EXERCISES FROM THE WRITE TIME
By Robert Yehling and Terra Pressler
©2007 Robert L. Yehling and Terra Pressler
To be published by Koboca Publishing
All rights reserved. Any and all reproduction except for personal use is strictly prohibited


• To pre-order The Write Time

We present you a one-week sampler from The Write Time, the 2008 calendar book of exercises designed to stretch all of your writing and creating muscles—regardless of whether you’re an accomplished writer or an aspiring writer or student.

Let us see what you create! We’ll post them on wordjourneys.com, and credit you (and your email address or website). Email to info@wordjourneys.com

BODY AS LANDSCAPE
Writing about the erotic is both titillating and scary. Erotic means something different to everyone, but it really moves a piece of writing. Write about either your body or that of a loved one as a landscape, an ever-evolving, ever-changing geologic presence. Describe bodily parts as geologic features; let the words flow through the landscape. Whenever you come up with an anatomical description, replace it with a geologic term. Don't mince words.

CAPTURE THE FLASH POINT!
The next time you engage in an interaction that piques your emotions, capture your emotional flash point—whether you feel rage, euphoria, horror, joy, depression, ecstasy, disappointment or devastation. Write from this place. Mince no words. Use the punctuation of the emotion—exclamation points! Ellipses…Colons: Em dashes—to set dramatic pauses—. Feel the energy in your words. Unload your emotions onto paper.

CHASE YOUR IDEA ALL THE WAY
American statesman Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original destination.” Take an idea and write your way to its outer limit. What does the world look like from there? What does your world look like? What does it feel like in your heart? In your body? In your senses? Now, come back to the point where you began the exploration. Is it the same point? What has changed?

FINISH YOUR WRITING DAY HOT!
When your writing session nears its end, don’t sprint to a hasty finish. Rather, write until you arrive at a particularly juicy, poignant, steamy or dramatic moment, then stop. Carry the light, heat or gravity of that moment into the next day, when you sit down and resume. Finishing “hot” is one of the greatest antidotes for writer’s block and tired writing.

FIRE IN THE BELLY
What was the most emotional moment during the past 72 hours? What charged you, provoked you, heightened your awareness, saddened you, angered you, brought great happiness to you? Pinpoint that singular moment, dive back into the feelings and emotions, and write your way to clarity. Start from the tunnel-visioned viewpoint of the moment-in-progress, and capture everything that led you into the moment—and carried you out of it. See what happens. Often, our best stories and poems arise from these “fire in the belly” moments.

COFFEE SHOP TALK
Want to write better dialogue? Then write dialogue! Go into a public place such as a park, coffee shop, beach, playground, gym or campus. Subtly eavesdrop on conversations, listening very carefully to the words and phrases the parties use, and how they speak—speed, accent, emphasis. What do their words feel like? Study their hand and face gestures, the way they transport the word. Write down only the dialogue—no explanations, lead-ins or other qualifying statements. Only the spoken words. Practice this to develop your natural ear for dialogue—then work it into a story, play or essay.

DEEP CLUSTERING
Think of the core of your story or essay. Write three to five words in the center of a piece of paper. Draw a circle around it. What are the facts, experiences or images that support this core experience? Write those out around the center; draw circles around them. Now, take one of the circles and write 100 to150 words about it—what it evokes in you, what it represents. GO DEEP. When finished, go back to the circles and see if you missed something; draw more circles. Take another circle and write 100 to 150 words about it. Repeat this process five to eight times.

Check out Robert Yehling’s other writing books:
Writes of Life: Using Personal Experiences in Everything You Write (www.kobocapublishing.com)

Write Deep, Heal Deep (to be published in Winter 2007)