Starting
Exercises to 'loosen the writing muscles'
At the start of a writing session, in order to 'break the ice' and get some words written, it can be useful to provide exercises which reduce anxieties. In class or with a writing group these may be shared in pairs, with the whole group - or not at all. It can be a good idea to give writers the right to share only when ready.
Sometimes referred to as ‘quick writes,’ or ‘short exercises,’ these can in fact take as much or as little time as the writer requires.
List 5-10 words which are currently interesting you. These could be chosen for their sound, their shape (short words, compound words), their association - place names and product names are good - words from different languages, dialect words, slang, nonsense words. 2 mins. Read one by one around the circle. 'Get the words in the air' and see what coincidental sequences emerge. Enjoy.
(cf Favourite words, Michael Laskey's workshop ideas mentioned in the Poetry Trust's excellent publication, 'The Poetry Toolkit' www.thepoetrytrust.org)
Jot down three things you passed on your way to the meeting: now use one of these as a starting point to write about your journey here.
List 4 words and, next to each, place a word or phrase which is close in meaning.
e.g. between – among;
anger – irritation;
awkward - embarrassing;
dash - sprint.
Now use one pair of words as the starting point for a piece of writing: You might find the following construction useful: 'It was not so much anger as a sense of irritation I felt when, for the third time, Martin scraped his pen across the air vents ....'
Make a list of ... (anything) ...
An object for each colour of the rainbow games our family played
things to take on a walk holiday destinations clothes you once had
items in your room furniture in your grandparents' house annoying sayings
The act of listing alone is good, and sharing is even better, but it could be that from that you derive a stimulus for further writing. Olivia McCannon's 'Inventory' - a list poem about her grandparents' house - starts like this:
Open door, high cistern, wooden loo-seat,
Harvesters hanging, mangle in passage-way
Long key in lock, block of wood dangling,
Wall-clock, drop-leaf table, pressure-cooker, beans,
Cherry-patterned table-cloth, jug of Bisto, crumbs,
Pink-yellow Battenburg, splashes of dark tea ...
Look around you. Listen. Feel.
Choose three things you can see, three things you can hear and/or three things you can feel at this very moment. Near, far, concrete or abstract. Use your senses and your emotions to guide and inspire you. Choose one (or more) of the ‘lists’ of three to write about.
Names
The Story Of…
This exercise is adapted from Colette Bryce’s Guardian Poetry Workshop. Write quickly a list of names, without any other stimulus. names - that interest you – that you’ve heard, read or made up. “.... proper names, improper names, first names, worst names, short blunt names, double-barrelled names, married and unmarried names, nicknames, sick names, family names and names from other cultures, terms of endearment, pet names, work names, school names, fool names – titled and untitled, known and unknown.”
Consider the effect of 'names in lists' and the associated riffing on names that occurs. Use the lists and the associations they have prompted to write a longer response.
Think of anecdotes and stories of people and places.
Think of stories often retold within the family.
Think of mysteries of folks and houses in your neighbourhood.
Think of accidents, lies, gaffes, journeys, crimes - 'the story of .... ' the time when ...'
Think of incidents at work or at school.
Think of memorable events that happened on holiday, which it only takes the place-name to recall.
Take 3 minutes to write down quickly as many titles or headlines as you can, possibly in a format such as: 'The story of ...', 'The tale of ... , 'The time when ... ' (This can be useful if you are writing with others in a classroom or group, and you want to enjoy hearing other people's intriguing story titles later - and to gauge whether your own title makes listeners sigh, wince or laugh.)
Have a look at what you've written. Some will be well-shaped titles, others may only allow you to retrieve the story, some may have grown into whole sentences. Do you notice anything else - any patterns, people, themes, constructions? Which titles hook you? Which ones do you want to say more - or less - about?
Here are some recent examples from different NWP writing groups:
The story of Bob and the green axe handle
The story granny tells about becoming a doctor
The story of uncle Fred and the pears
The story of why Terry got the sack
The story of the overnight journey from Iran
The story of golfing John
The stories that we tell about Monica when she's not there
The story of aunty Gladys and the glove
Now choose one of the titles you have written and give yourself a solid amount of time, say 15 - 20 minutes, to write out the story in full. Write quickly without editing, almost as if you can hear yourself telling the story to someone else. In that way, you can more easily sustain a unifying 'voice' and tone - such as mystery or tragedy, humour or suspense.
Exercise devised by Jeni Smith
SIGNS AND LABELS
Here is a genuine four-line example found in swimming pool changing rooms:
Out of order
This hairdryer is out of order
Please use an alternative hair dryer
We apologise for any inconvenience
Discuss why someone might have thought that 'out of order' was somehow insufficient. Take any sign and devise similar 'additional lines' or 'translations'. Look around the space you are in and devise 5 signs/labels which might be attached to something. Reading your sign aloud can challenge your group to infer where the sign might be attached. This is particularly effective if you have more than one obvious place as it begins to tease out the metaphorical potential.
starter sentence
Take a 'starter sentence' - or choice of starter sentences - and write for 3 minutes. See where it takes you: "I lay awake, unable to sleep, and all because ..." (from Alan Gillespie's 5 tip tips, Guardian 2013)
journey inward
Write about a public place for 3 mins; now write for another 4 mins about a place known to only 5 or 6 people; now write for 5 mins about a place known only to yourself. Such 'stepped' exercises help writers approach their content by degrees.
free writing
Principles of 'Free writing' as first outlined by Dorothea Brandt (1934):
Give yourself a time limit. Write for one or ten or twenty minutes, and then stop.
Keep your hand moving until the time is up. Do not pause to stare into space or to read what you've written. Write quickly but not in a hurry.
Pay no attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, neatness, or style. Nobody else needs to read what you produce here. The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.
If you get off the topic or run out of ideas, keep writing anyway. If necessary, write nonsense or whatever comes into your head, or simply scribble: anything to keep the hand moving.
If you feel bored or uncomfortable as you're writing, ask yourself what's bothering you and write about that.
When the time is up, look over what you've written, and mark passages that contain ideas or phrases that might be worth keeping or elaborating on in a subsequent free-writing session.
picture or photo
Two or three people look at the same picture or photograph and discuss it - then, separately, each writer jots down:
three things that are happening in the photo;
what is happening just outside the frame of the picture/photo?;
what might have happened 5 minutes before this photo was taken ... and 5 minutes after?;
what might the photographer/artist have been thinking as she/he took the photo?
Writers then compare and discuss what they have written - or use their ideas as a starting point for some writing.