WRITING EXERCISES
Method Writing
Even if your draft is not told from the subject’s point of view, letting them speak through you as part of your free writing or early drafting process can help you delve into their interior life. It can also help you find and hone their distinct voice among the polyphony of your cast.
The Writer’s Toolkit
An exercise exploring the works that have inspired you, or changed what you thought you wanted in your writing.
On Tension
Your current writing project may not be a Hitchcockian thriller, but creating tension ensures your reader stays with you to the final scene.
A Series of Short Assignments
Any writing project is really a series of short assignments.
A Self-Editing Exercise
Every writer is a creature of habit. This simple self-editing tool will help you hunt down your linguistic habits.
Field Guides
Observe how each person navigates the space. Notice, as Lamott suggests, if they wander “the aisles of [their] supermarkets with glints of madness in their eyes.”
Little Qualifiers
“Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust. Readers want a writer who believes in himself and in what he is saying. Don't diminish that belief. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.”
‘Tis the season to resolve.
Useful resolutions: “Don’t get lonesome. Stay glad. Keep hoping machine running. Dream good.”
On Writing Prompts
Prompts can be great, but they can also be a very fun writing distraction.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
-
“Ladette Randoph is a dream editor: generous, straightforward, and insightful. Always precise and never prescriptive, she asks the kinds of questions that provoke and inspire a writer to do her best and clearest thinking on the page.”
Dinah Lenney, Author, Bigger than Life, Coffee, and The Object Parade
-
“Working with Heather was a great personal and professional experience. I appreciated her sensitive observations about the work, and during the editing process I was impressed with how she managed the material and with the way in which the presentation of the material evolved. Her comments and suggestions were always helpful, and although I usually want to do everything myself, I came to trust her vision for the book. And I am glad I did.
Enrique Martinez Celaya, Artist and Author, On Art and Mindfulness, and Enrique Martínez Celaya: Collected Writings and Interviews
-
"Throughout the process Laura Furman was a solid thought partner who brought well-informed opinions to the conversation while respecting the integrity of the novel’s unique concept and ambitions. Her input was well worth the investment."
Edward Hamlin, Author, Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories