Sunday Stretch- Prep for InCoWriMo!
InCoWriMo is coming up in February and we here at the Henlo Press are preparing ourselves for the month- long letter writing extravaganza!
(For more info on how to join us check out Stephanie’s post here: https://www.thehenlopress.com/post/incowrimo-2020).
One letter a day, twenty-nine hand written letters over the course of the month. It is a lot of writing. And if you are like me, it can be hard to come up with something new to write to someone every day, especially if you are writing to the same person over the course of the month.
So what better time than now to stretch to get in shape for February?
Need some ideas for the right sort of stretch? No problem. I got you. I have three beautiful prompts to get you started right now.
1) Not ready for an audience? Write to yourself! Then give it a couple days and reread it. Is your letter impactful? A little too journal like? Write to yourself as one of your characters.
2) Don’t want to write to a real person yet? Or even as yourself? Write a set of corresponding letters to and from two of your characters in your current fiction endeavor. In between projects? Borrow from other fiction and write letters between two of your favorite characters. Bonus points if the characters are from two different works.
3) Grab your timer! Set for 8 min. Now write your letter. Don’t think, just write. The thinking part will come later. Once the timer goes off, the fun really starts. Take the letter that you have in front of you and it is time to convert it to poetry. After all, aren’t all great letters some form of poetry? You can take this part as seriously or as silly as you like it. Boundaries are helpful. Take the content of the letter you have already written and go full Shakespearean sonnet! Or Villanelle! Or Limerick! (Check out different forms of poetry to pick from here: https://poets.org/glossary).
Bonus: Need a different sort of jump start? Something just a little silly? Check out https://www.letter-generator.org.uk. I played around with this for far too long and each result was sillier than the one before it. If you need a good laugh and a mental break from your own writing, I would encourage you to play around with it for awhile.
There are less than two weeks left until InCoWriMo Starts, so now is the time to get stretching!
If you take the time to do any of these exercises, share your results with us and we may post them during a future feature!
Good luck and happy writing,
Your Friends at The Henlo Press