Carteret Community College and Carteret Writers is offering a light summer sampler of hands-on writing workshops to inspire, challenge, and ignite your creativity from May 15, 2023 – June 26, 2023. I’ll be hosting the first Hooks & Lines workshop on kickstarting your creativity, where we’re going to explore the schedules, interviews, habits, and hobbies of other writers and creatives to inspire and motivate our own writing pursuits. This post hits the highlights of the workshop in case you want easy access to the resources I refer to or in case you’re interested in playing along at home. (It won’t be quite as fun without other writers to bounce ideas off of, but it’ll still be pretty fun.)

Exercise 1: How do writers spend their time?

Every writer has to come to terms with time management. The following resources offer a peek into a few famous authors’ daily routines.

Note from the workshop: Amongst ourselves, we all agreed that Thompson could’ve carved out a lot more time for creative writing if he’d spent a little less time doing cocaine. Where could you insert more writing time in your schedule?

The Prompt

You have all the time and resources you need to devote yourself to your perfect writing life. Draft a schedule for your ideal day starting from the moment you wake and ending at your bedtime.

Exercise 2: What makes writers so cool?

Each writer brings their own style to the craft. The following interviews show they also bring style to interviews. Note how their journalist peers describe these famous authors in the opening paragraphs.

Note from the workshop: This was my favorite exercise because the participants really got into it, and the results were brilliant, hysterical, and have convinced me that every writer in the workshop will be a world-famous literary icon by the end of the year.

The Prompt

Your masterpiece has been recently published, and a journalist has arrived to interview you for a cover story. Using the above models as a guide, write the first paragraph of the article, in which the journalist describes the setting of the interview, your most recent exploits, and your authorial style.

Exercise 3: Too many titles

At the Carteret Writers Quadrennial Conference, mystery writer Sara Johnson described the trials and tribulations of slipping a book title past the publishers. Raymond Chandler, another of my favorite mystery writers, kept a running list of titles, many of which he never used. I’ve included a few from The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler; and English Summer: A Gothic Romance below (parenthetical notes are Chandler’s).

  • The Man with the Shredded Ear
  • All Guns Are Loaded
  • Choice of Dessert
  • Return from Ruin
  • We All Liked Al
  • They Only Murdered Him Once
  • Too Late for Smiling
  • Quick, Hide the Body
  • The Quiet Ivories (piano used to hide a body a la Stevenson)
  • Thunder Bug (don’t know what it means?)

Note from the workshop: I gave participants about eight minutes to come up with twenty titles, and they did not disappoint. As we shared, I asked writers to make note of the titles that elicited an instantaneous “ooooooh” from their fellow writers. Those are titles with legs.

The Prompt

You need to convince your agent that you’ve got enough ideas to keep cranking out books for years to come. Generate a list of twenty titles that will convince anyone that you’re full of it. (Inspiration, that is.)

Exercise 4: 7 books in your imaginary library

Inspired by Emily Temple’s The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022 in LitHub and How to Be Weird: An Off-Kilter Guide to Living a One-of-a-Kind Life by Eric G. Wilson, artist, writer, and my friend Natalie Stoner developed her playful literary art project 7 Imaginary Book Covers to experiment with cover designs. Below, is an excerpt from the project. Click the link to the project to see all seven imaginary books and the covers Natalie designed for them.

Title: Reality is Malleable, Mutable, Soft
Author: K. M. Wrenstellar
Description: Reality is Malleable, Mutable, Soft is the third volume of Wrenstellar’s striking philoso-poetry. Incorporating elements of philosophy into his rich linguistic moodscapes to produce mind-bending propositions pinned to decadent, sensual, verbal tapestries. In this volume, Wrenstellar explores the disintegration of consensus reality and the strange melange of replacements racing into its void. From virtual experiences to bizarre subcultures, Wrenstellar plunges deep and emerges with thought-treasures from imagined future timelines.

Note from the workshop: The writers in the group quickly developed compelling characters, settings, and plot points for a title they’d only just invented, and now I’ve got a whole new TBR list that consists of currently imaginary books.

The Prompt

Your agent has selected one of the titles that you sent as a potential bestseller. She wants to know more about it.  Write a back cover blurb for the prospective book that identifies the main characters and the setting and teases a plot that readers will find unputdownable. (Now do it six more times.)

One last tip for thinking like a writer

Good writing thrives in the company of good writers, so the best thing you can do for yourself as a writer is to surround yourself with other talented, enthusiastic writers. Seek out local workshops or join small writing groups in your community. These spaces provide invaluable opportunities to practice your craft, receive feedback, and connect with like-minded individuals who share your passion for storytelling. By immersing yourself in a supportive ecosystem of writers, you’ll discover new perspectives, exchange ideas, and find the motivation to push your writing to new heights.