This morning I discovered a site called Disgraceland, PRC. To quote from the page,

Once upon a time in a land called Xi Pu, just west of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in the People’s Republic of China, there was a tourist theme park… The World Landscape Park. As a business venture it failed, and today the park lies abandoned and decaying. Personally, I think it’s a lot more interesting this way than it could ever possibly have been when it was open.

The site is filled with a series of curious photographs of this unusual place, including such oddities as banyan trees built of concrete and rebar(!), and of course the requisite irreverent commentary. The place is largely deserted, a sort of cultural ghost town, and contains some fairly strange sights, such as the following:

The accompanying commentary reads,

The Tomb of the Unknown Exhibit. What was it? Where did it go, and how, and why? Is this proof of ancient astronauts visiting the Earth and taking home souvenirs?

Today, narrate your own walk-through of a derelict theme park meant to represent cultures from around the world. Here are some options you might take:

• If you have artistic talent, sketch the exhibits instead of just narrating them. Or, collect images from the internet and use them.
• Use either the real world or a fictional one. Pick a particular culture to view the world’s cultures through the eyes of.
• Be totally serious or completely tongue-in-cheek—your choice.

Word Nerd

Write the worst plot you can possibly think of. Toss every trite turn into it. Use every cliche. Bald plot devices should be de rigeur. Pack it as full of dreck as you possibly can; brainstorm the most abundantly-used or annoying plot and dialogue tricks you can remember from every source. Joyously abuse language, metaphor and imagery.

Is there any point to this other than having a ton of fun? Well, sure, although I think the fun is reason enough to do it!

First, this can help to remind you that it’s a lot easier to find bad writing when you’re deliberately looking for examples of it. When you’re looking at your own writing and hoping to find it good, you’re less likely to ferret out these things. Instead, you could try turning it into an entertaining exercise in pointing out the flaws, as though you were snarkily pointing out the flaws in a late-night movie you stumbled across on TV.

Second, this can also remind you that many overused plots and plot devices became thus because they worked. We overuse the things that work. We take advantage of plot devices and shortcuts because they make things easier on us. Knowing this helps us to find alternatives that serve the same purpose yet seem more elegant, fresh and original.

Third, it can be frustrating at times to not be able to use some of these cultural shorthands. Sometimes it helps to get them out of your system all at once.

And finally, if you write all this stuff down in a hurry, free-writing it, you’ll find out which pieces of trite material are lurking most readily in your brain. This is probably a good indication of what you’ll need to watch for in your own writing. Make note of those types of mistake that show up most often, and turn them into a checklist for your own proofreading purposes.

“Less blood in my coffee-stream, please!”
Mugs, shirts, and more for folks who
have more coffee than blood in their veins!

I think everyone at this point at least knows what Sun Tzu’s Art of War is, even if they haven’t read it. It elevates war to an art form and wisdom that can be applied to far more than the obvious battlefield. It lays out rules and guidelines that have been translated into the languages of business, creativity, and more.

Today, pick another field that interests you (and that you hopefully know something about—perhaps your own field of work); we’ll call it X for now. At the top of a sheet of paper, write “The Art of X.” Beneath that, use the rest of the sheet to brainstorm guidelines for this art form. Try to limit each one to a sentence or two, but don’t make an artificial attempt to be pithy or sound wise—keep it natural.

Dictionary.com has the following definition for irony:

1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature.
a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
…
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.

How do you feel about irony? Does it have a place in your writing, and if so, what is that place and why? Try looking through a piece of previous writing and underlining, highlighting, or putting a tick-mark next to places where you display an ironic tone. What are you using irony to achieve in these places?

“We is smarter
We has the internets”
Shirts, etc.

Technorati Tags: free-writing, journaling, prompts, write, writers, writing

Make a list of types of writing you can’t imagine doing, whether it’s memoir, how-to, romance, hard sci-fi, space opera, high fantasy, cyberpunk, magazine advice columns, or whatever. Pick one at random and brainstorm or start writing a short piece set in that genre or type of writing.

Today you’ll depict a feast prepared for a king, described (in the first or third person) from the point of view of someone preparing or attending the feast. Some possibilities are:

• The chef

• An assistant to the chef
• A serving lad or lass
• The king
• Other dignitary
• The king’s spouse or child
• A host throwing the feast for the king, or the host’s spouse or child

Of course, part of this is about describing the wondrous feast and all it entails–scents, flavors, textures. Part of it is about atmosphere–both the physical style of the setting and the emotional overtones and undertones (after all, any feast thrown for a king is going to be about something, probably something important, now isn’t it?). Part of it is about taking something generic and ubiquitous (”a feast fit for a king”) and turning it into something uniquely yours, with a flavor all its own.

Pope - Art Not Chance Dark T-Shirt

Technorati Tags: journaling, prompts, write, writers, writing

Today, take a finished piece of your own writing, preferably one you haven’t looked at in at least a month; pull out a short piece of it, no more than three pages long, preferably something discrete (if you have a chapter or other section that short, great; otherwise, break it arbitrarily somewhere). Take a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and, with as dispassionate an eye as possible, go through that piece of writing and note any elements of style you find. Do not use judgmental terms; this isn’t an analysis of quality (for instance, you might write “uses many adjectives and adverbs”, but don’t get tempted to write “uses too many adjectives and adverbs”).

You’re looking for anything that stands out as being an element of your personal writing style, those things you tend to do unconsciously that leave your verbal “fingerprint” on a piece. Are there any phrases you use repeatedly? Do you use many qualifying words (might, perhaps, a little, I think)? Do you use passive or active voice? Do you use predominantly one or two senses, or all of them? Do you tend to describe characters’ voices more than other aspects of them?

Anything that you think distinguishes your writing should appear in your list.

When you’re done, go back through that list and, on a separate piece of paper, write your impressions of those distinguishing features. Which ones do you like? Which ones do you not like? Which ones do you want to explore further, diminish, or change in some way? How can you go about exploring your own, unique voice while improving the quality of your writing? As you write later things, keep this self-analysis nearby. Now and then, do it again with a new, more recent piece of writing and compare the new list to the old one.

Character Dictation Tile Box

Technorati Tags: journaling, prompts, writing style, write, writers, writing

Today, pick any other exercise from this blog (or any other source you wish); you might even choose one you’ve done before. Write it without using any adjectives of any kind; simply pretend that adjectives don’t exist as a part of speech. If you’re doing a free-write this can be difficult; in this case, write what comes out and don’t worry too much about whether you’re including adjectives–go back through afterward and ruthlessly cross out each and every one you’ve used. Next, rewrite the whole thing so that you manage to say what you want to say despite not having any adjectives to work with–use strong verbs and nouns as much as possible.

Technorati Tags: journaling, prompts, write, writers, writing

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Good writers eventually develop a style all their own. As contradictory as this may seem, sometimes one of the best ways to firm up your style is to play around with different things. Take a piece of writing that you’re already working on (or have finished). Pick just one discrete self-contained section of this piece, no bigger than a couple of pages at most (but hopefully at least a couple of paragraphs). Now, re-write this piece several times using different styles of writing. If you normally write non-fiction in a didactic, educational tone, write it playfully. Write it somberly. Write it melodramatically. If you write fiction experiment with melodrama, florid purple prose, dry bare-bones description, action-packed excitement, etc.

Technorati Tags: books, prompts, write, writers, writing

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