Discoveries thanks to writing exercises.

Well now I have a note book, I have given a few words to a few lines of a premise for an exercise, picked one at random and just gone with it free hand on here. Like taking a pencil to a plain sheet of paper with no idea how or what will appear on the page, and I love it. It may not be great quality per say but my gosh it is fun.  It makes a change from plotting and planning every scene or change or whatever and just writing that single moment.

But that’s the thing, the exercises are focused on a moment, and just exploring it, that is at least the aim. When I write and really write, I love knowing my journey and what will have to change the characters and test them.

That’s the thing though isn’t it? In our day to day lives we can be tested, multiple times a day. It boils down to how do we deal with a certain situation? The child on the train screaming because it wants a toy or something, when its so loud it is piercing through your skull and you are tired as it is. The coffee shop or the restaurant with rude service. The friend demanding reassurance and attention. The neighbours dog barking, their child blowing a stupid whistle from 8 am till 11 pm at night.

Writing exercises are a test, a no fail no success test. To change, grow and enhance skills, to try something new, a new genre, a specific moment, to confront something differently.

It has to be more about having fun and keeping yourself going than being meticulous about every tiny detail. To not worry if it is right or wrong. To not be so concerned by the outcome to just enjoy every second your fingers are tapping on the keyboard as you watch the letters appearing, forming words on a blank screen. To just enjoy and be at one with a single thought following it where ever it may take you.

While you may have a tiny goal in mind this is far from the be all and end all of the post that you are so engrossed in writing its just a natural stream of thoughts appearing on the page as they do in your head. The simple honesty.

That is why I am currently enjoying the exercises, they are just what they are, snippets of thoughts that occur, and what is wrong with that? Sometimes the best laid plans go awry and sometimes just taking each moment as it comes can produce something you had no idea that you could achieve. That is great and fun and different, you are exploring you, not your character (unless that is the exercise). You could explore any world you choose for a short period of time and not feel guilty about underdeveloped maybes.