Play and pretend your way to writing ideas

My little niece loves to sit with a grown-up book spread across her lap, reading a story out loud — except she can’t read yet. She’s making it all up. She’s pretending.

During play, she invents new words. Recently, we were playing with some toys, and I asked one of their names. Without missing a beat, she made up the name Hoken. Hoken sounds to me like a great name for a character in a science fiction or fantasy story.

Play and pretend can lead to some innovative writing ideas, whether you’re looking for a simple concept for starting a new writing project or trying to break through a block in a project that you’re already working on.

The Quest for Concepts

Through play and pretend, children learn about themselves and their environment. You’d think that with all that practice, adults would have even better imaginations than children, but that’s not the case. Kids will engage their imaginations with hardly any effort. They don’t stop to think or reason, they just react intuitively.

The first time I asked my niece who put the moon in the sky, she said, “You did.” And when I asked my nephew the same question, his response was “Peter Pan.” Sometimes, it’s mommy or daddy who put the moon the sky. Sometimes, it’s Batman. Kids aren’t confined by rules, science, or belief systems. They are delightfully visceral.

When I’m playing with my niece and nephew, I get tons of writing ideas: a story about someone who put the moon in the sky, maybe a superhero named Hoken who can fly.

If we grown-ups could shake off the realities we’ve all come to accept about the world, and if we could learn to play freely, without rules or limitations, then we could unearth an endless fountain of ideas and inspiration.

Breakthrough Writing Ideas

I recently got stuck in a story that I was working on. The characters were in the middle of a conflict and I had to find a way for them to get out of it. There were plenty of options, but I wasn’t sure which one they would choose. I tried to think through it, but I just thought myself in circles. I tried writing a list of possibilities, but that didn’t help me make a choice.

Then I decided to do a little pretending. It wouldn’t be interesting to show the characters working out a plan for overcoming their conflict in the narrative, but I could certainly write a dialogue scene between them, then file it away and write the action scene. I sat there and played out a conversation between two characters. It was almost as if I was performing an impromptu scene. It was a little awkward at first, but the conversation moved along. The characters worked out a plan and I saw the path they would take.

I was basically playing and pretending. Play-acting in a little one-person scene and pretending that I was my characters. And after struggling for several days to work out a problem, I got to a solution in just a few minutes.

I think that’s pretty amazing.

Play and Pretend: Exercise Your Imagination and Act it Out

Those of us who are on a perpetual quest for writing ideas could benefit from a little playing and pretending. You might feel silly at first, but if you relax and trust your imagination, you might end up with some incredible ideas for a writing project.

• Become one of your characters: get dressed up like your character and then go to a place where nobody knows you, in the next town or different part of the city. Act like your character, do what what your character would do. You can even do this around the house.
• Get a recording device and act out the dialogue between your characters: You can do this with a piece of dialogue you’ve already written to see how it sounds. If you use a video recorder and make an effort to get into character, you can also find out how your characters move, which gestures and body language they use.
• Use action figures to work out a scene in your story: Don’t have any? Head to a junk store. Any toys will do. Set up the scene with items from around your house and play out their dialogue and actions. Capture it on video or take notes as you work out your scene.

Playing and pretending is not for everyone. Kids do it naturally, but for grown-ups, it can be awkward and uncomfortable. On the other hand, maybe one of your writer friends or a child in your family would be willing to play along with you. You’ll never know unless you try.

Have you ever acted out a scene or used play and pretend to develop writing ideas? Do you think these techniques would work for you? What do you do when you’re stuck or need fresh ideas for new projects? Share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment.

Is it farther away or further away? Get the grammar rules here.

Believe it or not, farther and further each have distinctly different meanings although people tend to use them interchangeably.

And it’s no surprise, because these two words look alike, sound alike, and the difference in meaning is quite subtle. Plus, there are a few circumstances when they are legitimately interchangeable.

Let’s solve the farther, further mystery for once and for all.

Farther

The word farther deals with physical distance, which can be measured. One way to remember this is to recall the phrase “far away.”

Examples include:

• I jog a little farther each day.
• Do you live farther away from the city now?
• The library is farther from my house than the bookstore.

Notice that in all of these examples, the word farther refers to a distance that can be measured.

Further

Further also deals with distance, but not in the physical sense. We use further when we’re talking about figurative distance or a general advancement. Further also indicates a greater degree of something. Some terms that are synonymous with further include furthermore, moreover, and in addition.

Here are examples of how to use further correctly in a sentence:

• I’ll be delving further into the topic at a later date.
• I am further along in my holiday shopping than I was last year at this time.
• Further, I intend to finish my shopping before the end of the week.

Notice that in these sentences, further refers to distances that cannot be measured.

Farther / Further

In some cases, you can use either of these words, especially when the distinction isn’t clear. For example, if you are discussing a book, you could argue that there is physical distance between the pages that can be measured. However, since the distance between pages is not geographical in nature, usage of farther or further is ambiguous. When it’s not completely clear which word to use, you can choose either one, though it’s usually safer to go with further because it has less restriction that its cousin.

• I’m further along in the book than other members of my book club.
• The other members of my book club are further along in the book than I am.

If you have any tips for remembering how to correctly use the words farther and further, then please do tell!

Do you have  questions about grammar rules? Are there any word pairs that confound you? Leave a comment with your suggestions for grammar topics!

Writing Forward named one of the 101 best websites for writers.

Every spring, Writer’s Digest publishes a list of the 101 best websites for writers.

It’s a huge honor for any website to make the list. Writer’s Digest is a highly respected publication. Every issue is filled with useful writing resources that cover everything from the craft to the business of writing.

Best of all, the magazine encompasses writers at all levels. Whether you’re just starting out or are already a successful, published author, you’ll find plenty of wisdom inside.

One of the most difficult chores for writers is sifting through the countless writing-related websites available in search of the gems that prove to be a valuable use of your time. That’s why, for more than a decade, we’ve been busy scouring the web for you, rummaging through every online resource imaginable to simplify your search and bring you the best of the best – Writer’s Digest May/June 2012 issue.

The list is jam-packed with websites that offer insight on every aspect of writing.

Writing Forward first made the list in 2009, and I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve done it again, selected as one of the best “from this year’s record-setting 4,350 nominations.” Wow!

Writing Forward was placed in the writing-advice category, and it’s an incredible honor to be recommended by such a prestigious publication and listed among such excellent writing-related websites.

Welcome, Writer’s Digest Readers!

It’s privilege to welcome the readers of Writer’s Digest to Writing Forward. I hope you will all find value here as well as inspiration for your writing endeavors. I encourage you to participate by sharing your thoughts in the comments. You can also engage with our audience by submitting a guest post.

Thank You!

I want to give special thanks to Dani of Positively Present – for alerting me to the good news, for being a supportive friend of Writing Forward over the past few years, and for tons of great posts on staying positive.

Finally, to all of you writers who have subscribed, commented, emailed, shared our posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites: your participation, feedback, and suggestions keep me going. Without you, none of this would be possible. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Subscribe to Writer’s Digest

For less than $20, you can get eight issues of Writer’s Digest packed with insightful writing tips, advice for getting published, and even working as a freelance writer. This magazine covers everything from the writing process to marketing your work.

Some of the best-loved and most respected authors in the world have been featured in Writer’s Digest. Plus, the magazine accepts submissions and pays writers quite well for any work they accept for publication. Subscribe to Writer’s Digest today.

Now, let’s get back to writing.

Creative writing exercises: Moral dilemmas

Today’s creative writing exercise comes from 101 Creative Writing Exercises, my recently published book on the craft of writing.

This book guides writers through an adventure in writing. You’ll explore different forms and genres of writing, including freewriting, journaling, memoir, fiction, storytelling, poetry, and article or blog writing.

101 Creative Writing Exercises imparts proven writing techniques while providing writing practice and creative inspiration.

Today, I’d like to share an exercise from “Chapter Nine: Philosophy, Critical Thinking, and Problem Solving.” This creative writing exercise is titled “Moral Dilemmas.” Enjoy!

Moral Dilemmas (a Creative Writing Exercise)

We each have our own personal philosophies and values. Our values come from our families, religions, and cultures. They shape our morals and the decisions we make.

People are complex. What we believe is right or wrong changes when we find ourselves in real situations. Consider an honorable character who believes that one’s highest loyalty is to his or her family. Then, that character learns his brother is a serial killer. Does he turn him in? Testify against him? Stories get interesting when characters’ morals are put to the test.

We all know the knight in shining armor should risk his life to save the damsel in distress. If he doesn’t, then he loses his status as hero and becomes a coward. What if the knight is forced to make a more difficult decision? What if his true love and his beloved sister are both in distress but he only has time to save one of them?

The Exercise

For this exercise you will put a character’s morals to the test. Below, you’ll find a short list of moral dilemmas. Write a scene in which a character faces one of these moral dilemmas and has to make an agonizing decision.

• In the novel Sophie’s Choice, a young Polish mother and her two children are taken to a concentration camp. Upon arrival, she is forced to choose one child to live and one to die. If she doesn’t choose, they both die. Write a scene in which your character must choose between the lives of two loved ones.
• A single woman is close friends with the couple next door and has secret romantic feelings for the husband. She discovers that his wife is having an affair. Normally, this woman minds her own business but now she sees an opportunity to get closer to the man she wants.
• Some countries have strict laws regarding drug possession. A family has traveled to one such country for vacation. Upon arrival (or departure), one of the teenagers’ bags is sniffed out by a dog. The bag is opened, the drugs are identified, and the guard asks whose bag it is. Both parents are considering claiming ownership. Everyone in the family knows the sentence would be death.
• Your character gets to travel through time and face this classic moral dilemma: the character finds himself or herself holding a loaded gun, alone in a room, with a two-year-old baby Hitler.
• A plane crashes into the sea. Most of the passengers escape with inflatable lifeboats but they do not board them correctly. Your character ends up on a lifeboat that holds eight people but there are twelve people on it, and it’s sinking. Your character can either throw four people overboard and eight will survive or they will all die except your character, who will get rescued after the others drown.

During the scene, the character should agonize over the decision and reveal his or her reasons for the choice that he or she makes.

Tips: Search online for “lists of moral dilemmas” to get more scenarios.

Variations: If you don’t want to write a scene, challenge yourself to come up with a few moral dilemmas of your own.

Applications: These moral dilemmas also work as story prompts. They force you to put your characters in situations that are deeply distressing, thus creating conflict and tension.

How do you classify creative writing, or do you?

In creative writing, we talk about form and genre. Form is what we write: fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Genre is how we further classify each of these forms.

In fiction writing, there’s literary fiction and everything else.

In fact, literary fiction and all of the other genres are so at odds with each other that some writers simply say they are either literary fiction writers or genre writers. But what does that mean? Isn’t all fiction considered literary?

Yes and no.

What is Literary Fiction Anyway?

Let’s start with a simple definition of the word literary. Dictionary.com offers several, including the following:

1. pertaining to or of the nature of books and writings, especially those classed as literature: literary history.
2. pertaining to authorship: literary style.
3. versed in or acquainted with literature;  well-read.
4. engaged in or having the profession of literature  or writing: a literary man.
5. characterized by an excessive or affected display of learning; stilted; pedantic.

So we can use the word literary whenever we’re talking about writing or authorship in general, but it can also mean an excessive or affected display of learning. That’s a nice way of referring to snobbery.

Wikipedia offers a more specific definition of literary fiction: “fictional works that are claimed to hold literary merit.” The article goes on to say that “to be considered literary, a work usually must be ‘critically acclaimed’ and ‘serious’. In practice, works of literary fiction often are ‘complex, literate, multilayered novels that wrestle with universal dilemmas.’”

In other words, literary fiction has meaning and significance. I’ve also heard literary fiction defined as paying diligence to the craft of writing (or the art of stringing words together), exploring the human condition, and making bold commentary or criticism of society and culture.

Literary Fiction vs. Everything Else

I love literary fiction. Some of my favorite novels are The Grapes of Wrath, The Catcher in the Rye, and To Kill a Mockingbird, all of which would be classified as literary fiction. These are the kind of books that people study and analyze. They’re taught in schools. People read them for decades, even centuries, after they’re published. They win prestigious awards and are beloved and celebrated by bookworms and scholars alike.

As much as I love literary fiction, I’d have to say that my heart belongs to science fiction. From A Wrinkle in Time to The Hunger Games trilogy, the science fiction that I love best has done everything that literary fiction can do and then some.

In an interview with the Paris Review (which I highly recommend), the great Ray Bradbury said that “Science fiction is the fiction of ideas.” He also observed that science fiction often goes unrecognized for having literary merit and expressed his chagrin:

“As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible… The critics are generally wrong, or they’re fifteen, twenty years late. It’s a great shame. They miss out on a lot. Why the fiction of ideas should be so neglected is beyond me. I can’t explain it, except in terms of intellectual snobbery.”

Some of the other genres have it even worse. When was the last time a romance novel or horror story won critical acclaim or took home the highest literary honors? Science fiction and fantasy writers have enjoyed more critical and commercial success in recent years: J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyers, and Suzanne Collins have dominated book sales, and they are all genre writers. Ray Bradbury himself won several prestigious literary awards. Sometimes it seems like the literary academics (the literati) are coming around and slowly opening their minds to genre fiction.

Yet there is still a stigma attached to genre fiction in certain literary circles. Just recently, I heard someone say they refused to read The Hunger Games because it was about kids killing kids and was therefore garbage. Yet kids are killing kids all over the planet: in gangs, in wars, and in school shootings. It’s not garbage; it’s truth, and that is the purest form of literature.

Looking for Merit in Creative Writing

Of course there is an argument to made about the merit of a work of fiction. I’ve read plenty of literary and genre fiction that said absolutely nothing about humanity or the world in which we live. Some of the literary novels I’ve picked up recently have been so abstract, obtuse, and erudite that after a few chapters, I  gave up and moved on to the next book. And I’ve read plenty of genre fiction that is good fun but will never change the world.

Ultimately, each of us decides for ourselves which stories hold the most merit. We get to ask ourselves whether we want a gripping story or a story that makes us think, feel, and question. Do we read to be entertained and to escape or do we read to broaden our perspectives and enlighten ourselves?

Have you ever watched a film or read a book that you thought had a lot of artistic or intellectual merit only to learn that the critics shot it down? Have you ever experienced a story that you thought was just awful and learned that it won awards and prestige? What are your thoughts on the divide between literary fiction and genre fiction? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.