Writing 101, Day Sixteen: Mine your own material

“Mining is like a search-and-destroy mission” Stewart Udall

Writing 101, Day Sixteen: Mine your own material

The physical artifacts of our lives act as our raw material: hardbound journals, photo albums, newspaper clippings, belongings handed down to us. But these days, we also document and live online, so we can treat our blogging platforms and social spaces in the same way.

I like looking for post ideas in these places. I once used phrases from a forgotten draft in my dashboard to create almost-poetry. I’ve searched my social accounts for old Facebook posts and tweets and written blog posts about my social media behavior. I’ve experimented with creative content generators, like Poetweet, which uses your tweets to create poems.

Imagine a shopper searching for vintage items at a flea market, or an artist using recycled materials to build a sculpture. Can you dig through your online treasures and build upon old stories and existing writing? Here are more ideas:

* Take a peek in the drafts section of your dashboard. Can you use unpublished copy in a new way?
* Scroll through your Facebook wall and see if any posts catch your eye. Do you feel the same as when you first posted it? Can you comment on how you’ve evolved?
* Look at the stream of tweets you’ve favorited over time. Why did you favorite a particular tweet? What does your list of favorites say about you?
* If you use the Tag Cloud Widget, scan the terms in your tag cloud. Can you write prose or poetry that uses most of these words?
* If you have trouble finding ideas this way, think about the things we leave behind. Tell us about a time you’ve left an object, place, person, or even an idea behind — and had to move on.

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Work in Progress, the Series