The 365-day Writer’s Block Workbook (Volume 1)
Morgen Bailey
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Morgen Bailey
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Welcome to ‘The 365-day Writer’s Block Workbook (Volume 1)’.
Writer’s Block is all too often the result of an author over-thinking, caught up with details and the task of planning ahead. Sometimes all that’s needed is to just write something to get the mind working. As the title would suggest, this book provides you with inspiration, for every day of the year, in the form of three sentence starts per day, written especially for this book. And if you happen to pick this book up during a leap year then enjoy the day off!
Each week is formatted with three sentence starters from the following points of view:
Day 1: ‘first person’
Day 2: ‘second person’
Day 3: ‘third person’
Day 4: more ‘first person’
Day 5: more ‘second person’
Day 6: more ‘third person’
Day 7: ‘any viewpoint’ where you can literally choose first, second or third person from the sentence starter options.
At the end of each week there is a tip from ‘show not tell’ and ‘character names’ to ‘direct vs. indirect action’ and many more… 49 more in fact.
Why three sentence beginnings per day? Two reasons: one alone may just not be enough to grab you and I don’t want you to sit there as stuck as you were before you read it. With three to choose from, you have more of a chance to find one that you can continue. Secondly, if you have a bit more time on your hands, you continue two or all three of them. Or use them in the same story. Now, there’s a challenge.
Each sentence start is given as an example; if you find that as you write, you’d like to change the character’s name, gender or even the tense, it is entirely your choice. The intention of this book is to help if you’re stuck and if tweaking something you read here helps you further, then it’s getting you writing and my work here is done.
Points of View
First-person point of view: ‘I’
The sentence starts for days 1 and 4 of each week are written in the first person viewpoint; a narrator uses ‘I’. Whilst the narrator can describe other people and the emotions they are expressing, ‘I’ can’t get inside their head. Writing in the first person can feel very immediate but is limited as it can only show the point of view from one person’s head, the narrator. Unlike third person viewpoint where chapters can be written from different characters’ perspective, it is not recommended to have more than one first person narration. Some of the sentence starts in this book are written from ‘we’ which is still first person but is plural so again, the narrator can only provide his / her inner thoughts and can only surmise the thoughts of other people.
Second person point of view: ‘You’
The sentence starts for days 2 and 5 of each week are written in the second person viewpoint; You. Second person is rarely written, or accepted, and instead of being the point of view of the narrator, in second person the narrator is talking to the reader. Like first and third person, it can be written in any tense. And like first person, the narrator can only tell us (the reader) his or her own thoughts but it’s very intense, sometimes too much so for some readers (and possibly why editors avoid buying it) but I would urge you to have a go writing it – you never know, you might even enjoy it. Probably the most well-known novel written in second person is Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright Lights, Big City’.
Third person point of view – limited: ‘He’ / ’She’ / ’They’
The sentence starts for days 3 and 6 of each week are written in the third person viewpoint; He or She. This is the most commonly-used point of view where the narrator is describing what other people, the characters are doing. In most books there is one central character (protagonist) which the narrator can tell more about than the other characters but the narration is limited as our protagonist won’t know what the other characters (often antagonists) are thinking.
Third person point of view – omniscient: ‘He’ / ’She’ / ’They’
Unlike third person limited, with the omniscient viewpoint allows the author and reader to follow the story from various characters’ perspectives. Whilst the narrator can describe more than third person limited, the story should still clearly identify the main and secondary characters.
Tenses
Past tense e.g. He went, she laughed, they sat
Most works of fiction are written in third person past tense and it is certainly the tense that most editors prefer. There was a spate of present tense in recent times but editors seem to have tired of it and will invariably prefer past tense. The sentence starts chosen for this book are therefore mostly written in past tense.
Present tense e.g. He goes / He is going
As I mentioned above, contemporary writing is being more and more written in the present tense, and whilst some editors aren’t partial to it, it does bring some immediacy to your writing. From a reader’s point of view it is like they are taking part in the action as it happens. Both tenses are quite easy to write providing you don’t slip from one to the other. Novels are quite often written with alternate tense chapters and that can work well.
Future tense e.g. He will go
Like second person viewpoint, future tense in rarely used in published works as it is quite difficult a tense to sustain for a lengthy piece. I would again however suggest that you try it because you may well enjoy the challenge – Day 121 is an example of this.
All the sentence starts in this book are suggestions. If you like part of the sentence but perhaps want to change any aspect of it, e.g. Mabel to Mavis or that she’s selling something instead of buying, or the tense from past to present or vice versa, then feel free to. The intention of this book is to help when you’re stuck and if tweaking something you read here helps you further, and gets you writing, then my work is done.
Morgen Bailey
WEEK 1
DAY 1 (first person)
I held her hand as we entered the church…
Clasping the ticket in my right hand…
Although they legally belong to me…
DAY 2 (second person)
You watched the old man circle the car…
You grew suspicious with every word he wrote…
The man stares at your passport…
DAY 3 (third person)
With arthritis in his left big toe, Max…
Webber was a ‘get in line’ kind of guy…
As a cloud of smoke flew back into her face…
DAY 4 (first person)
I know I should have felt guilty…
He wasn’t a character I could relate to…
She had told me it would be divine…
DAY 5 (second person)
You look foreign to him…
Swinging your handbag by your side…
She tells you to pick your feet up…
DAY 6 (third person)
Ella refused to budge…
As Jason repeated the line…
Richard grabbed the keys to…
DAY 7 (you can use these with any point of view)
Not realising that the garden fork was directly above…
“Yeah, it’s easy to say that now”…