By Jason Borrego

Brain Exercises to Jumpstart Your Writing

 Authors/writers are always looking for fresh ideas to display in our work. The same old routine is not always the best way to get the creative juices flowing. We must look for inspiration in a variety of locations. By challenge yourself and your writing you will be wearing the curve of a menacing smile as you punch in the final period on your piece of work. Writing takes talent, but even more – it takes mastering the craft. The two most important piece to this puzzle is writing and reading every day. Writing like all things take lots of practice. Think of the number of reps a football player takes before he/she breaks into the game, or the number of hours a band spends in a gloomy garage, before they are ready for a performance. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming your first draft will be dazzling. If you don’t have the right positive mindset you will never get past the first page.

Writing exercises come in all shapes and sizes. They give you something else to focus on so you don’t trip over this basics or that complicated fight scene. A writer must sort through the miles and miles of ideas and properly display them on the page. Sometimes as writers we depend too much on the right side of our brain – and completely forget about the left side. Here are some fun writing aerobics to warm up your right brain and satisfy your left brain’s desire for a workout.

Timed Writing Sessions:

Find a stop watch and set it to fifteen minutes. It doesn’t matter what you write—only the fact that you keep writing. You can write about rich characters or what you see when you close your eyes. The trick is to keep your fingers moving on the keys or your pencil scratching on the paper. Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation, or any form of editing. Simply write at full speed.

Now read it. You might end up with a great sentence or idea for your novel, or you might have nothing you want to save, but it doesn’t matter. The point was to warm you up. Maybe you will use it down the road on a different project the possibilities are limitless.

Writing Journals:

Write in a journal or diary each day before starting to work on your novel. It doesn’t matter if you write a list of what happened the day before or your innermost fantasies or creative adventure.

Vocalization:

You can literally talk aloud to yourself, or you can dialogue with yourself or your characters on paper. Talk to your novel. Ask where it hurts. Don’t be surprised when it starts answering back. Play truth or dare with your hero. Play twenty questions with your villain. Think like a detective in trying to develop your story. Who, What, When, Where, and WHY…

Books on Tape:

You can turn your commute to the office into a grown-up story time. Browse your public library. Look for research materials, novels in your genre, and writers who inspire you. This is a great way to sneak in research—only it doesn’t feel like work.

Brain Exercises to Jumpstart Your Writing

Brain Exercises to Jumpstart Your Writing

Jason borrego