I despise New Years Eve because I always get a major case of the blues. I find myself taking stock of all the things I did wrong during the year that has just passed. Usually, I follow the great guru, Yogi Berra, who said, “When I strike out, I think about the next home run,” but on New Year’s Eve, a black depression sneaks in, a kind of coulda-woulda-shoulda obsessive listing of every snafu which I usually have to talk myself out of. First I list my sins, then I try to talk myself into finding a positive aspect or a lesson learned. In other words, I make lemons into lemonade. This doesn’t always work the first time, but if I am persistent, and drink some Champagne, I can usually talk myself out of being depressed. While this is a great exercise for us writers, we are not the important ones here, it’s our characters, so try it out and let me know.
New Year’s Eve
1. Select the worst thing that happened to your character.
2. Writing in the first person voice as if you were your main character, describe the event as it unfolded.
3. Set a timer for 5 minutes.
4. Writing as if you were your main character, describe what was the worst thing about the event.
5. Reset the timer for 5 minutes.
6. Writing as if you were your main character, describe a positive aspec of the same event, and then, what “you” learned from it.
7. Repeat the process for the villain or obstacle, using a similar type of event.
Good luck, and I hope that in 2011, all of your dreams come true and that you find new ones.
Happy New Year!
