Many of these will be started in class. Some will be continued and finished at home.
1. Sounds as Words: Put together 25 words based on how they sound and not what they mean. Try to avoid a simple list of rhyming words.
2. Find a specific concrete image that "reveals" some sort of abstract idea.
For example,
Liberty = The stripped cat slipped out of its new collar and disappeared over the fence.
Fear = Our brave collie bolted under the table at the sound of thunder.
You try it:
A.) Concepts: (pick two) Wonder, Confusion, Doubt, Happiness,
B.) Pick a mood or feeling for the following images (do both):
________ = When the teacher returned my test, my hands began to tremble.
________ = He smiled at me and my heart sank.
3. You Got Rhythm. Write about one of the following and suggest the rhythm of the subject in your prose: a machine, a vehicle, a piece of music, something that goes in a circle, an avalanche.
4. Write about an object that used to belong to one of your parents.
5. Write a dialogue in which each of two characters has a secret. Do not reveal the secret, but make the reader intuit it.
For example, the conversation might be between a man, who has just wrecked his car and is afraid to tell his wife, and his wife, who has just lost her job.
The purpose is to give two characters individual ways of speaking and to make dialogue crackle with feelings not directly expressed. Remember that in dialogue, as a general rule, every pause must somehow be shown, either by narration (for example, “she paused” YUCK) or by some gesture or other break that shows the pause. And remember that gesture is part of all real dialogue. Sometimes, for instance, we look away instead of answering.
Avoid “question and answer” dialogue. Remember, dialogue is conversations greatest hits!!! Finally, set your scene in a specific location and let your characters move.
Alternative: One character has something he wants to say, but he or she is struggling to say it. The other character has a secret he or she is trying to hide. Let their words reveal their conflicts.
6. Making Dialogue/Interior Monologue Sound Real
Directions: You have two speakers. One is 15 and the other is 50. They're talking about the same thing. Your goal is to capture two distinct voices using a stream of consciousness technique. See if you can present each character's thoughts in a manner that reveals character, meditates on the issue at hand and communicates a sense of narrative.
7. The T.S. Eliot/John Gardner Exercise: This exercise is quite possibly the most difficult, demanding and important exercise a writer can ever do. The poet and critic, T. S. Eliot, coined the phrase "objective correlative" to designate what he believed was the most important element in writing: Rendering the description of an object so that the emotional state of the character from whose point of view we receive the description is revealed WITHOUT ever telling the reader what that emotional state is or what has motivated it.
John Gardner, a wonderful creative writing teacher, created the following exercise:
A middle-age man is waiting at a bus stop. He has just learned that his son has died violently. Describe the setting from the man's point of view WITHOUT telling your reader what has happened. How will the street look to this man? What are the sounds? Odors? Colors? That this man will notice? What will his clothes feel like? Write a 250 word description.
8. In the style of narrative non-fiction, write a very short story that includes...
a three-hour blackout
a brief but embarrassing encounter with an old teacher
an exaggerated illness
someone hiding from someone (no killers or kids playing hide and seek)
*9. Little Things: what we can learn from Raymond Carver. (see link in Readings Section)
Carver wrote lean, minimal stories with crisp dialogue and "loaded" action. Your goal is to move away from detailed character development and elaborate description to find a lean, minimal story of your own. Think plot. Think conflict. Let the actions tell the story. In some ways, Carver is the king of show don't tell. He was also--because he often had to write in his car--a master at getting a story done quick.
Title your story "Little Things" and focus on a basic human conflict. Go!
10. Amuse Your Muse: The Fine Art of Brainstorming
Where do good story ideas come from? When you're thinking of a story idea, what are you hoping for? A beautiful work of art? Commercial success? A satisfying use of your time? All of the above?
You goal is to brainstorm six story ideas in the next ten minutes. Then we'll share them in small groups to eliminate the "less worthy" ideas and select one to develop and work on. Try to work within a specific genre. However, it might help to start with the "bones of a story" and then figure out how to make it artful and original.
For example, I could write a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy creates something to make himself feel better story.
To fit it to a genre, he could create a toy rocket, a time machine, or even an apple orchard full of magic trees.
11. Challenges
"She (or he or they) had a normal childhood, but..."
12. Quality Time
Write about a family vacation gone wrong in less than a page. Despite the brevity of the piece, try not to tell too much.