Journey 365: Observation Deck, Study Opening Lines

The Observation Deck, a tool-kit for writers, is an excellent way to jumpstart your writing when you are stuck or to use as a daily free-writing exercise. The huge bonus is that if you are working on your novel, you can apply the cards to your story, your character, or even your plot.

Using the cards in your "real" work creates a more complex situation by having you delve deeper--though you want your writing to remain the way it needs to be to touch your readers; if you can delve deeper, your reader can, and if you reader delves deep, they are more attached, more connected... they CARE.

I'm nearly a week into Journey 365, I've been to two states, four cities, and in less than twenty-four hours, I've both sweated from the sunny heat in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and then had to figure out how to bundle up without a coat during the snowfall that dropped at least an inch, perhaps two!

The one thing that doesn't change? Writing. Get to a pattern (avoid putting yourself into a situation where if something changes you are stressed and "fail") and stick with it.

I've touched on my daily pattern before; I'll share it again: wake, SMILE, tea, stretch and meditate, 500 words, hike/exercise/nature, 15 minutes each of transcribing interviews and 187 (documentary)... the rest is all a bonus.

When you have this pattern going, even for just three days, you tend to work better because you feel better about yourself.

My pattern for the year is to have a book a year for life.

That's my story, I'm sticking to it.

Journey 365: Observation Deck, OPEN a Drawer

Observation Deck for Writers

Journey 365:

Across the States in 365 Pages

(a page a day makes a book!)

From Huntington Beach, California, to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, to Salem, Oregon, and Fort Hood, Texas, I'm traveling the states to visit family--the true quest, however, is to find myself and write another book. 

Each day I wake when my body wakes (I have medical uncontrollable insomnia and other ailments, thanks to our Mold House), SMILE, stretch and do some push-ups, grab a cup of hot tea with sugar and milk, write 500 words, hike, write 500 more words, work 15 minutes each on a script and 187 (mini-documentaries), and spend time transcribing audio taped interviews. Everything else is whatever makes my heart smile.

Your character OPENs a drawer

In case you're wondering, money for the road comes from paid articles and local merchandising jobs. Passive income would be easier and smarter, but I only earn about $18 a year...

Today's chosen Observation Deck card is OPEN a drawer. 

"Thrust your hand deep into life, and whatever you bring up in it, that is your subject."

~Goethe, poet

Naomi Epel, the creator and author of my Observation Deck (tool kit for writers), shares ideas on cards that you use in your writing or for free-writing, and is something I've been using and suggesting for decades. 

OPEN a drawer suggests that you use this idea to learn more about your character or to imagine an open drawer and create a story. 

Maybe, you simply pull something out of an open drawer and you revolve a tale around it (you pull out a utility knife and realize it's the same one that Matthew used to quickly to cut out of the ties used to restrain him during a home invasion in which he was the lone survivor).

Another thought, perhaps your heroine keeps something in her beauty drawer that is a hidden secret of what motivates her to do the things she does; a love letter from someone other than her husband or an ultra sound picture of a baby she carried secretly and gave up the previous decade.

Whether you use the OPEN a drawer card for a simple warm-up to your "real" writing or for your book, you'll find the exercise will take you to places you hadn't thought about before and they just may be the jump-start you've been searching for.