Exploring Writing - Gary Robert Muschla 2011

Exercise 1.1 Tapping into Personal Experience
Personal Experience: The Source
Part 1. Finding and Developing Ideas for Writing

The seed of every idea takes root in the rich soil of personal experience. From that seed, the idea grows, branches, and, with the right care and nourishment, blossoms and blooms. Not only our direct experiences, but our dreams, things we hear about or learn, everything that we experience can be the substance of an idea.

The following are some examples of personal experiences that can generate ideas.

✵ A nightmare can provide the idea for a scary story.

✵ Seeing a flyer about a lost dog can lead to a story about a missing puppy.

✵ Learning about the Amazon basin can be the beginning of an essay about the importance of the rain forests.

✵ Hearing about a big storm can remind a person about a storm he experienced and lead to a narrative about survival.

✵ A friend’s moving away can be the motivation for written reflection about friendship.

Exercise 1.1 Tapping into Personal Experience

Your personal experiences—all the things you have ever done, seen, read, or heard about—can lead to ideas you can use for writing. You must learn how to identify these ideas.

Think about one of the following topics:

✵ Things That Are Important to Me

✵ The People in My Life

✵ Interests and Hobbies

✵ Things I Like

✵ Things I Dislike

Now think about examples that can be included under the topic. For example, under “Interests and Hobbies,” you might think of reading, skateboarding, soccer, camping, model building, music—obviously, the list can go on and on.

Here are some possibilities how each of the examples can lead to an idea for writing:

✵ For reading—a review of a favorite book

✵ For skateboarding—a description of some of the techniques necessary for “extreme” skateboarding

✵ For camping—a narrative about a fun camping trip

Everyone has personal experiences that can be used to find ideas for writing. Sometimes personal experience can be developed directly into a topic. Sometimes it can be a spark for the imagination to develop other ideas. It is always a source of ideas.