The Power to Write: Seven Keys to Discover Your Writer within - A Writing Workshop in a Book - Softcover

Caroline J. Adams

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573248096 ISBN 13: 9781573248099

Publisher: Conari Press,U.S., 2003

Synopsis

A Writing Workshop in a Book!

Caroline Joy Adams believes that everyone has stories to tell and she provides the inspiration and tools that will help anyone get started.

Step-by-step, The Power to Write helps readers uncover their originality and master the ability to write their own stories.

Writing teacher and artist/calligrapher Adams knows the tremendous power of the written word. And she has made it her mission to put into action her belief that everyone can experience and enjoy this power and the fruits of her or his own creativity. Many can write, but few do. Why? Fear stops us, Adams writes. Fear, not knowing how to get started, and the lack of inspiration. Having discovered these truths while teaching her numerous writing workshops, Adams has put them into The Power to Write and created a writing workshop in a book. Readers can use it alone or form their own groups.

Using Adams' seven keys, hundreds of people have made creative breakthroughs:

1. Become aware that you have the power to write.

2. Start your story with a powerful opening sentence or paragraph.

3. Create an emotional journey for your reader as your story unfolds.

4. Ask yourself the six most important questions about your unfolding story.

5. Focus on the five senses as you flesh out the details that enrich your story.

6. Discover and develop your own unique writing voice.

7. Gather the courage to share your work with others.

About this title

About the Author

<div> <p>Caroline Joy Adams believes that everyone has stories to tell and she provides the inspiration and tools that will help anyone get started.</p> </div>

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Power to Write

A Writing Workshop in a Book

By Caroline Joy Adams

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2003 Caroline Joy Adams
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57324-809-9

Contents

A Note to Readers
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Shape Your Words into an Intriguing Story
KEY 1 Know That You Have the Power to Write: Your Vast Memory Bank of 
Experiences and Feelings Can Help You Get Started
KEY 2 Start Your Story with a Powerful Opening
KEY 3 Create an Emotional Journey for Your Reader
KEY 4 Ask the Six Most Important Questions About Your Unfolding Story
Part II Continue to Develop and Refine Your Writing Skills
KEY 5 Focus on the Five Senses: Sight, Sound, Taste, Scent, and Touch
KEY 6 Discover and Develop Your Own Unique Writing Voice
KEY 7 Gather the Courage to Share Your Work
Resource Guide
Sources
Bibliography

CHAPTER 1

Know That You Have the Power to Write: Your Vast Memory Bank of Experiences andFeelings Can Help You Get Started

Just what is it that drives you to the page, compels you to sit down and write,or makes you want to write, even if it's sometimes hard to get started? Do youfeel the strongest need to get words out on paper when you are trying to sortout your emotions and daily life experiences? If so, have you filled thousandsupon thousands of pages of private journals with such writings? But do you alsosometimes wonder if you might be able to turn some of these musings into storiesthat could hold interest for others?

Or does the urge to write come over you when the idea for a fictional story hascaptured your imagination, and dynamic or dreamlike scenes, replete withinteresting characters and their life crises and challenges, float through yourmind by day and night, just calling out to you to be set to life on paper? Ifso, is it your greatest fantasy or hope that your story might someday be worthpublishing, so that others can enter the world of words you've created?

Whether our urge to write stems from a desire to recount true-to-life stories(nonfiction) or to spin tales that we make up altogether (fiction), I believethat we can all develop our innate capacity to tell compelling stories. At thesame time, we can benefit from some guidance in just how to come up with awritten story that feels complete, intriguing, and worthy of asking others totake the time to read. And such guidance in exactly how to translate your storyideas into completed form is what The Power to Write: A Writing Workshop in aBook is here to offer you.

What a Story Is

But just what is a story, anyway? Quite simply, short or long, one page or onethousand pages, a story is an interesting tale about something dramatic, funny,memorable, or intriguing that has happened to ourselves or to other real-life orfictional characters. It always contains at least one character who is facedwith a challenge or conflict—major or minor—that he or she must try to resolveon some level by the story's end.

Your purpose in telling a story, as the writer, is to take your reader on abrief but potentially powerful emotional journey—as you entertain, inspire, orinvite them, for a brief bit of time, to enter into the inner world of anotherhuman soul.

A good story also allows your reader to temporarily step beyond his or her ownboundaries. More than anything, it invites the reader to feel what the characterfeels—and thus to feel less alone, more connected to others, and part of thelarger circle of life for that short passage of time during which he or she isabsorbed in your words. And that highly desirable, though not always easy-to-attainfeeling of enhanced connection to other minds, lives, and souls issomething we are all seeking to experience, almost all the time.

A story, no matter how short or long, too, nearly always revolves around a timeof change in the life of the character—whether the character is you, describingyour own life experience, or a fictional character you've created. Such a changemay be huge or small, internal or external, one the character is choosing andinitiating. Or, the change may be happening entirely against the character'swill, one that he or she is valiantly struggling to prevent from taking place.

This impending change produces a sense of mounting tension—for if you have notension (which is caused by the conflict at the center of the story), you haveno story. For in life and in stories alike, it's tension and trouble, that trulyintrigue people, and the hope that a resolution will occur that keeps theminterested. Happy endings, of course, do happen and are fine in many cases. Butentirely smooth-sailing lives, and stories, just don't hold our interest forlong—for there's simply no staying or selling power in such strife-free tales.

Your goal, then, is to sweep your readers into your story, scene by scene, andpique their curiosity about the question that the conflict or tense situationraises, about what's going to happen next. And by story's end, you simply mustanswer that question, resolving the tension for your readers in a logical, attimes surprising, but always satisfactory way.

But perhaps you are saying right now, What stories do I have to tell that otherscould possibly care about? Well, I can guarantee that no matter who you are—yourage or life stage; your geographical location or occupation; your religiousbeliefs or political persuasion; your family background, marital status, or yourcurrent family makeup—you have potentially hundreds of stories to tell.

Possible Subjects

We all have potentially powerful stories deep within us, just waiting to becalled forth, perhaps to be told aloud and then put into written words. Yourstorehouse of stories, too, flows from your many years of life experience; yourunique perspective and way of seeing the world; and your ability to access awide range of feelings. So let's consider just a few of the possibilities.

LOVE

Just like the rest of us, you've almost certainly had vast experience over thecourse of your lifetime with virtually everyone's number one interest: andthat's love. And whether you know it now or not, you have a lot to say aboutthis timeless topic. For love is the essence of life: and you've known manydifferent kinds of love in your lifetime—from romantic forms of love to the lovebetween parent and child, siblings, and friends. And if you've experienced deepstruggles in any of these relationships (and haven't we all, at times?), youhave a host of powerful memories to draw upon.

For instance: You've probably been in love, many more times than once—and thenfelt the agony of losing a love that you'd been certain would last forever.You've probably also felt the ache of being away from a lover for what felt likean eternity, only to ultimately experience a happy reunion. Or you may have feltthe supreme sadness of loving someone who doesn't love you back, or who perhapsloves someone else—and you've been stung by the brutal nettles of betrayal. Butwhatever your unique experiences of love have been, there is no doubt that someof your most powerful and poignant moments could become the catalyst for deeplymoving, potent stories—stories that nearly everyone can relate to.

WORK

Sigmund Freud once said that love and work are the two main human endeavors thatwe all pursue and have in common—and he may well have been right about that. Youhave almost certainly, then, had some powerful moments on your life pathway asyou've traversed the world of work—regardless of what is happening for you nowin that key aspect of life. Over time, you've probably held a host of differentjobs—some of which you've loved, some of which you've hated, some of whichyou've perhaps been fired from unfairly—but all of which offer potentiallyinteresting settings, characters, and dramatic moments that can trigger ideasfor your stories.

PHYSICAL TRAUMA

Perhaps you've also, at one time or another, had a debilitating healthcondition, been in an accident, or known close friends or family members who'veexperienced such life dramas. Such situations can easily become the basis for apowerful piece of writing.

LOCATIONS

You've almost certainly lived in (or visited) a number of different houses,cities, and other geographical locations—some exotic, some perhaps seeminglyplain as can be. You've also probably traveled a bit and had some unforgettableexperiences on such journeys. But even a most ordinary setting or everyday tripin a car or bus can become the scene for an intriguing slice-of-life story.

PEOPLE

You've almost certainly (even if you've lived in the same town your entire life)known a host of different people, from teachers, to storekeepers, to ministersor rabbis or priests, aunts, uncles, neighbors, and others, whose lives haveaffected you and whose unique traits or life experiences can enter into thedrama of your stories. This applies equally whether you choose to focus onwriting solely about true experiences, or to selectively take characteristicsfrom real-life people and spin them into fictional characters.

FEELINGS

But more important, still, than your specific life experiences, is that you'veundoubtedly felt, at one time or another, every human emotion possible—from wildjoy to deep sadness and disappointment to outright fury. For virtually withoutexception, it's the underlying feelings that truly make for a powerfully toldstory: the feelings that your characters are experiencing, which you can bringforth and cause your reader to feel as he or she follows your story along.

So whether you choose to become a writer of fact or fiction, or to continuallyweave a fascinating fusion of the two, the most powerful way to get startedwriting is to tap directly into your huge memory bank of both life experiencesand feelings. That's where you'll find an endless treasure trove of ideas totake off with and expand into story form—and from which truly inspired writingnearly always springs.

The Importance of Sharing Our Stories

Sharing the stories of some of our most memorable moments of life can be a greatgift. For at our very core, we have a need to share our stories—those about whathas happened to us, and those that come to us through the marvelous realms ofour imagination and end up as what we call fiction.

We need to tell our own stories and to listen to the stories of others, forthese stories can serve many purposes. They can help others laugh at themselves,or at life, in moments when they most need to see the humor in otherwisedifficult situations. At other times, our stories may help inspire someone tomove beyond his or her own challenges—knowing that if you've been throughsomething similar and survived, then perhaps he or she can, too.

Our stories matter. All of them. Your stories matter. So I urge you, right now,to go ahead, let your ideas flow, and start to get your stories out on paper—foryou just never know how much of a difference they may make, and to whom.

FOCUS ON MEMORABLE LIFE MOMENTS

Here's what we'll be doing to start: I'll offer you topics that can get yourmemories fired up; you'll reflect a bit, then come up with an interesting momentor time in your life that relates to the topic suggested. You'll then put pen topaper, and take off with whatever comes, by writing a few paragraphs or pages.But first, let's take a look at some examples of the type of piece I'd like youto come up with.

The following story describes a moment in time when the narrator was overwhelmedby fear.

Black Ice

Suddenly there I was careening across the road, totally our of control,helplessly watching a maze of cars, like huge lightning strikes, skating towardme across the black ice, coming at me from all directions; and I knew withcertainty that my frantic, desperate attempts to press harder and harder on thebrake pedal were futile, and I would never be able to stop on time.

I glanced at my three-year-old daughter sitting beside me, took in her smallprecious face, her innocent, enormous blue eyes turning toward me for comfort,but instead, I let out a wild, primal scream. Engulfed by my tidal wave of fear,a horrific high-pitched wail of her own then poured from her gut as her facecrumpled in terror. I was sure, right then, that in a moment it would all beover and I'd never be able to hold her in my arms again and tell her how much Iloved her.

Clearly the feared fatal accident didn't happen, as I'm here to tell the tale.This brief story-starter, though, portrays a moment when my life could havechanged in a flash, and that's why it's stayed with me as a still-potent andemotionally charged memory. I was reminded of it because it happens to be winterright now, and silken waves of silvery snowflakes are fast falling down from thesky, whitening the narrow streets of my small New England town. Yet serene asthe soft-looking snow appears, I am ever aware that underneath it lurks a sheetof potentially hazardous ice.

I offer this example because I want to emphasize to you that even if you haven'thad many major life crises or dramas, I guarantee that you have lots ofdramatic, interesting moments that can become the basis for a powerful piece ofwriting. And we can all transform our ordinary moments and daily experiencesinto stories that can become intriguing to others.

Let's move on to another example: A memorable evening, one that changed thecourse of my own life.

Across the Room

I had almost stayed home that fateful night, wanting nothing more than to settledown with a comforting cup of hot chamomile tea and a good book. But it wasFriday night, once more, a lonely weekend approaching, and I knew, deep down,that after a year alone, it was high time I began to get out more and at leastbegin to open to the possibility of meeting someone new. So, shivering from thecold New England autumn air, even though I was wrapped up tight in my long blackwool coat, my red skirt flying upward as the wind sent it soaring every fewblocks, I walked the whole two miles downtown to the Cambridge "Y," to attend anEnglish country dance for the very first time.

Before long I arrived, and soon after entering the large room, where the dancewas already in progress, began to warm up. I noted, too, that the music wasquite pleasant and soothing, and indeed there were a host of attractive men ofvarious ages present, just as I'd been secretly hoping. So I joined in as bestas I could.

But before long, I was feeling infinitely awkward, clumsy, my face flushed withembarrassment at my ineptness in catching on to the intricate steps thateveryone else seemed to have done flawlessly all their lives. Confused as towhich way my feet were supposed to move, fearing that I was simply neverdestined to be a dancer of any sort, I was starting to fantasize about justescaping quietly, slinking away from this sea of swiftly moving feet, arms, andlegs, and flurries of faces, and back home to my lonely but familiar andcomfortable little apartment.

Yet despite these persistent thoughts of leaving, I found myself still there, anhour later, whirling around the dance floor, getting dizzier by the minute—whensuddenly I caught a glance of him, across the room. A new arrival, having comein late, he stood hesitantly, watching the crowd gracefully move across thefloor to the rhythm of the live violin trio that was filling the air with arather enchanting Bach piece. He seemed to be deciding whether to stay and joinin, or to simply go on his merry way, to who knows where. In that very instant,mysteriously, but with an intensity far beyond anything I could explain—a stabof panic struck at my heart. Because I knew, already, that I wanted, needed,more than anything, for him to choose to stay. For I somehow sensed, with everyfiber of my soul, that my entire destiny depended upon this split-seconddecision he was about to make.

I kept dancing, yet studying him intently at the same time, my eyes neverleaving him, as he stood there. He seemed to be about twenty-three, a student-type,with clear, bright, but wistful-looking deep blue eyes that traveledintently around the room as if he, too, was looking for a lost someone—and washoping, against hope, to find her here. Though he had an air of uncertaintyabout him, a sheepish, little-boy quality, he was undeniably handsome. He wasexactly what I'd always thought of as my "type," with soft, brownish-blond hair,and a slight mustache, a medium build, and not too tall and not too short, about'"to my'µ?". Just right.

A worn green backpack with a broken zipper, clearly filled with a stash ofbooks, was slung upon his shoulder. Books, I imagined, to be filled with deepinsights on philosophy, literature, and Renaissance art—as well as, of course,of volumes of romantic nineteenth-century poetry that I was already fantasizinghe would soon be reading to me, late at night—in his place or mine, beforeturning out the lights, as we then reached out for the exquisite comfort of eachother's warmth in the darkness.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Power to Write by Caroline Joy Adams. Copyright © 2003 Caroline Joy Adams. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Conari Press,U.S.
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573248096
• ISBN 13: 9781573248099
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192