Each night before I settle me head down on my down pillow, I
turn on my Kindle and take in a TED talk. These are 10-20 minute video lectures of positivity and creativity spoken by the best minds in the world. Always an impeccable
bedtime story.
Last night, the lecture taught us how to add 10 years to a life
by playing games. Along with getting off my tush every hour and dancing around,
the need for social interaction and kindness is needed. This sedimentary
writers life is doing more than making me an arthritic alcoholic. Surprising to
hear is that our bodies weren’t designed to hunch over a keyboard making up
stories, it was meant to hunt, gather and garden.
Possessing a sound mind and a bit of red wine, I planted a
garden at midnight.
I hoed and plowed until 1:00am, then sprinkled seeds in an inorderly manner, finally turning the sprinkler on my patch of growth. Not at all
like the neat little rows you see in everyone else’s garden, mine will be one
of surprise.
Do I anticipate problems?
Of course! Even if I did it the “right way”, I would have
weeds, gophers, droughts and giant zucchini.
Now the garden is two fold- one an experiment in the age-old
marital battle “who was right”. The other is a brain strengthening, life
sustaining and produce-inducing plot of land. Anyone for a pumpkin-green bean?
Writing exercise:
Take a story and write
it without any “thought” verbs. You may
not use Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes,
Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to
use.
The list
should also include: Loves and Hates.
You can
also take an old story, and change it so it has no thought verbs. This is very
good for honing your editing skills.
This
brilliant lesson was from Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club and many other
fantastic books) and it resonated with me so much, I am going to try and write
this way forever. His whole lesson and explanation is at the link below. It is worth your
time to try. Even if you are a new writer, it is a fun experiment.
I started watching the Ted Talks via Netflix a couple of weeks ago. They have been so uplifting and inspiration to my psyche.
ReplyDelete