Sometimes life gets complicated and often it’s hard to feel
very creative, but your reactions of sadness, frustration, worry and anger are
terrific fodder for your writing.
Think of all the things that happened in the past 30 days,
all the things that happened personally to you, in your community and even in
the world. How many times did you feel elated, frustrated, angry or sad? How
did you react?
Some therapists believe that writing or discussing the things
that weigh heavily on your mind will also help you work your way through your
problems. Think about it, writing your deepest feelings, how you are feeling
and the way you view the world around you through that haze of anger or sadness
will also give you snippets of real life. These are snippets that you can
incorporate into your writing.
Sit down while you are feeling your emotions and write out
what you are feeling and why. Be sure to write what your emotion is leading to,
what action(s) do you feel like doing because you are “feeling” (so mad,
bereft, scared…). And then file these short pieces away… for a little while. The
next time you are creating a character and wanting to show the depth of his/her
emotion, re-read one of the snippets of life you wrote and assign those
feelings to your character.
Don’t just say that “Mr. Doe” is angry, show it. Your readers
will appreciate the raw and honest emotions you are putting into your story.
Even though you are keeping a diary of sorts you don’t have to expose YOU to
the world, but you can lend your story some of the raw and brutal emotions and
captivate your audience.
Writing
Exercise: What
did YOU do the last time you were really, really angry? Describe what YOU did
as if you were reporting it over the radio.
Writing
Prompt: Make
a list of 10 actions that would show an emotion; do this for Anger, Grief,
Complete Happiness, Loss, and Fear.
Challenge
Assignment: Write
a short piece about something you did our of anger and now regret. You can add
in how that action may have changed your life.
