How to Turn Your Most Boring Day into Writing Gold

One writing exercise I give my students is to write about something interesting which happened to them in the last 24 hours.  Some complain that they lead boring lives!  But writers aren't people who have interesting things happen to them.  Writers are people who find something interesting in anything that happens.

 To demonstrate, here's my 24-hour essay: 

Support Your Local Latté

     A new coffee shop recently opened a few blocks south of the coffee shop I usually frequent in North Kansas City.  On Tuesday afternoon, I almost went to this new place.  I drove through its lot so I could discern in a totally risk-free manner what lay inside: by reading the drive-thru menu.  However, all they had to eat was pastries and, since I had just come from the Y, I wanted lunch.  So I drove to a Mexican restaurant, ordered food, and then went to my usual hang-out, where I knew I’d be welcome to bring in outside food so long as I ordered a drink.

            While eating my chicken rice bowl and drinking a caramel macchiato, I overheard a conversation between John, the owner of the coffee shop, and another customer.  She asked him what he thought of the new competition down the street, the place to which I had almost gone.  John’s answer surprised me.  He didn’t diss the competition or go into a sales pitch about how his coffee was better.  Instead, he said he didn’t think of the new coffee shop as competition.  He’d met the owner, thought he was a nice guy, and wished him well.  John was more worried about the new Starbucks going into the supermarket down the lot.  “Chains are taking over,” he said, “and I always root for local business.”

            I’ve long heard of the war between local businesses and chains.  One midtown Kansas City coffee shop I used to frequent (no longer in business) cheekily posted a sign behind its counter: “Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks.”  But as tempting as it is to dump on chains, I’ve always dismissed such concerns as the usual fluff between competitors. It’s the equivalent of wrestlers looking into the camera and challenging the manhood of their opponents.

            And, although I nominally support local businesses, I go to chains, too.  I like variety, and Starbucks, I admit, suits my fancy sometimes. 

            But John’s support for the new guy down the block gave me pause for thought.  The competition between local businesses and chains is quite real.  Chains risk little and have nothing to lose if you go elsewhere for your latté.  Small businesses like John, on the other hand, might have everything to lose.  They often go out of their way to keep customers coming back.  Shortly before this customer walked in, I overheard John serve a woman through his own drive-thru window.  (You gotta have a drive-thru these days.)   She told him it was her birthday.  Guess what.  She got a free drink. 

            It’s been several years since I asked Sam, one of John’s baristas, if I could bring in food from elsewhere.  Neither John nor anyone else has ever blinked when I’ve done so.  Could I get away with doing that at Starbucks?  I don’t know.  I’ve never tried.

            However, I will soon be taking a risk of a different sort.  I’ll go to the new coffee shop down the street.  I know John won’t mind.

Some tips on finding stories in your life:

• Connect your story to something larger than itself.  (In the above example, I connected my coffee shop visit to the tensions between local businesses and chains.)
• Look for the conflict.  Without conflict, it should go without saying, you don't have a story. (In this case, the conflict is not mine but between local businesses and chains.)
• Listen. Observe. Pay Attention.  (This is hard for me to do on an ordinary day, but, if you watch life happening around you, some stories write themselves.)
• Look for some way in which you've changed or want to change as a result of the incident.
• Include a few relevant details.  A quote or two always helps.

So, that's it!  Your writing exercise for the day, should you choose to accept it, is to write a short essay or story about something that happened to you in the last 24 hours.  Post your results in the comments section below.

Should You Plan Your Writing or Be Spontaneous?

The obvious answer to the above question is, “It depends on the writer and/or the story.”

But since obvious answers are as helpful as an umbrella in a flood, let’s see if we can be more specific.

Spontaneity can be defined as that quality of writing where you start out and don’t know where you’re going: making it up as you go along. 

Planning is exactly that: having a detailed outline or map of where your story is going, who’s in it, what they are doing and why, etc.

Most writers would probably say they use both spontaneity and planning to one degree or another. And both tools are valuable for writers. Spontaneity keeps your story fresh and exciting; planning keeps your story from going off track or trying to accomplish too much. 

Yet there's a downside to spontaneity. It can easily lead your story astray with characters, ideas, and plot lines that lead nowhere. Stories that rely too much on spontenaity read like dreams: one idea leads to another, and then another idea pops up, and, before long, you’ve lost sight of the original idea.

The downside of planning is that an overly detailed outline can leave your story with little room to grow in ways that surprise both you and your readers. Such stories often read like a response to an argument no one has made: the writer has determined what the “answer” will be, although no one’s asked that particular question.

Here are five tips for finding the right blend of spontenaity and planning that works best for your story:

1. Determine the ending of your story.  Some writers write the ending first or very shortly after they write the beginning.  Others keep the ending firmly in mind.  Whatever your approach, you will keep your story on track (and your interest level high) if you have a specific goal to shoot for.

2. Do not determine exactly how you get to that ending.  Have a general outline or map in mind, yes, but resist the impulse to make it so detailed that you are in effect telling your story before you actually write it. Instead, know where the story’s plot points will be: the inciting incident, the climax, the denouement, etc. 

3. While writing, check your Brilliant New Idea against the above structure.  Will this new character take your story toward its ending?  If not, do you really need him?  If there’s a strong possiblity he might move your story tward its conclusion, let him stay but keep him on a tight leash until you know you can trust him.

4. Write more than one draft.  This almost goes without saying. Yet its surprising how many writers think their first draft should be the final one. Multiple drafts give you time to experiment with new approaches.  They let you see what that Brilliant New Idea has to offer.

5. Be willing to accept the possibility that your story may go in a different direction than the one you planned. Of course, this means knowing what the “heart” of your story is and what you want (in the abstract sense) to accomplish. 

I recently put this idea to the test. In my Compostion I classes, I had students brainstorm ideas for a paper they will be writing. I knew generally what I wanted: a list of topics any student could write about.  (Sorry, Dr. Who fans.  Not everyone watches that show.)  We ended up with a list of 23 topics. I then asked a student to pick a number between 1 and 23, each number corresponding to a particular topic. Then, for whatever topic was selected, we brainstormed ideas and possible audiences and purposes for it.

Exercises such as this always carry risks. What if the topic selected doesn't interest most students? What if it doesn’t interest me? What if my students are shy and don’t want to participate?

Yet the exercise worked marvelously. It demonstrated my abstract goal of showing students how a writer can brainstorm ideas for any topic.

Likewise, the ending of your story may change, but knowing the heart of your story means you can still get there even if the route changes along the way.

Spontaneity and planning work together to create a story that is exciting both for yourself and for your readers. Although there is no formula for determining how much of either tool you should use, it helps to have a clear plan in mind with the caveat that it’s subject to change. 

Know where you are going, but let your muse do the driving.

How much spontaneity versus planning do you include in your writing?