A Writing Exercise That Increase Awareness And Description Skills

Practice attaching words to feelings requires time to do.Without a system that helps you monitor that time, theminutes or hours could feel unproductive. With the rightexercise, you can then use that time wisely, as well as saveyou time and frustration.

Learning to apply the right words to our six senses is a topingredient to the mixture of writing. Its language bringsthe reader into the story. All of us easily know how wefeel, or what we're seeing (okay, most of the time), whatwe're hearing, smelling, tasting, and sensing, and canusually explain it in 50 words if pushed to do it. But, howdo you describe it in one or two words without the pushing?

Also, by beginning with good material, the remaining part ofthe writing process becomes easier. This exercise will helpyou improve your beginning.

This is a simple exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime,in a space of minutes or longer. You can practice Mondaymornings in the garden, the doctor’s waiting room, or in thelunchroom. It can last as long as a television commercial(oops those aren't short any longer), or you moreaggressively with a devoted 30-minutes a day. Whateverlength of time or place you have, it will always improveyour skill.

You will want to sit while completing this exercise.

Okay, let's start with the most difficult spot, yoursupplies -- paper and your writing instruments. Landscape,portrait, small, or regular size sheet of paper doesn'tmatter. I define what paper size to use by the amount oftime available and my location. If I'm mobile, I use mysmall journal. If I'm at my desk or at home, I use aregular size paper. Sometimes lines, sometimes not.Sometimes the exercise flows over to two or three sheets.Don't limit the experience by paper size. Have fun with therecording tools as well. Experimentation is the key to ourcuriosity. And, curiosity is the foundation of a writer.

Draw a circle on the page and place your name in the center.Large, small, in color, black, or blue, again it doesn'tmatter. Use whatever flips your pancakes at that moment.In other words, whatever feels good at the time.

Your objective is to describe your five senses, six if youhave that gift, with words. Write the words that expressthat sense in the space inside the circle randomly aroundyour name.

Here is how you would use this exercise to increaseenvironment awareness and description. Write your words inthe location on the paper relevant to the direction itappears. For example: I'm sitting outside my office on a9th floor balcony at the moment, I hear a heavy humming fromthe tires on the wet pavement below and birds chirping aboveme to the right. I would place the words for the tires onthe bottom left and the chirping on the upper right on mypage.

Here are nine prompts to help you expand your experience.
* Write words describing your atmosphere--the quality ofair.
* What are the clouds doing? Can you see animals in theirshapes?
* The temperature of your location.
* The source of light and its quality.
* Where are people standing or sitting?
* Shadows, are they're any? Where and how do they fall?
* Predominant colors, wall colors, wallpaper, molding, chairrailing, textured ceiling.
* What do you smell? Using comparisons are a great way torelate to your reader. The air feels like just getting outof the fogged shower stall.
* Are there other people around you? How do they smell,their clothes, their shoes? Guess at what they might do fora living. Are they dressed like someone on their way towork, doesn't work, a mom, dad, baker, or what?

After you are comfortable describing your environment, spicethe exercise up another notch. Compare your descriptivewords to something else. For example: The room you aresitting in feels like a sauna with my clothes on.

Continue spicing up the exercise to increase your awarenessand descriptive powers--use people and objects. Since youare most familiar with yourself, begin there.

After practicing on the most familiar subject, yourself,create a list of other familiar people in your life. Thensort the list from most familiar to least. Continue downthe list. Somewhere during these lists and practicesessions, you will begin to feel comfortable with yourskill.

You can continue taking the exercise to another level. Thistime you are ready to expand your awareness and adaptationto words. Visit the local mall; sit in the food court forsmorgasbord of new enriching thoughts-to-words experiences.

Here are 11 prompts to help you expand your levels:
* Describe what you are wearing.
* How does your body feel?
* What are your hands doing?
* How does your throat feel?
* How are you holding your mouth?
* Eye movement
* Breathing
* How do you feel in general, in detail?
* Name your mood. Does it have a flavor and color?
* Describe your feelings with reference to music. A certainsong or type of music.
* How does your hair smell, clothes, the chair you'resitting on, the book you're reading?

Be patient with yourself while practicing. This exerciseisn't the easiest to complete, however, it is the mosteffective. Even if you aren't a writer, this exercise willhelp you triple your awareness skills in a short timeperiod1. This exercise also helps police officers,speakers, judges, attorneys, or anyone else that uses theirawareness skills to see and put it into words. This is alsoa NLP--neurolinguistics programming skill--for those awareof this process.