Writing Exercises while away on vacation
Blogging here at aboutwritingandpublishing will be sparse over the next week, while I take a much needed vacation break. I wrote in another blog (journalsandpapers.com) about travel journals and writing and suggested a difficult exercise.
Writers have to think and be able to describe senses to set up a scene effectively. When I was on a recent vacation to Mexico, while at the beach I pulled out a notebook, closed my eyes and tried to come up with a list of words or phrases that matched what I was feeling with my senses. It was actually quite difficult to do. I wanted to grab a thesaurus. I had to take into account what I was hearing and all that I was hearing, like the waves coming in, the birds, beach play noises and sounds of the wind and trees. Then I had to listen to what I was feeling. The tickle of the breeze on my skin, the warmth of the sun, the taste of the salt in the air, the feel of the chair I was sitting in.
This is a great writing exercise and can be done anywhere. Try a restaurant sometime – that one really touches all of the senses. Or a playground. Try to describe pool noises and children squealing. What does riding on a bus sound like? Or sitting in a convertible waiting for a train to pass.
You never know when you will be writing about one of these scenes and all of a sudden you have to conjure up some words. If it’s the dead of winter and you are wring about a beach setting, you may find the words a little hard to come by. Now if you had a notebook of some beach experiences written down, you would be in a much better writing place.
Tags: researching scenes and setting, writing exercises, writing scenes
