Writing Challenge

Lifted from Song Talk with Morry Campbell.

This writing assignment involves working with a chapter in the book Writing Down the Bones.

So here's the challenge. Based on the chapter First Thoughts from the book: Get a notepad of some kind, and write in it for a pre-determined amount of time every day for a week. If you already keep a journal, then you're set. If you don't, start one, at least for the next week. Write every day, and write for the same amount of time. If it's five minutes, let it be five minutes. If it's ten, make it ten. Twenty minutes, thirty--whatever is doable for you. Keep in mind the following rules:

Keep your hand moving
Don't cross out
Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar.
Lose control
Don't think. Don't get logical.
Go for the jugular
Ms. Goldberg goes into much more detail in the book, so read on for further advice on how to make that work for you.


Anyway, back to the assignment. After you've journaled in this way for seven days, on the eighth day, go back and read what you have written. Look for something, anything, that sparks your imagination, and write a song (or poem, or essay, or something) around it.

Soon we meet, yes?

January 21, 2009 - The Writer's Tablet

Take a piece of prose writing by a favorite author of which you are particularly fond. You will need a largish paragraph with which to work for this exercise; and you may want to try it more than one time, so multiple copies would be beneficial too. Scan through the paragraph circling every third word. Take a look at the words that you circled. Do you see a theme emerge? Try again. Scan through a new copy of the paragraph circling every fourth word. Any themes? Try a scan of every fifth word. You get the idea.

This is a fantastic exercise for writing poems and songs, as it narrows the focus beginning with a topic that one finds interesting. Sometimes, when writing, it is difficult to turn the focus of a piece outward since we are comfortable writing from the inside out. This helps the writer center a piece around a focus that is foreign to the ego, yet holds some connection for the intellect.

January 19, 2009 - The Writer's Tablet

Write the words "civil rights" in the middle of your page.

Use a brainstorming or listing technique to come up with as many associations as you can about civil rights. Jot down anything that comes to mind in the span of two or three minutes. If you don't come up with many things, allow yourself a couple more minutes.

Branching out from these associations, allow yourself time to write down associations for each of the secondary level topics. You can keep taking these associations out further and further until you feel the need to stop.

Extension Activity: These type of web activities are often used for organizing thoughts in essay writing, but they work well for creative writing too. Start organizing your connections on the web. You can create just about anything from this type of web, from a poem to a piece of art. The trick is to use only a portion of the web and concentrate your project on that portion.

Happy Birthday, MLK!

January 18, 2009 - The Writer's Tablet

Journal Activity (prose) for character development:

Think about your favorite section of the grocery store. Begin a list of items that you would find in that section. Your first list should be very basic (apples, lettuce, peppers). List items consistently for about five minutes. Return to the top of the list and write the following qualities about each item:

How does it smell?
How does it look (colors, cleanliness, etc.)?
How does it feel?
How does it sound when you pick it up or drop it in the cart?
How does it taste?

Once you have finished your list, think of five to ten people you know and compare each of them to one item on the list.

Finally, write a short skit using your five characters that is set at the check-out line of the grocery store. The conflict should center around their order in the check-out line.