Writing Exercises and notes

Don’t be intimidated by text.

Text is text is text…some people think all text is just stuff  - words – that are there for our enjoyment – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Proust,  Mills and Boon or a Sun headline.

Be alert to language –it’s all around you…

Signs around Whitstable -Trendy Fascias – notice on a dilapidated boarded up wall -– Naturism will not be condoned on this beach –  Note the context – A stranger may be puzzled by ‘off licence’ and ‘free house.’ -

Creative headlines – Gotcha – Beeb man sits on Lesbian –

Local headlines – Vicar Gives Birth, Picture

 

LESS IS MORE

Condensed ideas? Single words and phrases:

Telling stories, describing, labelling, listing, explaining

Metaphors – images – conveying emotions – loneliness – conveyed in words, poetry, or in a piece of art such as the work of Edward Hopper – desolate scenes, angst.

Words are at your command like any other ‘material’ – twisted, changed, cut, shaped.

Representation of concrete materials or vague thoughts --Jargon or cliché can be used creatively too – IRONY – eg. Sadie’s postcards,

‘Russell Brand – Wanna see some Cellulite?’

 

Using quotes: Elizabeth Jolley, Self Portrait: A Child Went Forth.

 

There was a child went forth every day

And the first object he looked upon and

Received with wonder or pity

Or love or dread, that object he became…Whitman

 

Her opening sentence:

When I was seventeen I sold my doll and all her little frocks and coloured knitted things.

 

Paula Fox’s memoir, Borrowed Finery.

“After so long grief, such nativity!` – The Comedy of Errors.

Def: nativity: birth, esp. place, conditions, circumstances of birth.

 

Her first sentence:

When I was seventeen, I found a job in what was then downtown Los Angeles in a store where dresses were sold for a dollar each.

 

Fact or Fiction?

AUTOBIOGRAPHY – the fiction – what is ‘true’?  Dramatising and shaping material. Writing from the self – ‘I only use material that can be imaginatively transformed’ Elizabeth Jolly said. ==Self Portrait; Writing from the Self; Life Writing. Similar language to painting and drawing ‘from life.’

Universal experience; something others can relate to. Making something private into something universally understood and recognisable.

 

POINT OF VIEW - Third person – omnipotent view – as seen through the eye of God, - Diane went here and there. She did this, she did that…

First person, I went there and there, I did this or that

 

WRITERS VOICE – the inner voice -

Distancing – thinking of yourself as a character in a story

Finding ‘The other’ within yourself – you at different ages –

Reading old letters or diaries – it’s as if they were written by a different person.

 

SUPER OBJECTIVE – ‘What’s my motivation, Mr De Mille?’

Stanislavsky – over-riding compulsion or desire – finding peace of mind --

Or perhaps a burning ambition of some kind – or protecting your child – getting recognition of some kind…

 

Exercises:

 

Try to keep writing. If you can, keep your pen on the page, don’t look up…if you get stuck, try repeating the same word or phrase until you’re unstuck.

 

Finding your own writing voice:

Write down your earliest memories of learning writing and reading. Take a couple of minutes to reflect. [10 mins]

 

Finding ‘the other’ inside yourself. Thinking of yourself as a character in a story.

Write about yourself at different ages – don’t forget it doesn’t have to be ‘true’ – imagine you are a character in a story.

at  5 yrs; 15 yrs; 35 yrs – these are arbitrary ages at intervals, you can choose different ones if you like, e.g. 35 – 45 - 65

What did you feel intensely about? What was your super-objective?

Who did you talk to most? An imaginery friend?

Describe a place where you felt comfortable and safe? List all the things in the room, the light and colour, smells and sounds.

[5 mins for each segment = 15 mins]

 

Take a part of the body of interst at the moment and make a list of random

Associations - e.g. eyes - windows; lashes tears. [5 mins]

Write a short piece about this body part has changed over the years. [5 mins]

 

Write a love letter or poem to a despised or unsatisfactory body part?

Sometimes it helps to start by making a list.

[10 mins]

 

Point of View

Things that happened to you or your family – ‘The time when…’ e.g. The man upstairs died on New Years Eve when we were having a racous party….

Make a shortlist of stories, choose your favourite.  Get into pairs.

Tell it to your neighbour. Relate the story you have been told by your neighbour in the first person, as if it happened to you.

If you found this exercise useful you could follow it up,in your own time by inventing a character to tell the story.