Inspiration Exercise

Margo asked: "What writing exercise do you find most valuable for inspiration/originality?"

Yet another great question! You guys are awesome.

Sometimes creativity comes in unusual ways. My inspirations usually come from What If questions. So for example, I might try to come up with a what if and then take that one and twist it somehow. A good exercise is to come up with something that doesn't have to be original, but then change one element of it. Keep going until you have a bunch of alternatives. For example, start with: 

• Girl falls in love with werewolf. 
• Boy falls in love with werewolf.
• Vampire falls in love with werewolf.
• Boy hates werewolf and is jealous of popularity.

Keep going until you have some crazy ones. Chances are there won't even be a werewolf when you're done. ;D 

Another exercise I like is writing a scene in first person from a different character's POV. 

What are some other exercises you like? Share with each other in the comments!

Monday Madness - Margo Berendsen

Before I get to Margo... I received this lovely Sunshine Award from Karen Strong. Thanks Karen! I am passing it along to Catherine Winn. Go check out both blogs! Oh and don't forget to register for Writeoncon if you haven't yet...

NOW

Margo Berendsen lives at a very high altitude. She believes this helps her writing. She enjoys chocolate, has a big family and always seems to have her nose in a book. She takes many notes and loves to analyze things, often marking up whatever she can get her hands on. She's afraid of Demons and witches but loves mythology.

As you can see I have plenty of information about Margo. But what does it MEAN??

I believe Margo is really a GNOME. Not the red hatted garden variety. But the kind of intellectual Gnome that loves nothing more than to bury itself in a big library and study. Gnomes of all sorts are remarkably strong and clever. They have large famlies and mate for life.

So, considering they appear peace loving, the question then is this, Margo, is there really a great Gnome conspiracy to take over the world??