Most people have Rules of Thumb that they live by–consciously or not. A rule might be something personal like, “If the chance of rain is 30% or greater, I’ll carry an umbrella.” Or, “More than 5 years age difference, don’t date there.”  Or, “If I limit myself to one drink an hour, I can drink all night.”

Some Rules of Thumb have entered the popular vernacular. For example, “If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know.” Or, “Assume every gun is a loaded gun, and behave accordingly.”

For this exercise, identify three to five Rules of Thumb you live by. Choose one or more and make it/them central to your character’s functioning. What happens when the rules of thumb don’t hold up? Write the story–and have fun!

When you travel by car, note the names of roads, churches, businesses, schools–whatever–that strike you as especially colorful.These often add vivid specificity to a story or scene. You are more likely to find compelling names along state or county roads than along interstates, in small towns rather than in cities.

Sometimes just the name is sufficient to start a story. Consider Bone Yard Road or Fresh Fire Church of God as possible settings.

Write the story of attending your 30th high school reunion. For some this could be–but does not have to be–memoir. Think tragedy, comedy, romance. Think fantasy, sci fi, or memoir based fiction. Use as much imagination as you want or need. The only important restrictions are that it be the 30th reunion (regardless of your actual age or experience with such reunions) and that you people your story with actual characters from your high school class.

There are two basic types of writers: those who begin already knowing how the story ends and those who don’t.

Writers who start off knowing how the story ends say things like, “Knowing where I’m going guides the whole process and keeps me focused: every scene, every character, every description is tested against the question, ‘How does this move the story toward its climax?'” This camp includes many fine writers, including (but not limited to) John Barth, Katherine Anne Porter, and Toni Morrison.

The other camp sees writing as a process of discovery. These writers include Donald Barthelme, and E. L. Doctorow. Perhaps the epitome of this approach would be Steven King, who reputedly starts by asking, “What if . . . ?” As in, “What if vampires invaded a small New England town?” And then he writes until he discovers the answer.

My point is not these particular authors or their purity as exemplars of my assertion. The point is that there is no one right or effective way to write. Either style can take you many places. Your task is to find the method that works for you.

Writers often insert body language or actions to break up paragraphs of dialogue or narrative. What theater people call business creates a beat and helps establish the rhythm of the scene.

But it should do more. Think beyond nodding, smiling, nose-scratching, and coffee sipping. Everyone does these things and inserting them tells the reader nothing of the character who performs the action. To remedy the situation, think of less common, more character-driven actions AND/OR embed the action in a series that makes it telling. For example, if someone absentmindedly scratches–head, elbow, neck, crotch–scratching his nose would fit, maybe adding something about digging for skin flakes and looking at the results. The point is to make it memorable. Go for it.

When you are trying to get something on the page, moving quickly and just getting it done is the way to go. But know that isn’t the finished product. Go over your draft and mark commonplace words–particularly forms of the to-be verbs and vague adjectives. Consider at least three alternatives–and consider the value of the least expected.

Your character has a small, pre-formed pond in the back yard. The pond is home to three goldfish and half a dozen frogs. Then there are a dozen frogs. The frog populations grows, till your character counts 27. A week later, there are fewer than 20, and a week after that, there are only 15 frogs, and a wet spot on the stones by the side of the pond.

Write a story accounting for the frog population. Nothing predictable. Stretch. Get into magical realism, sci fi, fantasy, even fairy tale or fable.

Just for the fun of it: open a dictionary and choose a word at random. Do this three or more times. Then write a paragraph–or scene–using all of the words. This is a great way to trigger juxtapositions that would not otherwise come to mind, and may start a story in an unexpected direction.

“Show, don’t tell,” is writing advice freely given and often repeated. The basic premise is that writing, “. . .and so Suzanne went to bed happy,” is–generally–weaker writing than showing us a scene in which Suzanne is talking or doing things that allow the reader to conclude that she is happy.

As with all rules and guidelines, consider your goal. In general, I suggest showing important actions or events in dialogue and/or behavior. For less important but necessary bits, use exposition to summarize things no one would really like to read. The process of getting there is a prime target. If your character needs to get from Richmond to Denver, put her in a car/train/plane or whatever in Richmond and get her out in Denver. Unless something important to the plot or character development happens en route, leave it at that. Skip the security check-in, over-proced airport food, fellow-passengers’ annoying cell phone conversations, etc.If something important does happen en route, show that as a scene and skip all the boring, predictable details of the before and after.

First make a list of  emotions people feel intensely–e.g., anger, shyness, boredom.

Now consider Shelly, a woman who lives under a perpetual black cloud. She was in an automobile accident, not her fault, which required two back surgeries. Her father was diagnosed with cancer, told he had six months to live, and died in two weeks. Her boss decided to move to another state. Her vision blurred, and she learned she has a benign but inoperable brain tumor, which required a shunt to drain the fluid build-up that was causing the blurred vision.The shunt broke–twice. She went to the ER for heart issues and learned she has an over-active thyroid. The chest X-ray revealed a mass in her thoracic cavity, but her doctors feel they cannot operate until the thyroid problem is under control, lest she die while under anesthesia. An MRI two weeks later shows that the mass is bigger.

Write a sketch of Shelly–her personality, behavior, beliefs–that would result in feeling the various emotions in your list. Some will be no-brainers, but try to do this for the least likely emotions as well.