Craft of Writing

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Craft of Writing

Donna Sundblad

Step One - Inside or Out
excerpt from Pumping Your Muse

This chapter provides the groundwork for the first snapshot of the world that will take shape in the pages of your journal and come to maturity in your manuscript. I've provided two choices; one takes place indoors and the other outside. Both challenge you to gather information and change your perspective.

A Place to Start

Inside: Reflection

For this step in the process, you will need a wall mirror and paper to take notes. It doesn't matter what room you choose for this exercise or even if it is in your home. Once you choose the mirror, have a seat. What do you see? I noted neutral beige wallpaper with a border decorated with buffalos and bears, a pine headboard, rumpled blankets, and the amber glow of a bedside lamp. If you haven’t guessed yet, the room I am describing is a bedroom. If I walked into this same room and added one of the elements listed below, my perspective changes.

Blood
Broken lamp on the floor
A journal or personal letter
Yesterday's newspaper
A prescription bottle or illegal substance
Reflection of emergency vehicle lights

Choose one or more of the elements above and develop the world reflected from the other side of the mirror. Be creative. For example, a broken lamp can reflect a struggle or a wild house party. It's up to you. After you add one of these elements to your reflected world, write a short scene.

Outside: One-Inch Tall

The universe is mysterious and complex. The physical plane on which we move has a natural hierarchy. We can move as far out as the cosmos or zero in on an anthill. When we move horizontally or vertically, we change the plane on which our senses take in information. I remember the first time I went snorkeling. It amazed me that another "universe" existed below the aqua marine surface. Hermit crabs crawled along the sandy bottom sporting their confiscated shells, schools of sardine-size fish reflected sunlight as they turned in unison and disappeared into the cloudy surf, and I learned to spot sand dollars half hidden in the sand. While standing on the beach, I didn't see or learn any of these things. I had to take specific steps to see the world that existed just beyond the gentle waves fingering the shoreline.

It is the same for the worlds within you. Yes, I said worlds. Elements of worlds subsist within your muse. The following exercises are designed to draw a specific world into view. Part the waves of imagination and peek into the next realm. I suggest you go for a walk because the real world outside breeds creation of tangible worlds.

When I went for my walk, tall grass swayed gently in the summer breeze along the side of the road. I passed by a gully designed to collect rainwater, which led to a culvert. A glimpse of a canal beyond the tall reeds crowding the far end of the ditch told me the water collected by the drainage system would be deposited into the canal. In my world-creating exercise mode, I thought about what kind of world a drainage ditch would present if I were an inch tall? The opening at the opposite end of the gully was half-hidden by tall grass; my imagination suddenly transformed it into the maw of a cavern. I envisioned dripping stalagmite and the flutter of batwings. This exercise put details in place that previously I would normally labor to imagine. This world was created for me; I just had to open my eyes to see it.

Inside or Outside

Feel free to consider other ideas while on your walk. Use homes and other structures. Write about the new home down the street or the old warehouse one block over from where you work. Choose something real; a place you can return to if you want to collect more details. Ideas that stem from buildings can lead your muse through the door or creeping along an alley wall outside. For now, describe the structure to get basic details in place.

Exercise 2A: Attention to Detail - Your Surroundings
Go for a walk, sit on your front steps, or visit a forest preserve, beach, the mountains or some place that puts you in touch with nature. Quiet your mind for at least ten minutes. Whatever you do, get away from the computer, TV or any other conduit that robs you of your creative thinking time. Take in your surroundings. What do you see? People struggle to develop believable worlds while writing because they don't take time to enjoy the world in which they live. In today's hurry-scurry society, we rush from point A to point B while we multi-task, taking little notice of our surroundings.

After ten minutes write at least one paragraph about the world you see. I don’t care if you write about your backyard, mountains, or the drainage ditch down the street. Just write. This exercise forces you to develop world-building vocabulary while you acquire sensitivity to what is happening around you. Both capabilities strengthen the more you use them, like building muscle with repetitive exercises. Remember, we write what we know. Hone the ability to write what you see and it will be reflected in your writing.

Exercise 2B: For this Chapter - Change of Perspective
Read what you wrote in your journal yesterday. If you chose to write about a nearby structure, it’s time to look at it from another point of view (POV). Change your perspective. It’s no longer the house down the street, or the warehouse a block away from work. The building is situated somewhere in your story. Something takes place that draws attention to it. If a body was found in that building, how did it get there? If two people met at this site, what would be the reason? Could it be something romantic or perhaps illegal? These prompts are ticklers. Let your imagination caress and mold ideas. Your protagonist may emerge from such circumstances. Do you find him crowded next to another person hiding in a closet? On the other hand, are they running down the street? If so, are they running toward or away from the structure? Use words that portray the snapshot.

If you chose to write about a natural setting, this exercise will still require a change of perspective. Imagine yourself (or a character) to be one-inch tall while traversing the ecological setting found within the pages of your journal. See how your world develops from this POV. Write one paragraph and open the door to the potential of new worlds.

Example: (This scene developed from my one-inch tall perspective in the drainage ditch.)
Trikel slipped along the slope, using the trees to steady his hurried pace. Something big crashed through the forest not far behind him. The threat moved silently through the woods, not a hoof beat or footfall to be heard, only the rush of splintering tree trunks warned him to run. Up ahead, he caught a glimpse of a cave, half hidden by vegetation. Hand over hand; he used thick rope-like vines to pull himself up the incline toward the haven. He could hide in there.

When you write your paragraph, don't get caught up on characters or names. I used Trikel because I thought of the way water trickles down the gully. I can keep it or change it. Right now, though, I'm concentrating on building a world. The drainage pipe became a cave. In my real world, I considered the possibility of a snake living in the thick vegetation around the culvert and included that monster in my new realm. I liked the silent threat idea.

Building a world in this way not only gives us terrain, but natural wildlife that evolves within the environment. This drainage ditch held the possibility for crickets, grasshoppers, toads, frogs, snakes, or rabbits. That’s what I know. Changing size alters perspective. These harmless creatures now present a threat because being one-inch tall changes the relationships within the environment. The menace that takes form fits because it developed naturally based on the real world. Without a believable world, the character and plot flounders (not that you can’t make it work, but it takes more time and creative energy). Even in the wildest worlds of fantasy and sci-fi, the worlds must make sense.

The same holds true when your world begins in a structure. You know if the building stands alone in the middle of five acres or if a nosy neighbor exists. Details such as sidewalks and shrubbery take root and the first inkling of a neighborhood is born. If you chose to write a scene based on the reflection in the mirror, your muse can see the surroundings. The logical possibilities of others in the same building can lead in various directions, but each one makes sense. You can build your world from here by stepping through the door or looking out the window.

About the Author
Author and freelance writer, Donna Sundblad, resides in Georgia with her husband, Rick. Her creative writing book, Pumping Your Muse, is available in paper or ebook format. Check her website for more information at www.theinkslinger.net. Donna also edits for and co-owns Team Spirit Critique and Editing, LLC.

Craft of Writing

Step One - Inside or Out excerpt from Pumping Your Muse

Step One - Inside or Out
excerpt from Pumping Your Muse