Wholehearted Teaching

Sunday, March 12, 2017

The Curious Creative: Exercise 23

Spring is Upon Us!

This is the twenty-third installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

Spring is upon us! Depending on where you live, it might be further along here than there. But if you pay close attention, you will feel the first hints of your senses awakening to this new input. The smells of wood smoke, cinnamon, and hot chocolate are fading away, and enter something fresh, something new. For this week’s exercise, you’ll pay close attention to the earliest signs of spring, and create a trio of writings, each focusing on a different sense.

Your Turn!

Make a list of words and phrases that describe the surface textures, odors, and colors that surround you as this season morphs into the next. You may notice the contrasting colors of green shoots poking through decayed leaf matter, the brighter colors of spring jackets and skirts, the fuzzy textures of leaf buds on trees, the lighter tones in the sky, or the scents of early spring flowers.

Look over your list and circle the words/phrases that are most evocative of spring.

From these, select one word or specific object.

Write a trio of poems, each focusing on one type of sense. Repeat the word/object throughout all three poems, in order to tie them together. Use your initial brainstorm list to draw inspiration from.

How did you do? Did paying attention to the smallest signs of nature’s generativeness inspire you to generate new writing?

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment boxes below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing!

Inspired by: “The Surface and Bloom of All Things” poetry prompt from “The Time is Now: Writing Prompts and Exercises.” Poets and Writers magazine. 15 Nov. 2016.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 22

Revising the Past

This is the twenty-second installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

I recently wrote a choose-your-own-adventure poem, combining a classic genre from my childhood with the sparse, metaphorical language of poetry. It was a blast to write! It felt freeing to constantly be thinking about the multiple directions a story could go. For this week’s exercise, we’ll take inspiration from this genre, but instead of thinking up a brand new story, which is an overwhelming task for someone with only 10 minutes to spare, we’ll revise a moment from the past.

Your Turn!

Think of a memorable personal event. Free write about it for five minutes.

Next, make a list of specific markers of the place where it occurred (i.e., names of streets/shops/restaurants, details about the weather, the quality of light, what was hanging in shop windows, etc.).

Circle five salient words from your list.

For each of these words, write an antonym. Think of the absolute possible opposite of each one. For example, if you circled “Starbucks,” write “a weathered coffee thermos left on an abandoned table and chair below the highway overpass.”

Now, rewrite the story incorporating these five new markers of place. Allow the new words’ connotations to carry the event in new directions.

How did you do? Did you feel a lighthearted surrender as you released control of the memory? Did the exercise feel fun and playful?

Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 21

The Symbol of an Object

This is the twenty-first installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

Objects are excellent writing prompts. They keep us rooted in concrete details, yet are also evocative, containing the possibility for symbolizing something larger. In this week’s exercise, you will focus on an object you associate with a loved one, and play around with its metaphorical significance. Even though you’ll be brainstorming about a real person in your life, you will generate characterization as if you’re preparing to write a story with him/her as your character.

Your Turn!

Think of a dear loved one. Think of him as a character in his own life story.

Choose one object that is important to her— something that could be her symbol. For instance, my grandmother collected the free porcelain figurines that came in the Rose Tea boxes. She kept them in a cigar box, taking them out only to bring her luck during Bingo games. What is an object you associate with your father? Mother? Best friend?

List possible metaphors for that object. Think of possible abstract qualities it could represent, such as warmth, motherhood, or protection.

Then think of other objects that could also represent those qualities. In other words, what other things could have held the same meaning in his/her life?

How did you do? Did you arrive at new interesting metaphors for the qualities that embody your loved one? Did this character work inspire you to use your loved one as a character in your writing? Or maybe it inspired you to create a new fictional character starting with an object?

Inspired by:

Szilagyi, Anca.“The Magic of Objects.” Ploughshares at Emerson College. http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/the-magic-of-objects/

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 20

Lists

This is the twentieth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

A list is a powerful tool. I have my students make lists before they write essays. The physical action of jotting down words helps them get “unstuck” after staring at an essay prompt and a white page. I write lists to quiet my mind; if it’s written on paper, I don’t need to waste mental energy trying to remember what I need to do. Lists can also be playful. McSweeneys, a daily humor site, publishes humorous lists. Lists can satisfy our need to collect and consume beautiful and interesting things. Many writers make lists of interesting, cool-sounding, beautiful-to-look-at, rhyming words. Making a list of words not only produces resources for later projects but also serves as a physical/mental activity that gets the writing process going. This week’s exercise is quite simple: you will make a list!

Your Turn!

Grab a book off your bookshelf- the more esoteric, the better.
Leaf through it and jot down words that stand out to you. Choose words that are funny, strange, cool-sounding, rare, and/or attractive. Go quickly; don’t stress over your choices.
After you fill a page or two with these words, circle a few that seem like treasures.
Write one at the top of a blank page. Freewrite about it. What is it? What does it mean? What does it smell like? Where can you find it? What can you use it to describe? What type of person would say it?

How did you do? Did it feel playful? Did you enjoy the feeling of gathering, a similar satisfaction to consuming treasures, as in shopping or eating? Does your freewrite have a seed for a story or a poem?

Sunday, February 12, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 19

An Object to Tell a Story

This is the nineteenth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

Objects have stories. This week, you will use an everyday object – a wristwatch, a coffee cup, a cologne bottle- as inspiration to create characters, a scene or a story. You will use the details of the object to evoke memories of times gone by- either a real or imagined world of nostalgia.

Your Turn!

Find the oldest object in your home.
Title your blank piece of paper by the name of the item, ie, “A Coffee Cup.”
Write down concrete details about the way it looks, feels, smells.
Look at your object until it is communicating with you. What places has it been uprooted from? Who did it used to belong to? Write down any imagined details of place or character- the way the room looked where it was used, how the person who used it moved and talked, etc.
From your notes, begin a story about your object with “Left behind in a…”

How did you do? Did the object evoke some interesting concrete details? Were you able to (re)create a world of days gone by? Did an interesting character or premise emerge that you might use as a jumping off point for another piece?

As a longer-term project, you can write a catalog of entries about several objects. In reading through all the catalog entries, a narrative might emerge.

Inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Istanbul, Turkey and his “Modest Manifesto for Museums.”

Sunday, February 5, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 18

Re-Imagining a Letter

This is the eighteenth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

Letters of Note is a great website that attempts “to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos.” Each week, they update their site with a new letter by all sorts of people, from Anne Frank to Martin Scorsese.

This week, we’ll play around with one of the letters featured on the site. You’ll produce a kind of found poetry or manipulation poetry. Having the restrictions of already written content in place sometimes produces really creative results.

Your Turn!

1. Visit http://www.lettersofnote.com, and click the bottom left link, “RANDOM LETTER. Click Here!” View the letter and related images it produces for you.

I just did it, and got a letter written by the woman from that famous photo of the sailor kissing a random nurse in the middle of Times Square celebrating the end of WWII.

2. After the read it, fill in the blanks of this summary sentence: This letter is from _________ to _____________; the purpose of the letter is to ____________________.

For my example: This letter is from the nurse who was the subject of a famous photo celebrating the surrender of Japan in WWII to the photographer of that photo; the purpose of the letter is to reveal her identity and obtain a print of the picture 34 years after it was taken.

3. Now re-imagine the purpose part of the summary sentence to include a new idea in the blank.

For my example: … the purpose is to confess her undying love for the sailor she has never been able to forget.

4. Now re-write the letter, using as much or as little of it, adding and taking away whatever you wish, to make the letter fit your newly imagined purpose.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 17

Choose Your Own Adventure MadLib

This is the 17th installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

When my students are struggling with a new writing assignment because they are out of their element, being asked to do something they’ve never done before, I often give them templates to get them started. After using the template, many are then comfortable revising to make it their own, by doing things as simple as changing sentence structure or word choice. Maybe writing stories is something completely new for you, and you feel out of your element being asked to write something creative. For this week’s exercise, you will use a template from a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book jacket as your jumping off point.

Your Turn!

Before writing, let’s generate topics. On a piece of paper, make a list of difficulties, problems, and challenges you are facing in your life right now, from small to big, mundane to deep. Don’t worry- this will get more uplifting and fun in a minute!
Look at your list and make a blink decision – circle one that stands out to you.
Use the following template from the book jacket of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Fill in the blanks according to the challenge you circled on your list. You are a _____________, about to embark upon your most challenging and dangerous mission. Equipped with _____________, your objective is to find _________________. You bravely face ___________, ________________, and ___________- but will you return to _____________ with ____________?
Once you complete this template, don’t stop. Turn your “editor brain” off (the voice that tells you, “This is silly. This is stupid.”), and just run with it. Think about this as the preface or introduction to your story. Have fun! This is all about creative play!

How did you do? Did some crazy details come out of your pen that made you wonder, “Where did that come from?!” Did the exercise feel playful and light, even though you were writing about a difficulty in your life? Do you even feel a little empowered to lean into this challenge in real life?