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.