Writing from the Senses: 59 Exercises to Ignite Creativity and Revitalize Your Writing

(Paperback)

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Description

"Break through writer's block using your five senses!" Break through writer's block using your five senses! The sensory details that infuse our everyday experience ;the smell of a favorite dish cooking, the texture of a well-worn coat, hearing a song that reminds you of a person or a time in your life can be used to add richness and spark to what we write. Whether you are a professional writer (or want to be one) or someone who enjoys just writing for your own personal fulfillment, Writing from the Senses will show you how to tap into an endless source of engaging material, using your senses as prompts. The exercises will stimulate you to develop stories, imagery, and details that will allow readers to see, taste, hear, smell, and feel that they're in the scene. Writing from the Senses Provides 60 prompts and creative writing exercises organized by sense; Presents engaging narratives, personal essays, and instruction to entertain and inform readers and illustrate the effectiveness of each exercise; Helps writers recognize the sensory prompts that surround them daily and use them to trigger their individual stories; and Shows how freewrites from the prompts in this book can result in publishable pieces.

Reviews

"Laura Deutsch shares the secret of great writing, which comes from awakening and enlisting the senses.Writing from the Sensesis filled with fresh ideas and powerful examples of evocative writing that are sure to inspire both emerging and veteran writers."--Lavinia Spalding, author ofWriting Away

Author Bio

LAURA DEUTSCH is a writer, editor, and teacher based in Mill Valley, California. She began teaching writing in 1974 at the University of California at Berkeley and has subsequently taught her popular classes and workshops at San Francisco State University, Book Passage bookstore, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, and in Arezzo, Italy. For the past fifteen years, her classes have focused on personal essay and memoir, writing from the senses, writing as a spiritual practice, and how to get into print. Laura's personal essays, feature stories, and travel pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco magazine, More magazine, Time Out, Mademoiselle, and the Dallas Morning News. Her personal essays have been anthologized in several collections, including I Should Have Stayed Home; Best Women's Travel Writing 2011; and Leave the Lipstick, Take the Iguana. Her commentary has aired on public radio.