Early Decisions with Long-Term Impact

When we write, we often have our eyes on what’s right in front of us: the current project or even the current chapter. What we often don’t realize is that decisions we make right now with one project might have a ripple effect long after that project is done.

For example, when I first started DIY MFA, I had the opportunity to submit my Masters thesis for a contest. I decided to opt-out of the contest altogether because I had too much on my plate getting DIY MFA off the ground. I can’t help wondering, however, whether that choice to put DIY MFA ahead of my fiction writing hasn’t had a long-term impact on my writing career, pushing me in one direction rather than another.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my work at DIY MFA, but I’d be lying if I said that it afforded me tons of time for writing. That early decision to put DIY MFA ahead of my fiction has had a ripple effect that has lasted until now and will probably continue well into the future.

The same is true with renovations. It boggles my mind that we haven’t even started on demolition yet and already I have had to make choices about what tiles go in the bathroom or what the lighting in the living room will look like. Of course, I understand that there are things that have to happen at the gut level of a living space (electrical and plumbing, for example) that have a ripple effect on everything else. Still, it blows my mind that I’m making choices now that I’ll have to live with for thirty or forty years. It’s a little bit terrifying, to be honest.

Similarly, at the draft level of a book project, we might make choices early on that will have an impact far beyond what we would expect. Suppose you decide to combine two characters into one, or you choose to have your character do one thing instead of another, those things can change the entire shape of a story. Think of the movie Sliding Doors, where the story explores what happens when one simple twist of fate—making a subway or missing it altogether—can have a huge impact on a story’s direction.

Realizing that small decisions can have a massive impact can sometimes leave us stuck in our tracks. We become so afraid of making the wrong choice that we don’t make any choice at all and our story flounders. In the words of Maimonides, “The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” This means that sooner or later we have to take the leap and make a choice or risk being stuck in decision-making limbo forever.

The thing to remember is that unlike home improvements, that messy first draft is supposed to be in flux. Sure, we might make the wrong choice at first, but we can always backtrack, something that’s not quite so easy to do when it comes to construction. Rather than think we are locked into our choices, we must think of that messy first draft as an experiment, where we try out different ideas to see what works. Then we can always course-correct down the road.

Understand Gut-Level Structure

I’m not a contractor, an architect, or an engineer. I don’t understand the inner workings of construction, but with this renovation I’ve had to develop a basic working knowledge of how things are put together. This means being able to look at construction drawings and make sense of what I see. It means trying to visualize what the finished product might look like, even if I don’t have an example in front of me. It also means having a basic understanding of the timeline and what steps need to come at what different points in the process.

The same is also true with writing. We may not need to be experts on the three-act structure and know all the story beats down to the scene-by-scene level, but we need to have a basic sense of what comes first and what comes later in the story trajectory. Whether we are plotters and like to plan every inch of a novel, or we are a pantsers and write by the seat of our pants, there are certain fundamental storytelling elements that we need to know. These are:

Act 1: The Status Quo. Whether your Act 1 is only a few chapters long or takes up half the novel, the purpose of it is to establish the status quo. The idea is to give the reader a sense for what “normal” is like for your main character, so that when you shake things up, the reader will notice the difference. This is important because it bakes the idea of transformation right into the heart of your story.

Pivot Point 1: The Point of No Return. At some point in the story, some external event will happen that will force the character’s hand and push them to make a choice. That choice often operates as a one-way door, where once the character makes it, they can’t go back to how things were. Think of Katniss Everdeen volunteering to take her sister’s place in the Hunger Games, or Dorothy’s house getting picked up by the tornado and plunked down in Oz. Once these events happen, the character can’t go back the way they came, they can only move forward.

Act 2: The Quest. This part of the story is where you deliver on the premise. If your story is about a girl magically plunked down in a strange new world called Oz, then this is where you have her exploring that world and making new friends. If the story is about a girl fighting in a tournament called The Hunger Games, then this is the part where the games play themselves out. Act 2 can be as short as a third of your book and as long as 80-90%. Really it’s all about what you need to happen in your story and how much space those plot events will require. Just keep in mind that the longer you make Act 2, the shorter Acts 1&3 will have to be. Also, remember that it can feel like a long slog to get through Act 2—there’s a reason some people call it the “muddle in the middle.”

Pivot Point 2: Dark Night of the Soul. At some point, the character must hit their lowest point. Things need to get bad before they can get better, and this is the darkest moment before things turn around. At this point, the character must legitimately feel that it’s okay for them to give up. (Of course they don’t give up, but it has to feel plausible.)

Act 3: The Ending. This is the point where things start ramping up and building momentum toward the climax. The Climax is the scene where the central conflict of the story comes to a head and gets decided one way or another. Either Katniss wins the Hunger Games, or she does not. Either Dorothy gets back home to Kansas or she does not. The climax is where we get a sense of resolution.

This is the basic foundation of how stories are built, but this structure should not be constraining. Think of it as a basic framework… like a floorplan. Different apartments might have the exact same floor plan, but it’s the design and detail that gives a space its own unique flair. Similarly, this basic structure can serve as a guide while still giving the writer ample space to build their story their way. Just as in home improvements it’s important to understand basic structural concepts, the same is true with writing as well. The three-act structure can serve as a framework for us to build something magical.

Hurry Up and Wait

I’ve talked about the publishing process in the past and the realities of what it takes to get a book out on the market. One thing that cannot be stressed enough is that the pace of publishing is weird. One minute you’re scrambling to make a deadline, the next you’re stuck waiting for months before you get any updates. We can sum up the pace of publishing with one phrase: “Hurry up and wait.”

The same is true with home improvements. It can feel like the construction is dragging on forever, and then the next minute you have to scramble to make some fast decisions or else you’ll hold up the whole process. Publishing and home improvements both require us to become phenomenal jugglers, being able to hop from one task to another without missing a beat.

When I first published the DIY MFA book, I got flustered with this feast or famine timeline. Why couldn’t things get planned more slowly and methodically? Why did I always have to drop everything and rush? Of course, what I didn’t realize is that just as I was having to hurry up and wait on my side, everyone else who was part of the process also had to do the same thing.

When you have a lot of different moving parts to a project and each section is done by a different person, everyone has to hurry up and wait or the whole process would grind to a halt. Yes, it means that sometimes you have to drop everything and focus on that one thing that demands your attention right now, but once your step is done and you hand things off to the next person and take a breath… at least until you have to hurry up and wait again.

Everything’s a Mess… Until It’s Not

When I was 14, my parents decided to renovate their living room, dining room, and kitchen all with us still living in the apartment. It was a fiasco. If you’ve ever gone through a major renovation while still living in the place, you know exactly what I’m talking about. We ate nothing but takeout for months on end. Everything was covered in dust. Plus, my parents wanted to redo the living/dining room floors so we had to walk across those areas on planks like it was something out of a pirate movie.

Home improvements are messy and you have to make a mess before you can clean things up and make it all look beautiful. The same is true with writing. That first draft you write is going to be garbage. It will be embarrassingly terrible, and that’s okay because it gives you a starting point where you can build something wonderful. That first draft doesn’t have to be pretty. It just has to do one thing: Exist.

Other forms of art—like sculpture, pottery, even painting—have raw materials. You have stone and clay to shape or empty canvases to fill. In writing, we need to create our own raw material and this is our first draft or “draft zero.” The raw material doesn’t exist before we make it, and we have to embrace the fact that this initial draft will be a complete mess. The artistry comes from what we do with that mess, how we shape it and mold it and make it beautiful.

Remember, writing is a slow and steady process. A book doesn’t get written in a day and it’s all about putting in a consistent effort, one word at a time. So keep taking those baby steps and in a few months, you’ll see the miles of progress you’ve made. 

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How Home Improvements Are Like Writing a Book appeared first on DIY MFA.

We all know full well that no one can write a book in a day. It takes time and continuous persistence. There’s no glamorous solution. Rather, we just have to show up at the page on a regular basis and clock in the hours. It’s that simple.

And yet, there are a lot of sources out there that glamorize the “overnight success” approach to writing. This attitude is best summed up by an episode that happened in my traditional MFA program. One time in workshop, a writer whose story was on deck for critique said to the class: “I wanted to apologize in advance for any typos. I just threw this piece together on my phone, while standing in line at a movie theater last weekend.”

I’ll be honest, the possibility of typos was not the thing that concerned me about this writer’s statement. What bothered me most was the attitude, as though this writer was bragging about how little time they had spent on their submission. It was as if their goal wasn’t to write something good, but rather to write something with as little effort as possible.

This kind of attitude is dangerous because it lulls us into believing that writing should be “easy,” and if it’s not, then there must be something wrong with us. Let me make one thing very clear: the problem is not with us.

Now, don’t confuse writing fast with writing easily. Personally, I happen to be a naturally fast writer. Once I get an idea of what I want to say, it tends to pour out of me fairly quickly. Similar to other writers, I know many individuals who are like this with their fiction and can crank out multiple books a year at a furious pace.

Build speed and stamina through practice.

The speed at which we write has nothing to do with the ease with which we write. Just because I tend to write fast doesn’t mean that the process is “easy” for me. People who see me crank out words so quickly might think that all writing should be a snap. What they don’t see are the years of practice that got me to the point where I write at this pace, the countless hours before I put pen to page, or when the ideas needed to incubate and take shape in my mind.

Speed and ease are two very different things. The speed at which we write and the quality of the words we produce, these things come with practice. Ease, on the other hand, is a fickle beast. Some days it might feel like words just flow out of you, while on other days, each syllable can be a slog.

This is where persistent, incremental practice can be a game changer. We have to train ourselves to produce words—whether we “feel like it” or not. We have to practice showing up to the page, regardless of whether the writing comes easily.

This reminds me of something I learned practicing the violin with my daughter. I’m not going to lie, the past five years of violin have been brutal. Lady Bug is a strong-willed girl and when she decides she’s not going to practice, no amount of cajoling, begging, arguing, or even threatening will get her to do it. If she weren’t so darn talented, we probably would have let her quit ages ago, but when she picks up the instrument, it’s like it was made for her. The trick, of course, is getting her to pick up the instrument in the first place.

In the beginning, when she would blatantly refuse to practice, the teacher suggested a strategy. “Just have her open the box. Don’t make her pick up the violin or the bow. Just open the box and leave it there on the floor.” The idea was not to attach any expectations to the practice, but to get her used to the idea of opening the box. Eventually, curiosity would win out and she would pick up the violin and try to practice. (I wish I could say this strategy worked every time. It didn’t. But it worked enough that we kept at it.)

Normalize the practice.

We can use a similar strategy with our writing, especially when the writing feels like a challenge. Boot up the computer or pull out the notebook and pen, then just sit and wait. Don’t attach any expectations as to whether it will be a productive writing day or not. Just show up and see what happens.

When we practice showing up, we lower the barrier to entry. We normalize the process and the practice. For example, at this stage, my kids practice their instruments because it’s just something we do in our family. Everyone plays an instrument. Everyone practices. It’s our version of normal. As writers, we need to do the same thing: we need to normalize the practice of writing, and make it “just something we do” rather than turning it into a big deal.

In the past, you may have tried your hand at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a challenge where you write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. What I love about this challenge is that it forces you to show up and write, whether you feel like it or not. With such a tight timeline, there’s no room for dawdling or taking the day off. You have to pour those words onto the page one way or another. For many writers, this challenge is the spark that lights the fire under their backsides and gets them to write that book once and for all.

My one small concern with challenges like this is that there is no room for granting ourselves grace and showing up without expectation. Yes, you have to show up with these challenges, but you also have to produce something and sometimes that’s not in the cards. Just like some days you open the box and don’t pick up the violin, sometimes the writing is just plain hard and no matter what you try, nothing comes out. This is why I myself have never done this challenge in earnest. The few times I have tried, I buckled under the pressure to produce and gave up within a few days.

If you have ever tried this writing challenge (or one like it), I tip my hat to you. While I myself have never gotten past the first few days, I have tremendous admiration for folks who are able to get to the finish line. It is an impressive feat, to be sure.

If you have not done the challenge, I want to propose a low-impact alternative. If you’re into resolutions, practice opening the box, at least for the next month. Show up at the computer and give yourself ten minutes. If no words come, then consider your time clocked in and go about the rest of your day. Chances are, though, after a few days of showing up, the words will eventually start to flow.

Remember, practice is not about rote repetition. When I think of practice, I think of a meditation practice or a yoga practice, where 90% of the work is showing up and being present. Let’s make this new year the one where we show up for ourselves and for our writing.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

The post Writer Fuel: How a Writing Practice is Like Playing the Violin appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. Commitment. 

Make a commitment to write every day. Find the time that works for you. Maybe you decide you will take weekends off. Maybe you prefer mornings before everyone wakes up. Maybe you like nights when the house is quiet. Maybe you use your lunch hour to grab an hour of writing because it’s the only time you have that’s truly yours. 

Close your office door, or hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your cubicle wall, and focus for that time allotted as yours. But make a commitment to yourself. This commitment can even be just to write a page a day. Consider that if you wrote every day, just one page, you would have 365 pages at the end of one year. That’s the length of a novel. 

2. Create a routine. 

A wonderful book by Ralph Keyes, titled The Courage to Write, gives a myriad of examples of how many famous and successful authors start their day. Some get dressed as though going to an office, others go straight to their desk in their pajamas before speaking to a soul, some make tea and a scone to have while they write, and Mark Twain smoked inside a plume of cigar smoke. 

What is your routine or way to get yourself to the desk? 

3. Writing Practice. 

Often we think writing is linear—that we should just be able to sit down and write from the opening scene to the closing scene and that’s it. But that would be like saying a pianist should sit down and play a piece of music straight from the beginning to the end, as though they were at Carnegie Hall. 

Writers have to practice too. So many books, websites, and workshops offer writing prompts. DIY MFA has a fun spinning Vegas-style slot machine prompt delivery. Author Judy Reeves created A Writer’s Book of Days that is filled with prompts from lines of poetry to just a setting like “a corner booth” to get you started and keep you going. Use writing prompts to start every day.

4. Hitchhiking. 

This trick is helpful to cure writer’s block, but also can help you find your voice. Voice is that elusive craft trick that no one can tell you what it is, but you know it when you see it. In fiction, it’s important to have so that your narrative has its own tone and style. In memoir, you need it for the same reasons as fiction, but you need both a Voice of Experience and a Voice of Innocence. 

Here is how it works: Pick out a book that you admire more than most by an author who you wish you could write like. Then, copy word-for-word with pen and paper starting at Chapter 1. Your writer’s ear will examine every word, every sound, every shape of your favorite author’s writing in this slow process. You may do it for a few paragraphs, or for a few days and pages. It’s how apprentices learn from their masters—imitation. You won’t get very far before you’ll find you want to return to your own words.

5. Re-commit. 

How is your commitment? Check in on how your habits are doing. Are you writing every day? Do you need to consider a different time? Did you find your boss took advantage of you sitting at your desk every day and interrupted your lunchtime writing, and maybe you need to go outside to a coffee shop instead? Is morning just not your bag, and you need to write before going to bed instead? Or, give yourself a pat on the back for keeping the commitment and carry on. 

6. Join a writing group.

You are a few months into your book now, and if you’ve kept up your commitment, you should have enough pages to start sharing them with a group of writers to give you feedback. And, you’ll be reading other’s pages and looking at how other approaches work. We often learn more from other people’s writing than our own. And, writing groups also provide deadlines and accountability. 

7. Read. 

This isn’t a one-time task, this is a regular endeavor. Like joining a writing group and hitchhiking, reading is the best way to learn not just the craft of writing, but the art of writing. Reading is essential to being a writer. If you don’t read, you can’t call yourself a writer. Period. 

8. Re-commit. 

How’s that writing habit? Are you still writing every day? Did you slack off a little when summer vacation came, then figured why bother when you couldn’t remember where you left off? No reason to beat yourself up about not following through, just re-commit and start again. Focus on writing practice and moving forward, not where you’ve been. Tangents and new directions are part of the process. 

9. Research Writing Conferences. 

Writing community is essential to the writing process. If you’ve joined a writing group, that’s a start. But it’s also important to keep the writers you meet fresh and new. You’ll learn about the writing world, and not just writing on the page. “Make new friends!” my mom would always say. 

10. Enroll in a Writing Class.

I’ve always advised my students to have more than one teacher. It’s valuable to have different perspectives on your work. It’s also important to learn the basics, practice the basics, and learn new techniques to take your writing to the next level. 

11. NaNoWriMo. 

Join the international community of writers who write 50,000 words in the month of November. It’s a fun challenge that can often get that first draft done in one month, or maybe you are now on Draft 2. https://nanowrimo.org/about-nano

12. Re-commit.

When life gets busy, especially around holidays, or changes in our routines, it’s important to not let the dedication you have nurtured slip into a habit of not writing. Your book needs you. It’s good to take breaks, but don’t forget to find your way back inside the plume of creative fog before the muse wanders off. 

Amy Wallen is most recently the author of How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: Sweet & Savory Secrets of Surviving the Writing Life. 

Bestselling author of a novel, and a memoir, she teaches writing workshops in California, France, and anywhere she’s invited, usually with pie. As writer-in-residence at Ocean Discovery Institute, Amy teaches personal storytelling to young people traditionally excluded from science due to race, income status, and educational opportunity. She was associate director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute for 7 years and founded DimeStories—three-minute stories told by the author and featured on NPR. 
You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post 12 Steps to Getting that Book Written appeared first on DIY MFA.

But for a lot of us, writing those initial piles of words is difficult. Really, beginning is harder than almost anything. First drafts perk up your inner perfectionist, who insists on immediate edits. I like to call her Judgmental Judy (Nothing against folks named Judy! I just like the alliteration). She peers over my shoulder whenever I’m writing, continually explaining that all of my words are awful and I might as well quit writing altogether.

Oh! Do you know Judy too? Come on down to our club! We meet at the ice cream shop every Wednesday. I’m thinking about making t-shirts!

Getting out from under that inner perfectionist’s beautifully manicured talons is hard. And, even once you’ve done it, you’ll find that you have to repeat the effort over and over.

Darn it!

And the truth is that editing is easier with all those words waiting and ready to spark your inspiration. As the wise Jodi Picoult said, “You can’t edit a blank page.”

That initial pile of words (or what Anne Lamott calls “the sh*tty first draft”) cannot be avoided. And since most of us must find our writing time in the nooks and crannies of our busy lives, we can’t waste our time resisting the effort.

It’s time to get serious about getting those first words on the page.

Practice Writing a Rough Draft

Now, I can hear some of you calling out, “Who needs practice to write a rough draft? They’re awful! Why would we practice?”

And that’s just the thing. Because they are awful, because we’re ashamed of the inelegant wording, because we can’t completely shut Judgmental Judy’s constant criticism out of our minds, because the process is filled with stops and starts and distractions and questions with answers we don’t have, we don’t want to write them.

And thus, writing them is hard. What could be a carnival of glorious fun is changed into a morass of self-doubt and horror.

So, what do we do when something is hard? How do we build up our skills so the process becomes easier?

Practice.

By practicing writing rough drafts, the work becomes familiar and Judgmental Judy’s voice fades into the background. We get used to making mistakes and writing without stopping to care if words are spelled correctly or things make sense. And as those concerns become less and less a part of our first drafting, the fun of writing can begin to sneak back into our process at this early point.

Ready To Give It a Try?

Here’s the exercise: write the worst draft you can for five minutes. Make it horrible. Use cliches. Stuff metaphors in by the dozen. Is that an adverb? Why use one when you could seriously, hopefully, arguably use three? Start multiple sentences with the same word. Give your heroine three different names.

Write quickly. Write awful. Write short.

Want a prompt? Here you go: It was a dark and stormy night….

What? You expected something good? No way!

Give it a try. Write the most awful words you can for five minutes. Really try to make them bad. Work your hardest to write the worst thing imaginable.

When you’re done, rejoice! You did it! Woohoo!

How did it feel to just let loose and write whatever came into your mind? To know that when Judgmental Judy told you your writing was horrible, you could just say “Well spotted, Jude! That’s what I was going for!”

Be kind to old Judy. After all, you want to stay friends with her. She’s going to help you when you get to the editing stage.

By rejoicing at the end of each rough draft, you reinforce the pleasant aspects of this part of the process. And each time you do that, you teach yourself that writing that rough draft can be fun. By training your brain that rough drafting is more play than work, you reduce your resistance to starting and undermine the tendency toward procrastination.

Plus, each start has the potential to become a beautiful finished object. And sometimes, our first instincts are gorgeous. That grotesque metaphor that made us choke back shame when we wrote it down? That one was spot on. One small tweak and it gets into the final draft. And that sentence that seemed filled with beauty? It may be chucked out in the first rewrite.  

Remember, this is a practice, not a magical spell that eliminates your inner perfectionist. It’s normal to find her yammering on about word choice. This practice helps you to push her to the back of your brain during that initial draft and keep getting those words onto the page.

And that’s the point.

Rough drafting is an unavoidable part of our passion, and the only one where we can allow ourselves the unvarnished ridiculousness of our minds. Why not have some fun with it?

Write a pile of gloriously horrid words now, so you can return to edit and reveal its beauty.

*This piece is informed by and uses Kaizen-Muse Creativity Tools.

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois is a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach who empowers you to embrace JOY as you manifest your creative goals through her Creativity and Business Coaching. Battle resistance, procrastination, and overwhelm with her at your side, gently encouraging with humor and heart. Discover more at her website, labourgeois.biz.

The post Perfect Your Pile of Words appeared first on DIY MFA.

Your hairdresser. The mail delivery person. The landscaper, the hummingbird feeder refill person. The person who diligently washes, folds and presses your socks. 

And, for sure, writers should play around with poetry. 

I’m talking to you, non-fiction writers. I’m talking to you, business and copywriter, you life coaches blogging away about practical steps to evolve the life you want. Hey you—yes, you, that serious journalist with the Pulitzer prize for your coverage of the public health crises of gun violence in the US—I am for sure talking to you about poetry right now.

You might think poetry is only for those sensitive, mysterious literary souls who see magic in the glow of green from a leaf in the sun. 

This is erroneous. (I used that word for you, technical copywriter!) 

If you have a minute, I can assure you that poetry will make your everyday writing infused with life and light. 

Yes, even you, instruction manual writer (are there any of you out there? I am so sorry for never, ever reading them).

Poetry Redefined

Let me redefine poetry for you in a way that makes more sense:

Poetry is a literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. (Lexico.com)

Writing how you feel with style and rhythm. 

Like a song. 

Like Eminem’s popular hit, Lose Yourself.

And you don’t even have to sing what you write for millions of fans. 

If you’re still with me, I can tell you are already three steps ahead of this article and are realizing how therapeutic playing around with poetry can be for all kinds of intense emotions like anxiety, depression, shame, and even grief.

So many writers shy away from poetry—and I can understand why. It’s like shining a spotlight into the deepest, darkest sides of your soul. I can see why most writers would rather pretend that kind of belly gazing is for the elite few. 

Why you should consider playing around with poetry

Playing around with poetry will improve your writing. You might say, “Says you, Angela Banagela, but how does it do that?” I see you, skeptical engineer/memoir writer, and good job rhyming my name. 

There are three main ways writing poetry improves prose and those are forcing us to focus, to be mindful, and to work within the restraints of structure.

Focus

Poetry forces you to focus on one moment. That green leaf glowing in the sun. Or on what you are feeling. 

Did you know most people can only name three emotions? Anger, sadness, and happiness. We are complex social beings with the capability of feeling many things at once. When you try to put that into words and do it with style and rhythm, something in your heart breaks open and you realize there are other feelings hidden beneath the obvious. 

Writing poetry is probably the only time I am focused enough on myself to realize how sad I am. Or how joyful. Usually, both at the same time.

About a year ago I sat down and wrote a happy poem about being outside with my toddler, how his inner wild and nature’s outer wild echoed and reflected back at each other. And in the end I realized I was also sad because I knew this time would be short. That soon enough he would be grown and gone, but I wanted to remember that small jewel of a memory. Like a photograph not just of a moment in time but of how we were that day. Joyful, sad, content, grateful.

Mindful

Poetry slows us down. Poems are such powerful, economic animals. You must choose your words thoughtfully, methodically, and mindfully. You could get lost in the effort and when you look up from your paper you realize you’re not the same scattered, stressed-out person who started it. If you haven’t tried meditating for stress relief, try writing poetry first.

Structure

Some poetry have rigid rules around rhyming, placement of syllables, and even form and theme. I’ve spoken lovingly about Haiku in the past, but that is not the only form of poetry that requires us to work within restraints. 

Going from freewriting to a Sonnet, for example, can get all the wheels working from your logical-analytical brain to your limbic system to your creative side. It’s like a workout for your brain AND heart. 

Playing around with poetry is just good for all the systems we need to be functioning well in order to be a positive, contributing member of society. And…fun. 

Practice Playing around with Poetry

I won’t leave you flailing about with that blank sheet of paper staring at you, don’t worry, I got you. Try this next time you’re stuck on an article, or you can’t get motivated:

We’re going old school here: grab a pencil and paper (I like those small spiral notebooks they sell at Walmart), then write the first few thoughts that come to mind when you hear the word “spoon.” 

Write as long as you like. 

Have fun with it. 

I bet you’d be surprised how much your mind has to say about something as innocuous as a spoon. 

When you feel like you’re done, try to make a rhyming poem out of it. Give yourself 15 minutes to write whatever rhyming scheme you want. AABB, ABC, ABC, you get the picture. 

You don’t have time to do this right now—you just read this whole article! Throw the notepad and a pen in your purse (or man bag) and next time you’re waiting and realize you forgot your book, try scribbling out a poem about a spoon, see what happens.

As usual, Neil Gaiman said it best: 

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.” The Graveyard Book.

Tell us in the comments: How will you play around with poetry today?

Angela Yeh is an East Coast Canadian native that lives and works in the great state of Texas. Angela loves to garden, write about magic, and eat cake. If you’d like to check out her first published novel, A Phoenix Rises, a finalist in the Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction for 2021, that would be peachy. Angela lives with her family, three cranky fur babies and a gecko. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram or her website.

The post Why All Writers Should Play around with Poetry appeared first on DIY MFA.

Many new habits fail because we try to add them into our lives with body and soul-shocking speed, and without acknowledging our current limitations. Small steps inch us toward our goals. Their light push reduces the resistance and fear that can emerge as you integrate your new writing routine into your day.  

That integration begins with setting up parameters that accommodate your current limitations.

I know. None of us want to acknowledge our limitations. They are icky and shameful. Aren’t we doing this because we want to overcome them, ditch them, and forget they ever existed?

We must all start exactly where we are, with our ugly limitations and daily routines. This doesn’t mean that we don’t push against those old habits. By working within our limitations, we use those old supports to shore up our new writing routine until it can stand on its own.

Plus, our true limitations usually include all the things we need to feel good, stay healthy, and be creative, even if they feel scandalous to admit.

So, What Are Your Limitations?

For my first small step, I decided to write for fifteen minutes a day, five days a week. What were my limitations?

• I wake up early naturally.
• A quiet environment allows me to focus, and my wife sleeps in most mornings.
• I am at my most creative in the morning.
• If I wait to write until later, it doesn’t happen.
• If I rise too far before daybreak, I’m sleepy and grouchy all day.

Thus, I knew writing in the morning when the house was still would serve my writing, but I had to pick a time to get up that was not too early. Acknowledging these limitations supported my body, mind, and spirit as I began my new writing routine.

How do you feel about making a list of the things you need to feel good, stay healthy, and be creative?

Begin with general timing. Maybe you are at your best late at night. Perhaps you like to take a break in the middle of the afternoon. Consider when your creativity seems to be highest.

Do you like to work in the quiet? Can you take a bit of noise? Can you tune out distractions?

Do you need to define your workspace? A sign can hang on a doorknob or even on the back of your chair at the kitchen table, warning people to not disturb you. Lighting a candle or placing a totem in your creative space can move your mind into writing mode.

Of course, if you’re a parent, then your timing and space are not always your own. Do you need quiet to work? Then tucking your writing into naptime or after bedtime, may be your best option. Can you work through noise and distraction? Perhaps your writing can occur while playtime ensues.  

Give yourself the space and time to explore what you need to maintain a happy, healthy life while integrating your new writing practice. Consider how your small step can glide into your current routine, making accommodations for your lifestyle, body, and creativity equally.

Visualize How Your Small Step Will Fit into Your Life

Adding a small step, even within our limitations, means pushing against some part of your everyday life. Imagining your new custom begins your journey in a nonthreatening way. Tweak your vision until it feels easy and comfortable.

With my limitations clearly defined, I realized that rising fifteen minutes earlier than usual gave me the space to write. That meant waking up at 6:30 AM. The change from 6:45 AM to 6:30 AM seemed very doable.

Next, I visualized my morning.

At 6:30 AM, I would get up. Fifteen minutes to feed the pets and walk to my office. Time to write from 6:45 AM until 7:00 AM. Then, take my shower (½ hour), walk the dogs (½ hour), and eat my breakfast (½ hour). At 8:30 AM, get in the car and go to the day job.

Done and done.

Peace rose in my soul as I realized I’d created the space in my life for my writing to occur.

What is the tiny change you can make to your current routine to accommodate your small step? Can you imagine how it will fit into your everyday life? If it doesn’t feel doable, make changes until it feels simple.

Set Your Stage To Avoid Limitations

This part of the preparation is literally setting yourself up for success. Now that you can see your process, make sure that everything you need to write is ready to go and complete any necessary activities to make the space.

Before going to bed, I placed a pen that worked on top of my notebook. My laptop computer was charged. The writing program I prefer was updated and ready for action.

I also made my lunch for the next day so I could give that time to my writing.

Each evening, I committed to my morning writing time while chopping the veggies for my daily salad and giving my writing space that final check.

What can you do to set your stage? What items do you need ready to go when you walk into your studio or office? Are there to-dos that you can complete to make the space for your writing time?

Time to Begin

With the parameters defined, take action. Get started and see what happens. Adjust this routine as necessary to make it effective for you.

If you think that this small step can’t possibly be enough, know this. By starting where you are and getting comfortable with this tiny change, you are creating the possibility of more. When I began writing for fifteen minutes each weekday three years ago, I never imagined that it would translate into a habit that would encourage my work for hours at a time. But it did, and now I write for three to four hours each weekday.

Begin where you are. Take the action you can take right now. Once your small step has become a habit, you can allow your excitement to push you to do more.

But for now, let your parameters and the routine support you as you take that first small step.

***This piece is informed by and uses Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Tools.

Tell us in the comments: What are your limitations? How can you overcome them and set your stage for success?

LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois empowers you to embrace JOY as you manifest your creative goals through her Creativity and Business Coaching. Battle resistance, procrastination, and overwhelm with her at your side, gently encouraging with humor and heart. Discover more at her website, labourgeois.biz

The post Acknowledge Your Limitations and Set Your Stage for Success appeared first on DIY MFA.

For too long, I felt like I didn’t have much control over my writing habits. I thought that I was beholden to the muse to show up and motivate me to write, which meant that I didn’t write nearly as much as I wanted to. The only other thing that got me writing was a hard-and-fast external deadline, which meant I continually floundered on personal projects. 

Then I realized that writing is like any other skill I’d want to develop—I needed to put in time and effort to practice it, and I needed to believe that I could improve. I also needed to believe that I could change my habits. 

Our self-belief drives our actions. For example, if you tell yourself that you are a procrastinator, then when you have the option to work on a project in advance of a deadline, you’ll still choose to procrastinate because it’s aligned with the way you see yourself. And the more you procrastinate, the more you reinforce the belief that you’re a procrastinator. 

So first, you must open yourself to the possibility that you can change your process and develop a consistent writing practice. Then you must implement actions that make it so. 

Here are five strategies that will help you build a consistent writing practice: 

1. Schedule your writing sessions

The main obstacle to consistent writing practice is that we don’t plan to get the work done. We hope that we’ll do the work when we feel motivated, or that we’ll squeeze it in when we have some free time, but often the motivation or the time doesn’t come. We prioritize all the other to-dos on our lists and the weeks fly by without any writing progress. 

Instead, try starting each week by committing your writing sessions to your calendar. 

I was resistant to this idea at first; I worried that too much structure would feel restrictive and kill my creativity. Instead, knowing when I was supposed to get my writing done removed my decision fatigue. When the appointment popped up on my phone, I didn’t debate if I should write or check something else off my to-do list (or scroll Instagram, if I’m being honest). I sat down and got to work. And I realized that rather than feeling stifled by the structure, I was happier because I was finally acting like the consistent writer I wanted to be. 

2. Create a writing routine

Creating a replicable writing routine can make starting each session easier. When you do the same series of things every time before you sit down to write, you prime your brain to transition out of its last task and get into writing mode. 

This works even better when you optimize your routine. Take a moment to consider: 

• Where do you write best? 
• What time of day do you feel most creative? 
• What does your ideal writing environment consist of? 
• And how can you create a series of small, replicable actions that get you into writing mode?

Establishing a routine helps me get into the flow more quickly. Mine consists of getting a warm drink, lighting a candle, and snuggling under a blanket in a quiet room with my laptop. 

Figure out what works for you and try to start every writing session the same way. 

3. Use journaling to stop procrastination

If you’ve scheduled your writing sessions and created a routine, but you’re still finding it difficult to actually start writing, it’s time to get curious about why you’re procrastinating. 

Journaling helps us sort through our thoughts—especially the subconscious ones that keep us stuck or the thought patterns we barely notice. Pull out a journal and ask yourself, “Why am I procrastinating?” then write down whatever comes up. 

I’ve found that I often procrastinate on my writing when I’m afraid. I fear that the words won’t be good enough, or that I don’t know what to write next. I don’t want to get things wrong, so I put off starting. But getting these worries down on paper helps me recognize that they aren’t so scary and don’t have to keep me stuck. 

Journaling has the bonus benefit of acting as a writing warm-up. 

4. Evaluate your success based on progress, not outcome

This applies to both your writing and building a consistent writing practice. If you’re solely focused on creating perfect outcomes—producing flawless pages and never faltering with your new habits—you’ll have a harder time staying on track. This is because anything less feels like a failure, and failure doesn’t inspire most of us to keep going. 

Alternatively, if you can recognize that you’re making progress by writing more often than not and by adding words (even if they’re not all great) to your work-in-progress, you’ll feel more satisfied and motivated to keep going. 

When I start to despair that I’m failing, I try to stop and reframe. I make myself think about what I have accomplished. 

If I miss a scheduled writing session and my brain wants to say it’s the end of my consistency, I recall all the times I did show up for my writing, and it gives me confidence that I can do that again. 

Or when I write a scene that doesn’t work, I think of it as a learning opportunity. Those pages won’t make it into the book, but writing them has gotten me closer to figuring out what the story actually is. 

5. Find an accountability buddy or a coach

You don’t have to be perfectly self-motivated at the start—or ever. Though the myth persists that writing is a solitary action, getting outside support and external accountability can help you achieve your goals more quickly. 

Like bumpers are to bowling, a writing buddy or a coach can be that little bit of extra help you need while you’re still developing your new habits. Then, once you’ve strengthened your writing muscle, you may not need external motivation. 

I’m a book coach who works with my own book coach because I love having that accountability. When I have the chance to do something other than working on my writing, but I know I have to turn in pages to someone I’ve paid to help me, I’m less likely to procrastinate or slack off.

As you implement some or all of these tips, remember that the process of building a consistent writing practice (or any new habit!) often isn’t linear. There will be weeks when it feels easy to maintain new habits and the words flow through you, but just as likely, there will be times when you struggle. Life will get in the way, or you will get out of the practice. That’s okay! 

You can always come back to these steps at any time. And if you’ve built a foundation, you don’t have to start over at square one. You’ll be able to pick up the routine more easily than before. 

Tell us in the comments: Do you have a consistent writing practice? What tricks did you use to develop one? If not, what tips are you going to try first?

Heather Campbell is a book coach who helps writers develop tools to overcome their perfectionism and mindset blocks so they can create lasting and effective writing habits to complete a novel. When she’s not immersed in fiction, she’s running in the fresh mountain air of Colorado or snuggling with her rescue dog, Chase. Find out more at www.thewriterremedy.com and follow her on Instagram!

The post #5onFri: Five Tips to Build a Consistent Writing Practice appeared first on DIY MFA.

1) Help with writer’s block

Every creative individual knows how difficult it is to face writer’s block. It is a terrible thing to deal with, and some writers don’t know how to get past it. Perhaps you are used to producing high-quality text for your blog, but now cannot even complete one paragraph without feeling unmotivated. Or you stopped working on your short story because the thought of continuing to write is terrifying. You need to reduce the pressure, regardless of your current situation. And the best way to do so is to start writing a couple of sentences every day.

Many writers rely on that spark of imagination which inspires them to write. Some might even ask for help to get them going. But writing should become a habit for you. So choose a time of the day when you will sit down and write. It might be difficult at first, but do your best not to feel stressed and write as relaxed as possible. Don’t be too concerned about the quality of your work because you can always come back later and edit it. Writing will become natural if you persist, which will do wonders for your productivity in the future.

2) Expand your vocabulary

It doesn’t matter if you are a professional writer or not, having a good vocabulary can help you out in numerous situations. Now that we are in an era of online communication, everyone is searching for shorter and easier ways to share our thoughts with the world, which makes our vocabularies smaller and smaller. If you notice that you cannot find a right word in a business meeting or while writing an email, it might be time to start writing more.

You can begin by learning one new word every single day and making a habit of using it in your writing. If you are worried that you might forget the words after a couple of days, dedicate a single page of your journal to making a complete list of the ones you used in the past. You can revisit the list and throw in a couple of expressions into your current project.

3) Become a better writer

Consistency is key when it comes to improving your writing skills. Stephen King, who is one of the most productive writers ever, claims that writing every single day is the reason why he is capable of completing more than one book a year. So the more you write, the stronger your writing skills will become. You will be able to communicate clearly with your readers and discover your own style.

Writing daily can introduce you to different techniques that might be very fun for you, and ignite your imagination. You may try poetry because it can teach you even more about the creative process. Plus, this is where your vocabulary will come into play, because you will be able you use more obscure words and explore the meanings.

4) Relieve Stress

Journaling is a form of writing that reduces stress, and there are several psychological studies that prove it. Putting down the events of your day on a piece of paper or  even writing a life story  about yourself will give you a better perspective of your current situation, and you will probably feel better once you share your emotions with a journal. This can have a positive effect on people who are very closed up and tend not to share their feelings with their friends or family.

You can also use journaling to track your moods, and this can give you an excellent overview. So after finishing a daily entry, don’t forget to add how are you feeling at that particular time. You might be able to recognize the reasons why you feel a specific emotion and learn how to cope in the future.

5) Make a profit

There are so many online job opportunities for writers that will provide the ability to earn some money while doing exactly what you love. If you always wanted to be a blogger, now might be the time to publish your first post. However, if you want to attract an audience to your articles, you need to post often, and your work should be engaging.

This means you need to practice writing and get better at your craft. The more readable and educational your work is, the more your audience will stop by.

Sitting down and writing can do wonders for you. So whether if you journal to boost your creativity, or produce online content, writing will improve your life, and make your mind sharper. Plus, your vocabulary will expand which will boost your communication skills. With so many benefits, there is no reason why you shouldn’t write at least a couple of sentences on a daily basis.

Lucy Benton is an editor and writer who focuses mostly on the worlds of technology, gadgets, and the Internet.  If you’re interested in working with Lucy, you can find her on Twitter or check out her website Pro Writing Partner .

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1) Protect tomorrow morning tonight

Pick out your clothes, pack your lunch, prep your coffee. Doing these things the night before will ensure  you don’t trade your morning writing time for chores, especially when the going gets tough in your writing, and emptying the dishwasher starts to look good.

To remove these excuses, get food and clothes ready at night. For maximum benefit, systematize the processes. For clothes, I have a capsule wardrobe. Throughout a season, I wear the same five outfits to work. It’s easier to decide what to wear and to find my clothes. My toddler’s wardrobe consists of “clothes burritos,” where I roll up a shirt with some pants. Instead of deciding on pants and a shirt, she chooses a burrito. Lunch is a capsule wardrobe for food. When it’s warm, I take a salad. When it’s cold, I take a soup. I prep enough for the week on Sunday. I keep it interesting with new recipes or limiting myself to using what’s the pantry or fridge. In a pinch, I’ll buy soups or salads pre-made.

2) Go to sleep

When it’s time for my daughter to go to bed, she can’t cajole me into a later bedtime. We adhere to a sacred rigamarole to prep her for sleep. As a kid, I thought adults were lucky to not have bedtimes because they had escaped their parents’ control, but when done right, a bedtime routine is one of a child’s first lessons in self-care, an all-ages necessity. As an adult, I attempt to cajole myself into a later bedtime, but then I recite what I tell my daughter: “Today was fun, but it’s time for bed. Tomorrow can be fun too, IF you go to bed now.” According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need between seven and nine hours a night. Shoot for that window every night, just like Mama said.

3) Make time to unwind

If you fold laundry or check email until it’s time to sleep, then you won’t be recharged to write the next day. In addition to putting a moratorium on work, identify your relaxation-stealers, the things you do in the name of relaxing that never quite satisfy. For me, that’s scrolling social media or rewatching shows. These comforting distractions require little thought, but when I do them, I will blow off my bedtime. Sometimes I’ll watch a new episode of a favorite show, but I have to truly enjoy it. One sign that it’s time to give up a show is if you’re checking your phone while you watch it. If it’s not holding your interest, it’s not doing its job of helping you relax.

4) Find your relaxation triggers

If you stick to your bedtime, some nights you won’t get very much downtime. On nights where you work late, the kids mutiny, or you go out with friends, you need an efficient way to signal to your body and mind that it’s almost bedtime, and you have sufficiently relaxed without a Netflix bender. To trick myself into thinking I’ve relaxed for longer than I’ve got, I use one or two of my triggers before going to bed. I light a candle and meditate. I take my time brushing my teeth, washing my face, and moisturizing. I stretch, foam roll, or do a quick yoga workout. I treat myself to a special drink, like tea, sparkling water, or wine, or a snack, like popcorn or some chocolate. Just one or two of these can actually be enough to help me accept my bedtime like an adult.

5) Cultivate your writing life

The morning writing session is only one component of the writing life. If you have more than ten minutes of downtime at night, invest the time in activities that will strengthen you as a writer, like reading and journaling. DIY MFA’s second tenet is to read with purpose. Use extra time before bed to read through the essential reading list that you created when you got your DIY MFA Starter Kit. If reading makes you sleepy, add some journaling. Write about your reading, use the writer igniter or a prompt book, keep a gratitude list, or do the Boho Berry monthly journaling challenge. Mixing these approaches will keep things interesting.

As Gabriela says, “Write alongside your life, not despite it.” These techniques have helped me live that mantra.

What are your tricks for an easy morning or quick relaxation techniques that you love? How does your night routine threaten to mess up your morning?

Jennifer Brinkmeyer writes contemporary fantasy and horror. When she’s not teaching teenagers how to rebel through literacy, she’s probably blowing bubbles with her daughter. To talk shop, check out her website or follow her on Twitter.

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So in today’s Theme: A Story’s Soul post, let’s look at how isolation is handled as a theme in two novels from different genres. As you read on, pay attention to the techniques or elements that these stories share, especially how they address physical and emotional isolation in ways that are appropriate for their characters.

Isolation as a Theme in M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans (Historical Fiction)

Set in Western Australia during the 1920s, M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans is the story of the Sherbournes, lighthouse keeper Tom and wife Isabel, who find a dead man and a living baby washed up in a boat and claim the infant girl as their own. Their decision wreaks havoc on their marriage, especially once friends, family, and other townspeople discover the little girl’s true identity. Isolation is among the novel’s themes, which Stedman captures both physically and emotionally.

For most of the novel, Tom is stationed at Janus Rock, an island about half a day’s boat ride from the harbor town of Point Partageuse. Here, mail and supplies are shipped quarterly from the mainland; radio is the only means of emergency contact; and the Sherbournes are the island’s only residents, apart from goats and chickens. Thus, Tom and Isabel are keenly aware of their isolation and react to it in different ways. Though Isabel loves Janus Rock, she becomes distraught by her and Tom’s aloneness after her first miscarriage: “‘There should be forests… I miss the trees, Tom. I miss their leaves and their smell and the fact that there are so many of them…’.” (74) But Tom, a World War I veteran, relishes the solitude. Before he marries Isabel, he writes in a letter that “the quiet [of Janus Rock] suits me” (52) and “finds a freedom in the silence” of not hearing his own voice for months (51 – 52).

Janus Rock isn’t the novel’s only example of physical isolation. During the third act, Tom is sent to jail for (according to the local authorities) kidnapping the little girl he and Isabel “adopted.” He realizes on his first night in prison that “[t]he solitude is familiar, carrying him back to his time alone on Janus, and he wonders if the years with Isabel and with Lucy were just imagined” (224). In other words, he finds solace in the isolation of prison as easily as he found it on Janus Rock, despite his terrible new circumstances and the emotions warring within him.

The Sherbournes are also good examples of characters who experience emotional isolation. Tom, for starters, uses his lighthouse work as a means of distancing himself from others so he can heal from the trauma of war (11) and to avoid inflicting physical or emotional pain on others (196). When he interacts with other characters, he’s often reserved or flustered – or, as Isabel describes during their courtship, “mysterious… as though, behind his smile, he was still far away” (48). This seemingly bridgeable gap grows into a painful rift once Isabel convinces Tom to raise the baby girl they found. Once the truth is discovered and Tom is imprisoned and Lucy returned to her birth mother, the thematic spotlight turns to Isabel, who remains silent and plunges into a deep, despairing loneliness despite being surrounded by family: “There’s no one she can talk to. No one who will understand. What sense can her life make by itself, without the family she lived for?” (260)

Isolation as a Theme in Kristin Cashore’s Graceling (YA Fantasy)

Katsa is Kristin Cashore’s titular Graceling, an orphaned young woman born with an extreme skill known as a Grace. Her Grace, however, is not one she’s proud of: She can effortlessly kill other people. Now Katsa works for her uncle King Randa to intimidate and torture his enemies – until a new friend and a dangerous mission in a faraway kingdom compel her to make choices that, among other things, help her break free of years of isolation.

Most examples of isolation in Graceling show Katsa’s emotional distance from others. Most people in King Randa’s court either avoid Katsa or show “no pretense of friendliness” (10). Their fear and repulsion toward her is especially clear when she tries to make eye contact with them; in most cases, “their eyes would drop and they would hurry on” (12). So when other characters show Katsa kindness, she’s often unsure of how to react. When Prince Po touches her face for the first time, “[H]e looked at her calmly… as if friends she’d only just made always touched her face with their fingertips. As if she ever made friends. As if she had any basis for comparison, to decide what was normal when one made friends, and what was not” (95). In other words, Katsa has felt separate from others for so long that she fails to realize she has friends, or understand why someone would want to be her friend.

Other characters in Graceling also experience isolation, and for different reasons. After Katsa and Po rescue Princess Bitterblue (who lives in a kingdom that’s geographically cut off from the rest of the continent by mountains), Bitterblue reveals that her mother locked them both in her rooms so that Bitterblue’s father wouldn’t abuse them (295). In this case, Bitterblue’s mother turns to isolation as a means of protecting her daughter. Po, on the other hand, hides in an abandoned cabin later in the book so he can recover from a traumatic injury. When Katsa returns to Po, he admits, “‘I’ve been thinking of staying here, where it’s peaceful, and far away from everyone…. I want to be alone’” (442). Eventually, Katsa discovers the truth behind Po’s decision: He has become blind as a result of his accident, and is devastated that he can no longer see the people and places he loves (450). His choice to isolate himself is therefore rooted more in self-pity than in a desire to heal.

Keys to Exploring Isolation as a Literary Theme

It’s true that The Light Between Oceans and Graceling are very different novels. However, when comparing how they examine isolation as a literary theme, it’s easy to spot the elements they have in common. Here are a few I noticed. Did you find any others?

• Physical versus Emotional Isolation: The Light Between Oceans and Graceling both offer examples of physical and emotional isolation. Using this contrast allows readers to show how characters may feel or choose to be alone because of their location and/or physical separation from others, or because of their own personal reasons.
• Isolated Settings: Both novels illustrate physical isolation by describing how a character is cut off from others through geography (the island of Janus Rock, the mountain range separating Bitterblue’s kingdom from Katsa’s) or other means (Tom’s prison cell, Bitterblue and her mother’s self-confinement).
• Motivations & Choices: When characters choose isolation, they typically have strong reasons that are made known to the reader through dialogue (either spoken or internal) or appropriate bits of backstory. In the Light Between Oceans, Tom pursues work as a lighthouse keeper after World War I so that, among other reasons, he can avoid hurting others. Po in Graceling, however, is so upset by his loss of sight that he’d rather hide away than be with his loved ones.
• Isolation’s Impact on Characters…: Katsa may be fierce and independent, but because most people avoid her out of fear, she has suffered from the lack of kindness in her life. She and other characters from Graceling and The Light Between Oceans are proof that isolation has a profound effect on people, from missing loved ones and familiar places to feeling utterly bereft of home and relationships.
• And on the Relationships Between Characters: Isolation can also affect relationships between characters. Tom and Isabel from The Light Between Oceans are a great example in that their physical isolation from Point Partageuse impacts their relationship with the town’s residents, and their disagreement about keeping the little girl forges an emotional rift between them. Thus, stories that examine isolation might also highlight interpersonal themes such as family, friendship, and communication.

Now It’s Your Turn!

• What stories have you read that illustrate the theme of isolation? How did they accomplish this?
• Write a story in which the protagonist experiences physical and emotional isolation. How does her environment and her state of mind affect her and her relationships with other characters?
• Have you ever felt cut off from others because of your location or other circumstances? What kind of impact did it have on you? How were you able to endure or break free of the situation?

What topics would you like to see featured at Theme: A Story’s Soul? Share your thoughts by commenting below or tweeting me at @SaraL_Writer with the hashtag #DIYMFA.

Sara Letourneau is a speculative fiction writer and poet in Massachusetts who devours good books, loves all kinds of music, and drinks copious amounts of tea. In addition to writing for DIY MFA, she is a Resident Writing Coach at Writers Helping Writers and is hard at work on a YA magical realism novel. She also freelanced as a tea reviewer and music journalist in the past. Her poetry has appeared in The Curry Arts Journal, Soul-Lit, The Eunoia Review, Underground Voices, and two print anthologies. Visit Sara at her personal blog, Twitter, and Goodreads.

The post A Case Study on Isolation as a Literary Theme appeared first on DIY MFA.