Writer’s Workout

By Gloria G. Adams

As I sit here willing myself to get up and do my morning cardio workout (moan), I am reminded that it’s good to work the writing muscles as well.

In addition to working on my current project, I sometimes take some time for some fun/different/silly writing exercises to stretch the writing “muscles.”

Flash fiction stories are challenging, but fun. Tell a story, with an arc, in anywhere from 15-500 words. The shorter, the more difficult.

Poetry offers a plethora of forms from which to choose: shape poems, cinquains, sonnets, palindromes, etc.

One of my favorite things to write is ABC poetry, something I learned about on a site called Fan Story (http://www.fanstory.com/index.jsp).

This is the format:

ABC poetry contains five lines. Begin your poem with any letter of the alphabet.

The next three lines must follow sequence. If you start with the letter "G", the next line must start with the letter "H". The last line can begin with any letter of the alphabet.

The poems can be anything you can think up:

They can be sparse…

I am

Just a fragile

Kite in the sky,                               

Living only as long as

The wind.                                                     Be very

                                                                     Careful

                                                                     Don’t drop those

                                                                     Eggs…

                                                                     Oops!

They can invite discussion…

Always a bridesmaid, never a

Bride,

Could be a blessing in

Disguise,

According to my married friends.

                      

                            Therapy creeps

                         Underneath the psyche’s skin, conducts a

                      Visual inspection, then lays

                    Waste the pretense

                    Of sanity.

They can rhyme…

Procrastination, full of

Quiet hesitation, never

Reached my destination,

Should have made that reservation,

All from lack of…motivation.

They can be funny…

We added a wolf tetra to our aquarium that already had an

X-ray fish, a

Yellow-tailed violet cichlid, and a

Zebra Loach.

He ate them.

Whatever you do with them, have fun. Have you stretched your writing muscles today?