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I call the reader's writer, clearly expressed and easy
to read. (Howell)
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Kick-Starting Your
Imagination
by Gary Crucefix
(Article adapted from
Creative Editing by Mary Mackie)
In more than twenty years as a professional
writer, Mary Mackie has had over sixty titles published in the UK and USA, and
her books have been translated into many languages. Mary has been running
creative writing classes for many years.
One of my favourite exercises of hers is
'Kick-starting your imagination'. This is an excellent exercise to try if you
are stuck for ideas or experience the formidable 'writers block' - the lack of
planning and preparation usually causing the latter.
Using as much imagination as you can, write down
nine elements as follows:
1. A Mood: happy, sad, angry, revengeful, lonely
....
2. A Protagonist: main character; the being who
is feeling your chosen mood - the man, woman or child; earthling or alien; could
even be an animal, or a mechanical object such as a car . . .
3. A Verb: decide on a verb of movement. How is
your protagonist moving? Walking, running, gliding, sailing, galloping ...
4. An Adverb: to describe 'how' the character is
doing whatever he's doing, e.g. walking 'slowly'; riding 'uncomfortably';
waltzing 'energetically' ...
5. An Era: a time in which to set your piece -
past, present or future.
6. A setting: the place where your story starts.
Could be a forest, a town, a distant planet, a beach, a farm, a railway station.
You choose.
7. An Object: anything at all - a ball, a
firework, a flower ....
8. An Adjective: to describe the object - a 'red'
ball; a 'dud' firework; a 'fading' flower.
9. A Name: your protagonist.
Finally, use these elements to construct a
sentence, beginning 'As'.
For example, I came up with 1) sad, 2) male
Cybercop, 3) walking, 4) slowly, 5) the present day (Christmas 1998), 6)
Cyberspace on the bandwidth-highway, 7) body, 8) dead. Let's call this man 9)
Rayko9.
This sentence would read: As Cybercop Rayko9
walked slowly through Cyberspace, the sight of the dead body on the bandwidth-
highway made him sad on this festive occasion.
If you liked the exercise 'Kick-starting your
imagination' by Mary Mackie, you will be glad to know it is featured in her book
Creative Editing.
[Gary Crucefix is founding editor of 'Fiction
House' Email: editor@fictionhouse.com WWW: www.fictionhouse.com Fiction House is
a guide to writing and getting published, designed to put you in touch with
what's new and exciting in Fiction throughout the Internet. Every month we
guarantee to supply you with more proven, practical and profitable leads than
you'll know what to do with.]
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