You can CLICK HERE to see a big fat list of questions that might help you start thinking when you get stuck. Also, notice how that teacher has taken ONE of her writing territories ("Living in Manhattan") and mapped it out into several new topical directions.
Likewise, any one of the following topics in my writing territory could be expanded. This is a list I could work on for a solid year and still have stuff left over to write about.
Madeline -- what she is teaching me; the evolution of our relationship; how she shaped me into who I am today; watching her grow and change
farming and gardening -- how it speaks to my imagination, but how I fail at it so spectacularly; the dozens of lessons I find in the dirt and in growing things and in dying things; the drought
Hank -- the nicest dog I've ever known; his sweetness, his anxiety; his extreme handsomeness; his eagerness to please; his funny personality; his destructiveness
California -- my home state; the drought; the fires, the freeways, the crowds; beaches and parks; its beauty and its trouble
teaching -- writing with students, reading what students write; reading with students; talking about ideas; talking with students; getting to know teenagers; listening to teenagers
technology -- its place in our lives; the way it is shaping our social interactions and our thought processes; the inevitability of technological change; how unprepared we are for these changes; how deeply asleep we are
memoir stuff -- scenes from Spain and Morocco; growing up with the DoD; losses; alcoholism; heat; isolation; independence and beauty and adventure
my sister, who is now 70, and living in another state
aging -- experiencing first-hand the changes that age brings; marveling at my body; living inside a youth-oriented culture with an aging body; feeling lucky and feeling cursed at the same time
what I notice when I walk my dog around the neighborhood; what I imagine
what I am reading right now; books that have stayed with me; stories and characters that have just skimmed the surface of me, the forgotten ones, and the others that have sunk deep roots
my book club friends; how reading with people shapes your understanding of people
learning to think about food and cooking differently than when I was in my 30s and 40s; developing a new palate in midlife
letters I would love to write to people I admire
ANOTHER way to expand the writing territory is to experiment with GENRE.
For example, let's say I want to write about sleep (and I do). Look at all the ways that genre will enable me to explore the topic of sleep:
With my genre list, I can decide to:
- write a personal account about sleep
- write an informational article about conditions that are conducive to good sleep
- write an ode to sleep, or an ode to my bed, and ode to my pillow or my secret Dora the Explorer pajamas
- write a children’s story about the sleep fairy
- write a persuasive appeal to students to turn off their electronics by 8:00 pm so they can have two hours of quiet time (read, listen to music, draw) before sleep at 10:00
- write a letter to the Sandman
- write point/counterpoint about sleep and homework
- write an advice column about sleep disorders and how to fix them; “Dear Sleepyhead” or something like that
Devote a FULL PAGE of your notebook to thinking about your writing territories. If you fill and page and have more to say, just keep going! Be sure to put the page into your Index to make it easy to find and work with.
