than in the creating outfits mood. Good! After all, I started this journey about two years ago with this particular goal, or better say, dream in mind - start living the life I've been dreaming of for many years, a writing life. In many ways, I've done it. Now, looking back at these two years, I can definitely say that I've done it. I started with reading books about writing (I might make a post about them in the future) - encouraging books, kind books, books that became not only my mentors, but also my friends. I've been writing stories (mostly in my native language). And I also started writing in English - a language that I do not know very well, as I am basically self-taught in it, and it was a huge leap of trust to just dive in and start writing my first blog in English. I remember when Justin mentioned the possibility for me to write a blog in English, I thought he went mad. Me? Writing in English? Never! And yet, now, almost two years later, I write in English practically every day, still with errors, of course, but getting stronger with every post - and most importantly writing with true joy and freedom, and that's exactly what it's all about... about liberating your soul from fears. And as another leap of trust, I started writing fiction, short stories in English, and even initiated a link-up that is going very well. At first, I worried a little about the idea of limiting myself with an "opening phrase" for each story. But in the end, I find that it actually helps and I have no problem at all to start writing, to feel inspired, to work with the particular phrase, let it tell me a story - the story that would probably not happen, if not for that phrase.

So all of my almost two years of experience of becoming a writer (in English - because I've already been a writer in my native language, writing since a very early age, and published since the age of 12) lead me to a new idea. One of the things I've done in the past, in one of my Russian blogs, was daily writing sketches (or exercises, if you will). Initially, I wanted to do them every day for a year, but in the end, I've accomplished a little over a month of such daily sketches (34, I believe). Some of them became short stories or flash fiction, others became essays, while still other remained simply that - sketches. The idea behind them was to get in the habit of writing daily, and I still consider that project a success, even though I did not complete the whole year of writing them. But they did their job - after a long period of not writing regularly, they brought me back to my true love of writing... After that, I found a book by Barbara Abercrombie called Kicking In the Wall - A Year of Writing Exercises, Prompts and Quotes to Help You Break Through Your Blocks and Reach Your Writing Goals. Again, I've completed over a month's worth of prompts, and it helped me to keep my pencil sharp. I love the main idea - keep your exercises 5 minutes short! If you happen to want to write more, then go ahead and do it, and if not - then that's it. Do not stop and edit yourself, write for the whole 5 minutes - that's Barbara's approach. Some of your 5-minute exercises will lead you to creating essays, stories or even novels - who knows where they'll take you. And others, well, they will be just that - exercises.

So I've decided to combine these two ideas, my old idea of daily sketches, and Barbara's idea of 5-minute prompts, and start a new link-up here, on the blog that I started last year for this particular reason, to get into a writing life. The rules are simple. Every morning, I will offer a theme (prompt), most probably random, borrowed from the outside world, from my dream, from a dictionary or a random book on my bookshelf, and post it here on this blog. If you, like me, want to get into writing habits and feel that such exercises help you, by all means, create a post in your blog, write for 5-10 minutes whatever comes to mind (you can edit it after all, but not during those few minutes of writing a sketch) - and link it to my post. I also will write and post my sketch on the same day. So we can share, encourage and hopefully help each other. I call it Rise and Write - meaning, get up, have your first cup of coffee, and somewhere between that cup of coffee and brushing your teeth, sit down to write. Just for 5 or 10 minutes. I think we all can manage it, can't we? And if you don't find my prompt inspiring (it happens!), then come up with your own, or change mine to the form that inspires you - and write. Only 5-10 minutes, no more. Don't worry about it being perfect, finished or polished. They are sketches! They are not meant to be finished or polished - they are meant to be improvisations, free form, imperfect! We'll take it a short block at a time, not the whole year (seems like forever when you  think that you'll be doing it for 365 days in a row). We'll start on August 1st. Deal? :)

PS And Justin and I paid for participating in the Writer's conference today - two full days of classes in October!

16 comments:

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  2. Natalia, it is agreat idea. I am so proud of you. You are such an inspiration. It was you who inspired me to write short sci-fi story to my fashion post and I would like thank you. You could be inspiration for many people who would like to be writers or people who are fighting with english because it is not their first language (like me). Good luck, Natalia.

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    1. Dear Anna, thank you so much! I am touched by your words... If you'd like to join in, please do! It's fun to write, to try doing something new, and we don't have to be "perfect" - the meaning of art is not in "perfection", it is in being genuine, being true to oneself and in freedom being ourselves and expressing who we are. I often still have doubts - that's how many of us are raised, to doubt ourselves. Luckily, I have an extremely understanding, wise, open-minded, encouraging and supportive Justin, otherwise it would be so hard for me to try all these things I'm trying to do now... And I also love being supportive and encouraging and tell everyone - just do it, if it's something you would love to do, are dying to do, but are afraid that you are "not good enough" - do it anyway, try new things, be creative and always, always love who you are! We all deserve such encouragement in life, don't we?

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    2. And I loved your story - it's wonderful, very imaginative! Write, Anna!

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    3. I am going to write! For sure. It is something I would like to try. Just for myself first. I need to learn a lot. And later... who knows? o) It is interesting to read posts in your link up. Thank you Natalia for your nice and encouraging words. o)

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  3. I will be happily joining Rise and Write!! I think this is an excellent idea and I'm really looking forward to participating. :)

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  4. Daily exercises can really help one grow. Well done for setting this up!
    Not sure if I can manage it, but I do writing most days on my BeautyScopes.
    Will be following with interest :-) xo Jazzy Jack

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    1. That's a great way to look at it - physical daily exercises help our bodies to get stronger, daily meditation/prayer/reflection helps our soul to grow, and writing exercises are no different, they help us grow as writers! I enjoy your BeautyScopes! It's a beautiful form, very viable. Thank you, my dear!

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  5. I'll give it a try. I think I may need a second Blog placeholder for this. I'm just starting to get a few readers and don't want to scare them off! I'll do that today and be ready on Saturday.

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    1. I'm glad you want to give it a try, Sam! About creating another blog - do whatever works for you. Here is what I think as I answered to Beate:

      There are definitely many ways of doing blogging, which boil down to the two main approaches: a blog as a diary (this is me and all about me and what I do and/or think about life), AND a blog as a theme (or a group of themes) journal. I've done both, I like both, and I respect both ways... whenever I have a feeling that some theme or a group of themes is taking over to live on their own, I give them a separate space and a special attention to grow. I like this approach, it works for me now. They all will become parts of one website or a portal some day.

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  6. I essentially do this already, though do not make what I write public. I started writing in the draft section of my blog so that I would be forced to think of what I wrote as something people might see, and just recently I deleted about a hundred of those. They tend to be long though. If I have something to say I have a lot to say-lol. Other times, just a short idea, a sentence or two pops into my head and I write it in one of my many journals. This is where I go for ideas to to develop. Because this way of working is quite entrenched in my life already, I am not sure how I will do with the Rise and Write strategy, though I am considering participating. I think it is a great idea and applaud you for your skills at bringing people together with your ideas. That is a skill I completely lack. xoxo
    Oh, I also meant to say that your English is superior to a great many native speakers and I am constantly impressed.

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    1. Shawna, thank you - for many things here! I know that you write every day (so do I, and I do not publish everything as well - I think all writers are alike in that). But this is a very specific focus. Maybe for you personally it can be a challenge to actually atop after 5 or 10 minutes and explore the ways to express yourself in a more concise way (not any form of writing is superior to another, they are just different). Or maybe it's the connecting with others (me, Justin, Sam and whoever else might join us). But I will say it again - it should feel natural, but still something a little out of the comfort zone, in some way - that way we grow.

      Building a community is something that excites me. I am curious to explore whether we can build a writing community together. I've done such things before, and even though it's fun to lead, there comes the moment when as a leader you feel exhausted and lonely, and it takes YEARS to recover. I don't ever want to experience that again. I am only open to the idea of building a community with kindred-spirited people, truly kindred-spirited. If that is something we can pull together, I'd be thrilled. Writing life can be lonely at times. If it is not what's going to happen, then we still can gain strength as writers from the focused daily exercises. If we continue with this focused attempts, I can see us starting working on publishing a book (a collective book) in the future. I'm a big picture person, I can't help but seeing that big picture. :)))

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    2. What I was thinking-and forgot to add-is that my brevity shows up in my poems. That is where I express myself deliberately concisely and I think I will consider this activity to be an exercise in jotting down pre-poems. :-)

      I have never been lonely and I think I am fortunate in that. It is a combination of always having had one or two loved ones around me, and being quite content with my own company. I do notice the difference between being at home and having a job to go to every day where I am among many people. I miss the hugs. I am a very physical person. Needing that bit of being around others, even if I do not know them, is why I go and write in cafes sometimes.

      Someone should issue me a challenge to stop talking after five minutes. ;-)
      xoxoxo

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    3. Poem exercises! Of course!

      I am different that way. I do not miss being among people as much as I am longing for deep, meaningful connections. Those are rare. And even though, I do have (a very few) such precious connections, I am open to more. Common passion is one way to connect. Though not the most profound, but still desirable and valuable to me.

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    4. I guess I am greedy and want it all. I also want the deep and meaningful connections! :-)

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