Words and their Inspiration (Week 8)

This past week, we did some beneficial writing exercises in class. We had to build a characterization chart and then create a fictional story from it. I really enjoyed this exercise because I feel like it allowed us to get to know our character before writing about them. Understanding and knowing more about a character before diving into any writing about them is clever and allows the writer to really get into the mind of who they are writing about. This exercise really helped with showing you how to base a character.

From this week’s assignments, we learned a few tips on how to enhance your short short so that it is memorable. Images and language were discussed in Jennifer Pieroni’s essay titled “SMART SURPRISE IN FLASH FICTION”. In this essay, she talks about language being used to help evoke both surprise and intent in your writing to get the reader interested in your work and help them to retain your work. Also, Pieroni talks about using key images in settings to stimulate the reader and help carry weight in your fictional work. These two ideas really spawned me to pay attention to my setting in my writing, and not just the weather in my poem (because it may not be relevant), but more like where the story is taking place and the image I am trying to portray can help extend the purpose of your short short.

In thinking about inspiration, many if not all of the words that I read whether they are from a poem, a newspaper article, or a quote from a good book or facebook status, can help inspire me. I like the way that words come together and create this emotion right there for you on the page. It’s like you get a tone or a feel for what the author of the words is trying to communicate and it then gives you this new idea or plants a seed in your head about something that happened in the past, future, or going on with you at that moment. Their words can bring out emotions in you and help conjure up old ones, all through those mixes of words. Words are such a huge inspiration and they are only made up using 26 letters. That’s remarkable!