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Sparks

Karen Grunberg

Colorful Musings

This month we're delving into the world of the abstract. I happen to be a huge fan of colors. I believe they serve to brighten up your life and provide a feast for your eyes. So, I decided to have an exercise that helps us put color into our writing.

As always, the first rule is to get comfortable. Situate yourself in your favorite spot and convince yourself that for the next hour, you will think of nothing besides this exercise. Forget about your overflowing to-do list, turn off the phones, stop checking your email, just relax and let yourself be sucked into the world of creation.

Close your eyes and think of a color. Write this color down. It could be your favorite color, a color you hate, an unusual color; it doesn't make any difference. Once you've picked your color, it's time to make a list. (Can you tell I am a fan of lists?)

Here is my color: Red

Make a list of anything that comes to your mind when you hear the name of this color - from the most specific to the most abstract. Since this is brainstorming, you are not allowed to cross out anything, no matter how stupid or inappropriate it looks.

Here is my list:

• apple
• lips
• sunset
• books
• leaves
• autumn
• stripes
• lollipop
• eyes
• tired
• angry
• embarrassed
• nail polish
• lipstick
• hot
• fire
• hair
• shoes
• "lady in red"
• evening dress
• power
• Ferrari

That's all I could come up with in five minutes. You can give yourself five minutes or thirty minutes, depending on your free time. I think fifteen minutes is a good number.

Some of the items in my list may sound completely unrelated to red, but the idea is to write anything that comes to my mind. For example, in my list, I visualized red eyes, which then made me think of a tired person. Feel free to go wild with your list.

As you can see, some items in the list are visually red - like apple or fire, while the others are emotions we associate with red - such as angry or embarrassed. Go through your list and next to each item, mark a V or A to indicate whether it's a visual usage of the color or an abstract one.

Now it's time to use our words. Staying with the color you picked, try to write an entire paragraph where your color dominates.

Here's my try.

I could see the fire in his eyes. In an effort to calm him, I tried to change the subject.
"Look! I haven't seen such a beautiful sunset in months."
It didn't work. Crimson overtook the sky, spilling through the tall trees. All I could think of was how he would never forgive me.
"I know I messed up," I said, between tears, "but you must give me another chance." Surprise covered his face and his lips formed a thin line.
"I don't have to give you anything," he screamed. "You betrayed me and you don't deserve any chances."
His slap stung less than his words.

Ok, it's not going to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, but I hope that you get the gist of what I attempted to convey. I used the sunset, fire, anger, crimson, and lips.

After you're done writing your paragraphs, you can go back and repeat this exercise for different colors. You can also try making list to represent synonyms as well as shades of that color, so that you don't overuse the same word.

Now it's time to take a look at your writings and see if you can spot any colorful patterns. Read some of your old stories, and each time you see a word that conjures up images of a color, mark it. See how much attention you've paid to using color in your writing.

From now on, when you write, integrate colors into your writing, either explicitly or in a subtle way. Not only will it help you write more details but it will also liven things up!

As always, make sure to have fun, fun, fun!!

Karenika

Reader's Suggestions:

This month's suggestion comes from Rie Sheridan: (excerpted directly from her email)

"One of my favorite exercises if I am stuck is to put on a piece of instrumental music (Holst's THE PLANETS is a particular favorite) and let the inspirations come--what images are created in the mind's eye? What characters do you see? What activities are they engaged in? The type of music that you use depends on the type of story you are writing of course. The New Age category seems to lend itself to fantasy and science fiction particularly well in my opinion."

Thanks a lot for the great sparkle, Rie!

If you have any sparkling ideas, mail me at karenika@wvu.org so I can share it with our readers.