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Daily Writer’s Fix: February 4-8

How to use Daily Writers’ Fix

Monday:

Sight

Paint Palette

Paint something today–in your mind. Describe the process in words in such a way that will make the reader envision the image start to form on the canvas.

Tuesday:

Smell

Drooping Flowers

Why won’t your character get rid of the drooping flowers on her mantle?

Wednesday:

Sound

 Piano Keys

Take whatever scene or project you’ve been working on lately and spend a little time thinking about what it sounds like. Close your eyes and sit back and place yourself in the scene. What faint hums of traffic or buzzing of bees do you hear that you hadn’t noticed before? What’s the music being played at the cafe your character is walking into? You may or not choose to incorporate these details, but stretch yourself to think a little further into this part of your scene than you had before.

Thursday:

Touch

Dog Bowl

Rain. Dog fur. Enough said. Start writing.

Friday:

Taste

Anchovies, Garlic, and Capers

Never underestimate the role of taste in your writing. Even if you’re not a food writer or you’re writing something that seems totally unrelated–take science fiction for example–practice the art of writing about food every once in a while, because you never know when describing an alien’s first taste of a croissant will help make your otherworldly character seem just a bit more relatable. Today, take the flavors shown here–anchovy, garlic, and capers–and make a pretend recipe. What is your character making with these ingredients? How does he go about doing it? What does he–or perhaps his guests–think about the flavors?

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Daily Writer’s Fix: January 28-February 1 (Idea Generator Wrap-Up)

Keyboard

With January coming to a close this week, we’re wrapping up a month of Idea Generator posts with a recap of exercises and prompts to get the creative juices flowing. Whether you’ve followed along since the first post a month ago or came in late, these exercises will be helpful to do again and again whenever you’re looking for ideas for what to write about.

We’d love to hear some of the ideas you’ve come up with–and read the resulting stories! Always feel free to leave a comment or drop us an e-mail–we love hearing from you. And in the meantime, keep checking back each weekday for more writing inspiration, resources, and perspectives on the writing life!

Idea Generator #1: What you want to learn more about

Idea Generator #2: Drawing inspiration from your life

Idea Generator #3: Your topics of interest

Idea Generator #4: Do something you love to do