Happy Friday!
It has been an exciting week because I have been working on the Word of the Day book and teaching my new concepts to the wonderful Word of the Day class.
One of the most significant innovations I have made in the Word of the Day process is three-fold. One, create a group of topics for yourself and pick one before going to bed. Topics would include: writing in general, your current project, something you feel stuck about, or a problem you’re having. Two, before you go to sleep, get your Word of the Day ready by putting a circle in the middle of a page in your notebook. Then, as usual, when you wake up in the morning, take a breath, wait for the word of the day to appear in your mind, and then quickly brainstorm ideas. And three, when brainstorming ideas, we are now looking for the “orphan word.” This word will be in stark contrast to the others.
For example, one of my students used the word “family” for his Word of the Day. When brainstorming, his initial results were words like love, closeness, mother, brother, and Christmas. He then wrote the word “war.” The word “war” contrasts with the others and is the orphan word. What was the connection? My student had lived through a war with his family. Here was the seed for a good story! From this example, you can see how the incongruous word created the portal into the story idea.
In the webinar, my lovely students put this into practice, and we came up with some terrific ideas for stories.
We have a contest running until April 30. It’s a call for short stories or short scripts under three pages. Prizes include a one-hour consultation with me which is worth $500.
The next webinar will be on May 11 from 5:30 to 7 pm. We are moving the meeting time earlier for those who attended in the past because it seems more convenient for everybody. If you’d like to attend, please send me an email, and I’ll send you the Zoom link.
I will also teach a section on How to Write a Screenplay in Eight Weeks starting in June. Please let me know if you are interested because that will determine whether I schedule the class.
Here’s to your successful writing,
Professor Marilyn Horowitz
