April on this newsletter will be dedicated to the philosophy of action.
Talking to some of my followers, they’ve been reading my e-mails for months but… they’ve never written anything.
It’s time for that to change.
Whatever your life goals may be. Contemplation will never get you there. You have to live your trials by fire.
During the month of April, I’ll be sharing a series of writing exercises that will help you :
Explore your creativity
Boost your self-confidence
Take you out of your comfort zone
Exercises that focus not only on practice but also on mindset. We’ll start with small exercises and gradually build up to a larger creative project. The last one will allow you to finish a small complete story.
But before you can write pages, you have to write words.
For this first exercise, your mission, if you accept it, is to write a teaser text (between 100–200 words) for a story you’ve imagined. This short text has only one purpose. To make your readers want to know more about the story you’ve imagined. It’s an invitation to meet your universe. You have to find the words to make them want to escape this world and join yours. Make them dream.
It’s a complex exercise since in just a few words you have to convince a reader that :
Your story is good
Your story will be interesting
Your story is original
Your story is unique
But also
It takes courage to dare share your writings
It takes courage to dare be judged
It takes creativity to come up with good ideas
It’s an exercise in the importance of each word. When you only have 100–200 words to convince. Every word matters. You have to make an impact. Generate emotions and curiosity.
If you want to take part in this little challenge:
You can reply to the article with your text
You can create an article and tag me at the end.
And I’ll reply individually if it makes me want to know more.
If this exercise seems difficult, that’s exactly where it gets interesting. Take your time. Open your mind. Breathe. Associate this moment of research with a moment of joyful writing where you’ll have fun.
And who knows…
Maybe you’ll get the idea for one of your next novels from this one.
To all those who read me but have never written, it’s time to come out of your lair. Trust the call of words.
I was away at the end of last week. I wasn't able to publish on Saturday. So I'm sharing this week's three stories with you. The weekly chat is taking a week's holiday and will be back next Saturday. I have another project to present to you on Saturday.
Did you know most messes can be cleaned up?
Sometimes the universe sends us messages. I let things build up. It's polluting my mental energy. It's time to open those old drawers and sort things out. To buy my new library so I can help the old one, which is far too busy and disorganized. To finally give away those bags of objects I've been putting aside for weeks.
Advice on Writing
I vibe with few writing advice. It's almost always from the angle of: how to make more views, how to make more money. More, more, more. Like it's a race. It's never about how to bring out the artist in you. The list below is the kind of advice I like to read.
Stepping away from the game
This story ties in with the theme I set myself in April. I look at myself in the mirror and say, "Who have I become?"
Certain things that were part of my identity have disappeared. Less action. Less courage. It's time to try and find that part of me that's lost.
Here is my piece. Please tell me what you think.
Its a very good technique—making a synopsis of your text before writing. Usually from those few hundred words, you can gauge whether the story has merit before writing. Good time-saver.