Find Wonder Everywhere

Last week I spent a bunch of time in Glasgow, for (happy) family reasons.

Because of last-minute airline insanity we ended up traveling the length of the country from London to Glasgow on the train instead of flying over it, as we usually do, and it was glorious.

Every time I looked out of the window, there was a new landscape to examine: now flat and pastoral, now mountains and lakes, now industrial revolution-era towns tucked into river valleys…

This week a lot of writers and sci-fi/fantasy fans are in Glasgow for WorldCon, the big annual conference and i’m following along on social media.

I just saw a post from someone who said they were taking the same 5hr train ride I just took…and were watching The Matrix on their laptop.

I carefully put my phone down and took a deep breath. I try not to shout at strangers on the Internet, but the inside of my head was ringing with the words “Look out of the window!”

Take A Fresh Look At The World

Humans are creatures of habit. We do the things we’ve always done – like staring at our screens on long journeys even when we don’t have to.

As writers our purpose is to make readers experience things they don’t normally experience. 

To do that, I believe we need to be constantly curious. 

That’s easy when we travel somewhere new. 

But you don’t need a big travel budget to find novelty and wonder, not with the right attitude.

This week I challenge you to vary your routine and find the wonder in the place where you are.

  • Take a new route home from work and really notice your surroundings. Wind the windows down in your car and listen, smell, feel.
  • Take off your headphones and listen to the world as you walk through it.
  • Talk to a stranger. Try to find out what gets them excited, then stand back and watch how it changes their whole physicality.
  • Order a different type of coffee, then try to describe it in words.
  • Visit a museum in your hometown (even if it’s the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, WI)
  • Wander the non-fiction stacks at your local library and pull a book off the shelf at random. Grab a table and spend an hour leafing through it.
  • Stop and really look at the weeds growing on a free-growing patch of earth.

Celebrate the day-to-day and come back to your desk, refreshed.

What will you explore this week? Leave a comment and let me know – or come back and comment when you’ve done it.

University of Glasgow Spire from the Snow Bridge over the River Kelvin
University of Glasgow Spire from the Snow Bridge over the River Kelvin

DAY 9 – Marta Pelrine-Bacon Looks Around

THE PROMPT

Choose an object within reach of where you’re sitting. Three people desperately want this object. Write a scene or story in which the characters fight over said object. Ideally choose an object that people wouldn’t obviously fight over.

THE AUTHOR

Marta Pelrine-Bacon is a StoryADay Superstar, and a participant in the challenge since 2010. Marta is the author of several published short stories in publications such as The Austin Review and Cabinet des Fees. She is also an artist and a teacher.

Read A Book, Help An Indie

This year’s StoryADay May official bookseller is Reads & Company, a privately-owned indie bookseller in Pennsylvania. Any purchase from the site this month supports Reads & Co. 

MARTA PELRINE-BACON, THE BLUE JAR

BUY NOW

Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today, and how it went!

[Write On Wednesday] Examine An Object

Today’s prompt is inspired by three things. The first was the release this week of a US prisoner of war. It made me think of the many hostage and prison stories I’ve read, where people have lived in tiny cells for years on end and how it changes them. The second is the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in which a woman, trapped in her domestic life, fixates on the wallpaper of her room and always finds something new to see. The third is the essay “Fish” by Robin Sloan, which shares an observation exercise, in which students are asked to observe a dead fish long past the point when it would seem to be interesting.

If you can, read both those stories and then try this prompt.

Seeing My World Through A Keyholeby Kate Ter Haar
Seeing My World Through A Keyholeby Kate Ter Haar

The Prompt

Write about a person who is forced, by circumstance or outside agency, to observe a limited view for an unlimited time.

Tips

  • Describe what they see, remembering that their use of language will reflect how they feel about the situation they find themselves in.
  • How what they see and how they feel about it change over time?
  • What do they think about when all they to do is look at the same thing over and over again?
  • How does this change over time?
  • What does this tell us about the character?
  • What universal truths might there be in what your character is thinking?
  • If you get stuck, just start a new paragraph as if some time has passed. Have your character describe the view again, and think about how they might have changed in the intervening time.
  • Don’t worry if you don’t think this is making a great story. Keep going. You’ll find a way to end it if you let the character speak.

Go!