The Notebooking Daily 2020 Writing Series is a daily writing exercises for both prose writers and poets to keep your creative mind stretched and ready to go—fresh for your other writing endeavors. The writing prompts take the impetus—that initial crystal of creation—out of your hands (for the most part) and changes your writing creation into creative problem solving. Instead of being preoccupied with the question "What do I write" you are instead pondering "How do I make this work?" And in the process you are producing new writing.
These exercises are not meant to be a standard writing session. They are meant to be productive and to keep your brain thinking about using language to solve simple or complex problems. The worst thing you can do is sit there inactive. It's like taking a 5 minute breather in the middle of a spin class—the point is to push, to produce something, however imperfect. If you don't overthink them, you will be able to complete all of the exercises in under 30 minutes.
#198
3x5x7 Wordbank Sprints 28
3x5x7 Wordbank Sprints 28
For today's writing exercise complete the following steps. The wordbank exercise has changed so be sure to take a peek at the new 'rules'. I recommend using the timer on your phone or computer and setting it for 1 minute. Each time you write a sentence, quickly reset the timer. If it goes off before you're finished with the sentence—wrap it up ASAP!
In order to complete the large number of sentences demanded of this exercise it is imperative that you write fast. Don't think too much at all until you've reached the final exercise. The process of this quick production is to thrust past second guesses or other stumbling blocks that sometimes impede your writing. You're aiming to write 23 sentences in at most 20 minutes so you have ten minutes to organize and write that actual piece, so you're going to be writing more than a sentence a minute.
In order to complete the large number of sentences demanded of this exercise it is imperative that you write fast. Don't think too much at all until you've reached the final exercise. The process of this quick production is to thrust past second guesses or other stumbling blocks that sometimes impede your writing. You're aiming to write 23 sentences in at most 20 minutes so you have ten minutes to organize and write that actual piece, so you're going to be writing more than a sentence a minute.
WRITE FAST, DON'T OVERTHINK
- Pick one word from each of three groups and write a sentence that includes all of the words, feel free to change tense, pluralize, gerund etc. Repeat the process five (5) times using different combinations. No dawdling!
- Now write three (3) sentences that are six (6) words or fewer in length that use any two (2) words from the wordbanks.
- Now write three (3) sentences that use four (4) or more of the words.
- Now write five (5) sentences which begin with one (1) of the words and contain a second one (1) of the words.
- Now write five (5) sentences which are fewer than ten (10) words in length and conclude with one (1) of the words from the wordbanks. Remember, keep up the pace! Don't overthink!
- Now rephrase two (2) of your sentences from exercise #1 in either a more efficient or more descriptive manner.
- Now write a piece of fiction or poetry that uses at least three (3) of the sentences you've written throughout this process of exercises. Try to use as many of the (good) sentences as you can, or parts of the sentences if the whole thing doesn't fit or works better altered.
Word Bank 1:
- Masked
- Banjo
- Fringe
- Stale
- Jamaica
Wordbank 2:
- Bandit
- Jungle
- Humid
- Trout
- Routine
Wordbank 3:
- Grandiose
- Filmy
- Switching
- Plunged
- Wren
Bonus writing exercise: In your piece, include the word Fresh in your title, and you must include a character shaving their head at least in a mention.
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Want some unobtrusive background writing music? I'm not a big country music fan, but this guy William Tyler plays instrumental 'modern' country on the acoustic guitar and he really builds his songs around a narrative and without the trappings that are associated with things like stadium country. Here he is performing for a Korean radio station in an analog for something like NPR's small desk concerts.
