100 Day CreativeChallenge: Day 33
Frame It! Build It!
I’ve been on a road trip the last couple of days and, because I’m recovering from surgery, all I’m allowed to do is read. (Not that I’m complaining! Reading is my number one hobby.)
Reading is my hobby, but it’s also homework. (Seriously!)
I was privileged to attend one of Margie Lawson’s immersion masterclasses in 2015 and part of the homework was reading. As soon as the word reading was mentioned my excitement level rose like a dam about to overflow.
However, I’m sorry to say that reading has now been spoiled for me. I can’t read a novel without underlining and marking the page with post-it notes. The old me would have preserved my books in pristine condition.The new me attacks them with fluorescent marker pens. Notes are scribbled in the margins. Novels are treated like textbooks, not magical trips through imaginary worlds.
Margie taught us to find great lines in novels and then Frame It! Build It!
Frame It! Build It! is shorthand for ‘use the framework of an existing sentence or paragraph and write your own using the structure, but changing the words.’ It’s not copying the ideas or words, but rather using the framework to create your own powerful piece of writing.
Frame It! Build It! has become a part of my writing process. It gives me a nudge when I’m feeling a bit stuck or need to find a fresh way of saying something. The following example is from a work-in-progress so it’s a bit rough, but it’ll give you the idea.
Our job is not to deny the story, but to defy the ending. Brené Brown, Rising Strong
I read this sentence and it made me think of Laura (A character in a novel I’m writing) I used Frame It! Build It! to develop a part of the story where Laura is working out whether she should stay with or leave her husband.
Laura – Have I got the strength to defy divorce? Defy the inevitable? Defy myself? My job is not to end the story, but to fight for a new ending.
Reading definitely helps my writing. Other writers’ genius creates a spark that lights and fires my creativity. It’s sort of like the circle of life— a circle of inspiration if you will.
If you’re a writer, I hope you find time to read and perhaps your novels will look like porcupines with Post-It note tabs throughout.
