Weekly Writing Boost #6: Make a List

The plebeian list is a tool for enriching your writing

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Photo by David Ballew on Unsplash

Once, a long long time ago (everything pre-pandemic seems like a long time ago but this really was), my family went to Mexico with friends. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, which is like a land-locked cruise, and I was enraptured with everything Mexico. I’d spent a lot of time there as a kid but that was many years ago, before the Mexican coasts were loaded with resorts. I loved everything: the jungle right outside the boundaries of the resort, the workers who carried giant canisters of (probably horribly toxic) bug spray to keep the jungle at bay, the warm (to this Pacific Northwesterner) waters of the Caribbean, the feel of the hot, old stones of Chichen Itza (back when you could still climb it) beneath my feet, the colorful birds, the cement houses with open windows and doors, the death-defyingly deep cenotes that I didn’t dare to swim in (and could barely stand to watch my kids leap into). And more, so much, much more.

I had my journal with me, of course, but between days on the beach reading Anna Karenina (I was in the midst of getting my MFA then), cocktails (free) at nearly every hour of the day, and dinners and goofy shows with friends, I had little time or bandwidth to write.

So instead I made lists of everything I saw and experienced and noticed. Not complicated, descriptive lists, just notations that gave me enough information I could return to later and flesh out. This turned out to be a magical activity, because when I returned home I used those lists to write a short story that was later published. The experience sold me on the usefulness of lists. So allow me to convince you, too.

Why Lists?

Let me count the ways:

• A simple list trains you to be observant while taking the pressure off you to get it down on the page perfectly.

• Lists help you remember

• And lists are perfection for priming the pump. Say you’re trying to describe a character and failing. Look at your list! Maybe you wrote down “bulbous nose with a mole on the side” for a description of the guy in front of you in line at the post office. Voila! Just the description you were reaching for.

• Lists allow you to retain memories when time is fleeting

• List writing is good for your mental health, according to Psychology Today.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Some Lists

• Character names

• Potential settings—places you like. This could be general, ie, Paris, or specific, as in that coffee shop you love on the corner.

• Expressions on people’s faces you’ve noticed

• Idioms

• Snippets of dialogue

• Names of plants, flowers, shrubs, trees, bushes

• Colors

• Smells

• What might happen next in your story

• Brainstorming for a specific topic

• Potential careers for a character

• Things you know a lot about

• Things you love

• Things you wonder about

• Things you hate

• Goals

• Bucket items

• Family traditions

• Favorite meals

• Hated foods

• Facial features

• Hairstyles

• Books

• Movies

• Songs and lyrics

• A list of lists—make lists of lists you want to start and track

• (And note—just about all of the above can be written from your character’s point of view.)

I know I’ve missed a ton, so go ahead and create your own categories!

The Boost

Here are your two boost exercises for the week:

1. Use the photo at the top of this post as a prompt. So much to call upon in this one. The photos and textures for starters. And then the name on the stationary—the Hotel Moteleone in New Orleans. Maybe you’ve stayed there. If not, you could imagine what it might be like to. And the list itself—what are the connections between the items on it? Is the buttermilk going to be added to the Jack Daniels? And perhaps the list maker is heading to Car Max after imbibing? I’ll let you be the judge. (If you come up with anything you care to share, post it in the comments).

2. Start making lists in your writer’s notebook. Make a separate section for them or use an index, bullet journal style. Make lists on your phone when you’re out and about (I use Google Keep for this), then transfer to your notebook later. Use any of the suggestions I mention above, or come up with your own. In the spirit of this post, I offer you a starting point: list twenty items you can see in your writing space. Now choose three to put in a sentence and have at it.

3. Bonus—I just thought of this one. Make five columns in your notebook and label each with one sense. Write down five examples of that sense that you’ve experienced today. This could become an ongoing thing and it’s such a good idea I’m going to do it myself.

Resources

I don’t have any. But you do—your brain, your five senses and the ability to pay attention, observe, and then write down. So go to it.

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