+ 3 Tips to Get You Started in Writing Stories as a Way to Practice Your Writing Skills
Stories swirl around us all, constantly, as surely as the air we breathe and the water we drink.
I hear it far too often: "There are no more stories to tell."
I disagree strongly. It reminds me of saying "There are no more trees to sit under."
Stories swirl around you all the time.
Today in the most unlikely place - the line waiting for a bank teller on a Saturday morning - I was acutely aware of stories in the both the faces and the feet of people waiting alongside me. Right in front of me, I saw a story in the back of the gentleman who had a coffee can in his hands.
He hugged it to his chest most of the time.
I wondered "What is in that can?" and "What brings him to the bank with his can
What stories do you see?
hugged to his chest?" and "Who else knows he is here?"
Moments like these provide bountiful fodder for the creative among us. They are like our muse dialing us in, seeing if we are awake and alive enough to take note and then checking to see if we are inspired enough to actually create something from the experience.
I could leap to what seem to me to be obvious conclusions, but I prefer to think of the surprising.
As a writer, I like to think of a variety of points of view.
When I get home from the bank, I jot some notes. "What does the Folger's can say to me about him?" followed by "What are some of the interactions I have had in my life because of coffee - either a coffee can or just a cup of coffee with a stranger?"
"What might he be thinking about the Folgers coffee can as he waits in the line? Why does he hug it to his chest?"
I also wrote related yet not related notes:
Consider being stuck and going "too slowly" and making meaning where none necessarily belongs.
Believe it or not, I have another idea for an essay I am choosing to save for another piece of writing. This morning, I stood on a long line waiting. Other people behind me, beside me and in front of me were complaining about the situation.
The muse was waiting for them to play, just like she is waiting for you all the time, especially in those unexpected places like lines or doctor's offices or while sitting at your local coffee shop.
Stories swirl around you all the time. All you have to do is scoop one of them up and begin to create.
3 Tips to Get You Started in Writing Stories as a Way to Practice Your Writing Skills
1. Look around every day and "scoop up" a story you randomly see. Don't concern yourself with how that particular story relates to your life or a particular piece you are writing, just become a story magnet.
2. Take a few photos. Ask yourself questions about what might be happening in the stories you see. You can be creative, you can be ridiculous, you can practice being a strict photojournalist. The only rule - if you could call it that - is to stretch your story telling and story writing skills.
3. Zoom in on any part of the scene. I focused in these photos on the Folger's coffee can. Write three to five sentences you associate with what you want to focus on in your story. You might simply want to sharpen your skills in description and have no desire to write a story. This is an excellent idea.
Dare: Try this technique for the next three days. There are benefits to this practice you will discover that will come delightful surprises. I can't wait to read that part of your story!
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at a First Friday soon, when it is warmer than it was in December!, in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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