Category Archives: Writing exercise

Jun15

Sensory experiences and writing prompts: reliving childhood summers

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Listen. A little hand covered in popsicle juice and sand is turning the lid on a jar.

Look. Fireflies play flashlight tag.

Feel. The grass under your bare feet is cooling. (Smack! Frenzied mosquitoes seek a bedtime snack.)

Smell. Summer’s incense–the sulfurous metallic scent of sparklers sizzle the night air.

Taste. A charred marshmallow deflates spreading sweetness on the tongue.

Whether you write novels, nonfiction, picture books or poetry for children, seize every sense of the summer season. Research can be pure pleasure. Scoop your piggies (aka toes) into the cool sand beneath the sizzling surface of the beach. Build a bonfire and swap your summer stories with friends. And, if you haven’t had a popsicle in a while (aka decades), you’d best snap to it.

Photo by Vicky Lorencen

Capture childhood memories of the season

  • Summer smells like (weather, food, plants, etc.)
  • Favorite summer food taste like
  • Summer-specific sounds by day/by night
  • Summer sights
  • Summer feels like ___________ on my skin/my face/my feet.
  • Summer water sensory memories (pool, lake, creek, sprinkler, hose, water park)
  • Summer night sounds

What long-forgotten memory paid a visit?

Photo by Vicky Lorencen

As with every season, not all memories are sweet.

There’s sunburn, bug bites, boredom, and harder still, family squabbles, disappointments, sullen babysitters, food insecurity or loneliness.

Collect deeper summer memories with these simple prompts

  • My family and I always went to
  • Going on a family vacation made me feel
  • My family and I never went on vacation because
  • Not going on a family vacation made me feel
  • I remember the first time I
  • When I didn’t have friends to play with, I would
  • I felt scared when
  • I dreaded it when
  • I used to imagine I
  • I couldn’t wait until
  • Summer break felt like it was ___ months long
  • As the end of summer approached, I felt/worried about/looked forward to

My sweet shortcakes, I hope this post sends your Ferris wheel of memories whirling. AND I also hope-hope-hope you’ll share a summer memory with me!

Photo by Vicky Lorencen

Fireflies in the Garden

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies, 
And here on earth come emulating flies, 
That though they never equal stars in size, 
(And they were never really stars at heart) 
Achieve at times a very star-like start. 
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.   ~ Robert Frost

Sep20

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

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hand-1-2

Sketch from high school art class

My high school art teacher Ms. Bassnett told me, “If you can draw a hand, you can draw anything.” And so, I spent a lot to time (and paper) doing pencil studies of hands (mostly my own because it was a willing model).

 

Ever thought about your character’s hands? Studying them, I mean. Hmm. You can tell a lot about a person simply by seeing her hands.Taking a good long look may reveal some intimate info that will transform and three-dimensionalize (a word?) your character for you and your readers.

Start with your main character, but don’t stop there. If a character has a name, she has a past, feelings and preferences, and you need to know them. Otherwise, what you got ’em in your story for?

Now, relax and let your imagination drive. Don’t censor. Hold that hand and see what happens.

  • Does your character want you to see his/her hands? Does he sit on them after you ask or present them with pride?
  • How do they feel? Warm, cool, rough, calloused, soft, sweaty, puffy, jittery?
  • What shade are the hands?
  • Is the skin mottled? Freckled? Moley?
  • Are the fingers pudgy or long? Knuckles wide or narrow?
  • Are the thumbs looped into holes made in the cuffs of the sleeves?
  • Do you see bruises, cuts, burn marks or scars?
  • Is the hand covered in a lacy glove or a catcher’s mitt?
  • Is it stained with juice, paint, ink or some unidentifiable funk?
  • Is there orange Cheetos dust on the fingertips?
  • Are there tobacco stains between the index and middle finger?
  • How’s the wrist look?
  • Are you holding your character’s dominant hand? Or is your character ambidextrous?
  • What about a stamp on the back of the hand? Where did your character go?
  • Do you see Band-Aids? Are they fresh or dirty? Standard variety or Hello Kitty brand?
  • Do you see any embellishments–tattoo on the wrist or perhaps a phone number scribbled on the palm?
  • What about a ring (or many rings) or perhaps a line around a finger where a ring used to be? Are these big rings intended to impress or intimidate? Are they dainty? Cheap? Pricey?
  • What about the finger nails–are they minced to the quick, polished in a demure pink or are they covered in cheap press-on nails with rhinestones? Is there grime under them or are they filed and clean?
  • Is one hand in a cast? What happened?
  • Are all the fingers there or is one missing? What’s the story there?

Well, my little animal cracker, how was that? Was something new revealed or something suspected confirmed? Do you feel closer to your character or perhaps closer to mapping your plot? Would you try this again with your other character? Thank you for giving this handy exercise a try.

High five!

hand-2-2

Sketch from first drawing class

I don’t know where my road is going, but I know that I walk better when I hold your hand. ~ Alfred de Musset