Here’s a writing exercise I got from Berklee School of Music songwriting professor Pat Pattison.  It is an amazing tool to hone your descriptive skills and focus your creative mind.  Ideally, you would do it every day at the same time of day.  Try it for a week.

For me, creating a regular daily writing practice is less about discipline and more about building a kind of bus stop for the muse.  This is about making yourself available for natural momentum.  

Your only job is to show up and set an alarm for 10 minutes.  Your pen and paper is your bus fare.  In that wild, sometimes foreign country of your mind, the bus might be on an erratic schedule.  But to paraphrase the poet William Stafford: if you show up everyday at the same time, eventually “it” will start showing up to meet you.

“There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
-Ernest Hemingway

Get comfy.  Set your alarm.  Just keep the pen moving.  Most of us have practiced hesitation, second guessing and editing as we go.  You are now breaking this habit.  At some point during your 10 minutes, make sure to hit upon ALL 5 senses.  Write them out: taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight.  If you cover all of them in one short piece, your descriptive skills really start to catch fire.  Use them as a gateway to bring yourself and the reader deeper into your experience or perhaps it could work as a tool to inspire your next idea.

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”
-Natalie Goldberg

If you’re having trouble getting started, just kick start your piece with: “I remember when…” or “I hate it when…” or “I love you when you…”.  I got this from Natalie Goldberg and it works really well.  I personally like to start with something that leaves the reader guessing (or even better yet, keeps YOU guessing).   For example: “When he woke and heard that sound, he knew it was over.”  So perhaps you don’t even let the reader (or yourself) know until the end what the protagonist actually heard.  This will put the reins in the hand of the muse.  Let her lead you on a wild goose chase.

“The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise.”
-Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery

PS:::: Do NOT edit as you go.  Just write.  Bleed onto the page and clean it up later…(or not).

Have fun! 

Tags: creative writing, poetry exercise, songwriting exercise, songwriting tips, writing exercise, writing tips, wu wei