A Writer's Craft Community discussion

One thing I like to do in the first days of class is to have students do an imagination exercise. I give them the name of a location (a beach, a field, a country road, etc.) and then ask them to imagine being in that place without writing anything down yet. Once I've given them a minute or so to think about it, I tell them they notice something shiny or brightly colored. Then I ask them to describe it from where they are. Next I have them imagine walking closer, even picking it up and describing it up close, writing down how it looks and feels. Then I ask them to imagine how it got here. Who might have dropped it or left it for someone. Where does that person live? What were they doing here? etc. They have just written fiction about a character they may not have known before they started writing. If they can do that, then they can do creative writing.

What do you do in the early days of class?

By the way, I'm always more specific in my descriptions for an exercise like this, but I kept it a little ambiguous so you can fill in your own place or thing found or questions about how it got there.

An exercise I like to do for Chapter 3, Language, Rhythm, and Sound is to bring in an object that might have several synonyms to name it. I hold up the object and ask the class to write down the first word that comes to mind. Then we go around and get their words. From there, we ask about similar words for something like the object that is smaller or larger or softer, etc. Then we talk about how these synonyms might name the same thing but have different shades of meaning. This leads to a discussion of finding the right word, how to use a thesaurus, active and passive vocabulary, etc.

What exercises do you use to get students to think about language?

For Chapter 4, The Writer in the World, I put students groups to do an exercise. I give each group an abstract concept, then write a list of concrete things (like color, insect, road, etc.) one at a time on the board and ask the group to name the kind of concrete thing would portray their concept. We then go through their lists. I especially like it when two groups with very different concepts choose the same thing. We discuss how concrete images can suggest an abstract concept, but that it may not always be obvious what the abstraction is.

A good exercise for working with the senses is to ask the class to think about a room in their house (or one from their past). Ask them to list the sounds that might be there that you usually don't notice. Then ask when they might notice those sounds. Do the same for touch — what textures, temperatures, etc. are there that you don't notice? When would you notice them? Then do the same for sight. What do you see without noticing? When do you notice these things? Have the class give some of their answers for each category and then discuss when they do notice these things. I usually use this to talk about how we automatically filter experience and about how some perceptions might evoke strong emotions.

When talking about surrealism, it is often fun to do some cadavre exquis exercises. Students usually respond well and it breaks the ice a bit. I have students write adjective/noun/verb/adverb or some other sentence structure that matches the size of their group. After writing a word, the student will fold the paper back so the next student can't see what they wrote. They pass the paper around until they have written a sentence, then unfold to see what they wrote. Or I have half of them write if/when clauses and the other half write declarative sentences, then get together to pair up the most interesting combinations. They can do the same thing with questions and answers (where the answerer doesn't know the question). Usually, a few surprising combinations are discovered.

Roy Beckemeyer describes how he used renga poetry to do a group assignment in his workshops. This reminded me of using the same technique a little differently in my classes. Beckemeyer seems to give each student a week to add to a poem; when I've done it, we write the poem in a single setting. I've usually followed the traditional stanza of a haiku-like beginning (the 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables from which haiku originated) followed by a 2-line (7 syllables each) part. One poet writes 3 lines, followed by another poet who writes 2, followed by one who adds 3, then another adds 2, and so forth. Given that haiku in English doesn't strictly follow the 5-7-5 syllable count, you could relax that (Beckemeyer has each write a 10-line stanza). I send the poem around the circle a few times until everyone has written at least 3 parts to the poem. Traditionally, renga was written quickly so that poets needed to understand the rules (which were much more complicated than the stanza type, involving what kinds of images should appear where in a 100-stanza poem—add a few rules or suggestions of what to include where, if you like). The collaborative writing of a linked poem form can be very productive and can help some students open up to poetry.

Today, we spent most of the hour looking at point of view. I had the class in groups look at stories and first describe the visual perspective and how it changes throughout the story, then describe the point of view. This is more than just 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. I asked them to look at whether the POV was omniscient or limited, who the focal character was, how deep the narrator went into the character's thoughts/emotions, and how immediate, reflective, or removed the narration was from the action. We did the same for some poems. The point is that there are choices writers make, so we discussed together how each could have been if a different POV were chosen.

A small group workshop exercise I like to use for Chapter 9: Finding Patterns is to have students write a pitch for a story. They won't have written the whole story yet, so I don't expect them to know the ending. I ask them to write a synopsis of the story idea: describe 2-3 main characters, the situation at the outset (the setting and the status quo for the characters), and the action or event that could change or disrupt the status quo.

Then in the small group workshop, they read each other's pitches and give suggestions for the pattern the story might follow: journey, quest, visitation, obstacles, detours, complications, or just the shape or fairy tale model it might follow. In their group discussion after writing their suggestions, I ask them to consider different patterns or a combination of patterns or using one of the patterns but following it backwards instead of starting at the beginning.

What I like about this exercise are the discussions that take place after they've thought about potential shapes or patterns for the story. Everyone gets good ideas about what they could do in a story. They may not choose any of those, but it gives them several ideas for how a story could develop from the germ of an idea that they wrote for their pitch.