Happy Easter everyone!
Whether or not you may be religious, Easter is a time for new beginnings, when the sun is reborn from the winter months and flowers burst into bloom.
It is a time of enormous potential that can give us a great boost if we can tap into it.
I'd like to share a few actions you can take to rejuvenate your writing.
You can breathe life into an existing story, birth something new, or both!
1. Breathe life into an existing story
Dig out an old piece of writing—an unpublished story, the fragments of a story, a
journal entry, prose poem, anything. If you haven't looked at it in a long time, you will return to it with fresh eyes and a new perception.
Make a copy of the file so you can make changes freely while preserving the original.
Start editing, looking for ways to strengthen the voice and sharpen the images. Can any adjectives be more precise?
How can your verbs better convey the actions?
Zoom out to the macro level. What are you trying to say with this piece?
What if your protagonist makes a different decision?
Can they change a major habit, right a major wrong, or resolve something significant from their past?
Can you take the story in a whole new direction?
Write an alternate ending in which something drastically different happens.
How does it leave you feeling afterwards?
2. Birth something new
Write about a character who is reborn. Will you choose to show this with a dramatic change or in a way that is more subtle?
What if your character is a villain? What will he or she have to change to emerge to a new life?
Do you want your character to emerge from a period of darkness or isolation? Are they returning from the Underworld or getting out of prison? Are they beginning a new relationship, reinvigorating a marriage or stepping out of depression and into a sunlit morning?
Pick one or more of these questions, set a timer for twenty minutes and write.
After that, take a break. Get up, stretch, and go for a brisk walk or run to rejuvenate yourself. Have a snack, pour yourself a refreshing drink, sit down and write some more.
3. Begin again
Since Easter is a time of new beginnings, go back to the beginning of your piece of writing and examine it. Is there anything you can improve?
Try writing three alternate beginnings. Can you run at it from a completely different angle? How can you use the energy of spring to breathe fresh life into your writing?
Happy wordcrafting!
Share your experiences in the comments below. I'd be happy to hear how it went!