I have been sitting on this file for a while with life running circles around me. I want to share some inspiring words for helping create some more creative young writers thanks to an amazing author – Paul Maguire. We reviewed his book Kid in Chief HERE.
Exercises for Your Aspiring Author
by Paul Maguire
A successful creative writer is usually a person who has been blessed with an expansive yet directed imagination. He or she produces the best, most entertaining work when that imagination is allowed to push boundaries and make the unlikely seem commonplace. Where would we be today if J.K. Rowling grew up suppressing her imagination? We would never have lived the experience of Hogwarts, Quidditch, or the Tri-Wizard Tournament.
A successful creative writer needs to have an easy command of language. You know this if you’ve ever read a poorly edited novel… blatant grammar and spelling errors will often distract the reader to the great disadvantage of narrative flow.
Everybody knows that proper speech and writing comes with good schooling, be it in the classroom, at a writing workshop, or at home. These things come with an adherence, at first conscious and later effortless, to countless rules of the written word. But can imagination likewise be built up? The answer, without question, is a resounding “yes”!
As of 1996, the farthest distance I had ever run in one day was about two miles. In 1998, I completed the New York City Marathon. In between those two points in my life, as you might guess, I spent a great deal of time in training. My first runs were for about two or three miles each, and they all ended with me feeling like I should be looking for an ambulance. As time went by, I gradually lengthened my courses and (this is important) adjusted my technique. In the month before the Marathon, my twenty-mile practices seemed easy. When race day arrived, I was free to enjoy the experience without being concerned that I would collapse from exhaustion. The point of all this is… and you’ve probably heard this one, so say it with me… the brain is like a muscle. If it is exercised regularly, it will yield some impressive results. I would like to add to that comparison and assert that the imagination, although intangible, is also like a muscle because it benefits from regular exercise as well.
Putting this into practice is really quite simple. If you are trying to encourage a student to explore creative writing or if you are trying to hone your own skills in that area, you need to employ some exercises that are in and of themselves imaginative. I will share two examples.
The first exercise is in fleshing out a newspaper story. Pick an interesting story from the news, and make note of the details. Journalists are charged with the task of answering the questions who, what, where, and when (and often how and why as well). But they rarely provide deep character development or back stories. In February, 2013, a homeless man in Kansas City, Missouri named Billy Ray Harris found an unexpected item in his cup. A woman named Sarah Darling had intended to give the man some loose change, but she accidentally gave him her expensive engagement ring. When she sought him out, he informed her that he had kept the ring safe for her, and that he was happy she returned for it. Ms. Darling and her husband were so thrilled with the homeless man’s honesty, they set up an internet charitable fund for Mr. Harris. As of this writing, the fund has collected more than $180,000.
This is a heartwarming story, to be sure. It reaffirms one’s faith in human nature. It makes you feel good that a man so down on his luck chose to act ethically rather than pocket the easy money for much-needed food and clothing. It makes you feel even better that the man’s good character has been rewarded to a staggering degree. And all along, the tale might stir one’s thoughts that this would make a great movie or novel.
The creative writing exercise here is to take the principals in the news story (Billy Ray and the Darling family), and add as much color as possible. Make up the details that the news reporter didn’t supply. Where was Sarah going? What was on her mind that led her to make such a serious blunder? How did her husband react initially? What led Billy Ray to be homeless? What will he do with the money? Maybe he will learn that the Darlings are having money problems, and he winds up helping them out. Maybe he starts a business with the new-found wealth and becomes a multi-millionaire. OR… Maybe the whole thing was a hoax and all of the players get into a heap of trouble (not my favorite outcome, but we’re imagining here!). The point is, an exercise like this is fun to do, and it pushes one to give the “creativity muscles” a good workout.
The next exercise involves the use of characters from other works of fiction. Write the names of twenty interesting characters from books, movies, and television (good guys and bad guys), and put those names into a hat. Then in a different hat, deposit notes about various situations of conflict. Draw two names from the character hat and one situation from the other hat, and suddenly you have a basic outline for a very imaginative scene.
The things that result from this exercise usually display sheer imagination, and they are often quite funny. Professor Snape wants to go to the movies, but Maxwell Smart wants to go to the zoo. What kind of argument would follow? Batman can’t find his car keys, and he accuses Phineas and Ferb of hiding them. How will they defend themselves? The combinations are nearly limitless. If an aspiring author regularly does this exercise, character development and description of conflict will soon come quite naturally.
There are, of course, many, many more such exercises that will stimulate the creativity of a writer at any level. What are they? Why don’t you try to invent a few? Just… use your imagination!
PAUL MAGUIRE is the author of Professor Atlas and the Summoning Dagger, Kid in Chief, and the newly released Professor Atlas and the Jewel of Enlightenment.