sensory writing

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Outer Wraps

Marilyn Kestenbaum with well-wrapped family.

May 28, 2014  Prompt #28

Today, we turn to jackets and coats. What can we learn from writing about blazers, parkas, windbreakers, and leather jackets? From topcoats, overcoats, pea coats, and trench coats?

Coats can be metaphors for protection and for burden, helping ground your writing with tangible details.

 

 

Instructions

  1. Choose a coat from your closet.  For five minutes, write a physical description of it. Describe its style, fabric, color, and condition. Does it have a scent? Is it a dress coat? An everyday coat? Where, when and how did you acquire it?
  2. Put the coat on. How does it fit? (If it is too hot to be wearing this coat, try to recall what it feels like to put it on in the winter or fall.) Is it loose or tight? Does it itch? What sounds do you hear when you zip, snap, or button?  Write about this for five more minutes.
  3. Next, mixing in the descriptions above, write about your connection with the coat. How do you feel wearing it? Stylish? Protected? Constricted? Where have you worn it to? Do you associate the coat with a person, place, or stage of your life?  Tell your story.

Further Writing

  • Write about your coat from another point of view. Imagine  you gave this coat away and someone bought it at a thrift store. Tell their story.
  • Find a photo of you, someone you know, or a stranger wearing a coat. Write a poem or micro-fiction about this person.

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Take a field trip to a vintage clothing store or a thrift shop.  Try on coats. Take notes about the fit, the fabric, the style.
  2. Take photos. Write about the experience from your own point of view or from the perspective of a fictional character.

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To A “T” [or Don’t Sweat It]

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Here’s me wearing my brother Bill’s Goddard Sweatshirt in the late 1970’s. Twenty years later, I’d choose Goddard for my M.F.A in Writing Program.

May 27, 2014  Prompt #27

It’s Day Two of The Writeous Sisters’ Clothing Week.  Today’s prompt can help you ground your writing with specific, sensory details and make stronger connections between the physical and philosophical.

Inspriational Attire

The weather is warming up here in Colorado and I’m finally switching out my fleece and wool for cotton. Because I live in a small house, I store bins of off-season clothes in my garage and swap them out twice a year.  It’s become a seasonal ritual, a time to contemplate the passage of time and cycles of life. It’s also a practical opportunity to donate or recycle clothes that are worn out or that I rarely wear.  The clothes  I have the hardest time parting with, even when they are stained or frayed, are T-shirts. So many of them are associated with a specific time or place in my life.

Instructions

  1. Choose a well-loved T-shirt or sweatshirt with a logo, image, or text on it. Or, find a photo of you wearing a favorite T-shirt. Conversely, you can choose one that you dislike or feel ambivalent about but still have kept.
  2. For five minutes, write a physical and factual description of the shirt. Describe its style, color, and condition. Where, when and how did you acquire it?
  3. Next, write the psychological and emotional history of the shirt. How do you feel wearing it? Proud, hardworking, part of a team? Nostalgic or bittersweet? Do you associate the shirt with a person, place, or stage of your life?  Tell your story.

Further Writing

  • If you are currently working on a novel, consider how clothing factors into it. Do any of the characters wear T-shirts? Can you deepen characterization by including one?
  • Write about a child who outgrows a favorite T-shirt.

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Each member brings in one or two T-shirts. You can write about the shirt you brought or someone else’s.
  2. Imagine discovering this T-shirt in a box of old beach towels after not seeing it for 10 or 20 years. Write for 20 minutes. Considerations: Is the T-shirt yours or someone else’s? Where did you last see it? How does it smell? Do you try it on?

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A Pair of Shoes

red reeboksMay 26, 2014  Prompt #26

It’s Clothing Week here at The Writeous Sisters.  All the prompts will help you connect the physical with the abstract and delve into the story of objects everywhere.

Well-Shod

Last year, the University of Colorado’s Museum of Natural History hosted “To Feel The Earth,” an exhibit about the history and tradition of moccasins among the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest. I was moved to learn about the spiritual connection that comes from feeling  soil, rocks, and grasses through the soles of our shoes. Similarly, phrases like “walk a mile in another man’s shoes” and “boots on the ground” speak the the power and symbol of shoes.

Instructions

  1. Choose a pair of shoes that you currently own or that you remember vividly.
  2. For five minutes, write down the facts of these shoes. Describe their style and color. Did you buy them new? Find them a thrift store? Did someone give them to you? When did you begin wearing them? Are they worn or still look like new?
  3. Next, write their (and your) story.  How did you feel wearing them? Athletic, stylish, sexy, competent, ashamed? Do you associate a particular person, place, or stage of your life with them?  Do you polish them? Have you thread in new laces? Did you ever get them repaired? Do you still own them? Did you outgrow them or give them away?

Further Writing

  • In poetry or micro fiction, write about strapping on or lacing up for a memorable outing in the shoes. Keep your descriptions and narrative tight.
  • As today is Memorial Day, write about a pair of Army boots.

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Each member brings in two pairs of shoes (or photos of shoes).
  2. Each member writes descriptions of people written on separate index cards. (For instance, “Ten-year old girl, raised in Chicago, visiting New Hampshire for the first time.” “Middle-aged woman returning to an office job after 10 years working at home.”  “Wyoming car mechanic, getting ready for a date, two years after his wife has died.)
  3. Match up people with shoes. Write for 20 minutes.

See the following post “Twelve Black Shoes” for my shoe story.

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Precipitation [Part Two]

May 24, 2014  Prompt #24

Photo

 

 

Twenty-four hours later and, again, it’s raining.

Good reason to expand on yesterday’s prompt.

If you haven’t read it already, do that first, then try these variations.

 

 

Further Writing

  • Apply personification (the assignment of human attributes to objects, abstract notions, or, in this case, weather) to a rain storm. Describe a storm, drizzle, or intermittent rain in terms of anger, generosity, fickleness or another human condition.  This option lends itself well to poetry and flash fiction. Write for 10 minutes.
  •  Write about someone waiting  rain. Describe the person’s actions without dialogue or conversation.

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. On separate index cards, each member writes down two emotions or feelings, such as frustration, joy, relief, trepidation, boredom, etc.,
  2. On a second set of cards, write down words associated with rain, such as thunder claps, puddles, windshield wipers, boots, rain jacket, flood, soaked, partly cloudy, etc.
  3. Keep the words in separate piles, face down so you can’t see the words written on them.
  4. Each member chooses one word from each pile and, from there, writes for 15 minutes. Unlikely pairings often make for the best writing, so resist the temptation to choose different words if yours seem unwieldy.

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Precipitation

May 23, 2014  Prompt #23

PhotoLast night, I saw Venus in Fur at Denver’s Curious Theater. As an accompaniment to the show’s vigorous, changeable dialogue, the production included a thunderstorm. As I write this, back in Boulder, we’re having real live downpour, complete with rumbling thunder and flashbulb-style lightning.  All this to say: Rain is on my mind. Its tension and variability (from mist to an out-and-out thunderstorm) can enrich your writing. Yes, if mishandled, it can become a cliche, but with practice, rain (and other weather events) can skillfully drive action or accentuate tone.

Instructions

  1. Describe a light drizzle, steady downpour,  late afternoon thunderstorm, or another kind of rain. Be sure to include sensory details, such as sound and smell, as well as the setting.  (Rain in a city or desert is different than rain on a beach or against a farm house.) Write for 10 minutes.
  2. Next, write a conversation that includes either a) someone making a difficult request of someone else  or b) two or three people arguing about something minor as a way to avoid a larger issue or conflict.  Write for 10 minutes.
  3. Next (you guessed it), combine the two. Feel free to adjust the dialogue or the rain to better fit each other. Write for 15 minutes.

A Few Thoughts

  1. How does the pace, intensity, and style of rain magnify or delineate the conversation?
  2. Does the rain stop and start? How does that effect the action?
  3. How do your characters react to the rain? Do they hide under trees, shut windows, place pots and pans to collect drips?

Tomorrow: Further Writing and Variations for Writing Groups

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I Don’t Remember

May 20, 2014  Prompt #20

IMG_0620 Today’s prompt turns yesterday’s “I Remember” exercise on its head.  “I Don’t Remember” motivates you to write about loss,  failure of memory, and what we repress. Use it to remember, connect, and observe.  When I’ve taught this exercise in my workshops, there’s often a lightheartedness about what our mind chooses to remember and what it forgets. Go deep, go playful, go write.

 

Instructions

  1. On a sheet of paper, write the phrase I don’t remember on the left side of the first line.  Skip three lines and write it again.  Repeat this until you’ve written I don’t remember twelve times. (Start a new sheet or write on the back if you need more room.)
  2. Next, fill in the blank spaces after I don’t remember with a sentence, phrase, or even a single word. For example, I don’t remember when I stopped climbing trees.  I don’t remember the last time I spoke to my brother.  I don’t remember what bus driver looked like.
  3. Work your way down the list, writing for 15 to 20 minutes.

Notes (same as yesterday’s notes.)

  • Pay attention to the sound of your words, their collective rhythm and pacing. Try varying short and long responses.
  • This exercise can create a stand-alone list poem or several spring boards for short stories, flash fiction, and narrative poems.
  • Try reading the finished piece aloud. What do you notice?

Further Writing

  • Try interspersing this sequence once or twice, I don’t remember _________, but I do remember  ______________.
  • Include specific details. Here’s one from Brainard’s book: ” I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.”

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Choose one of your completed I don’t remember lines and expand upon it.
  2. Work in a simile. “I don’t remember why I gave away the rag wool sweater, red as the geraniums that lined our front bed, thick as the weeds that tried to choke them.

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I Remember

May 20, 2014  Prompt #19

DSCN6109 Introduction

Joe Brainard’s classic “I Remember” writing prompt has been taught in class rooms for more than 15 years. You can read more about Joe’s life and work and the history of the “I Remember” exercise here.  Below is a variation that has been a big hit in my writing workshops.

 

Instructions

  1. On a sheet of paper, write the phrase, I remember…. on the left side of the first line.  Skip three lines and write it again.  Repeat this until you’ve written I remember nine times.
  2. Skip another three lines and write I wish… then repeat two more times.
  3. Beginning at the top, fill in the blank space after I remember with a sentence, phrase, or even a single word. For example, I remember the first day of the fair.  I remember the last time I spoke to my brother.  I remember pecans. I remember darkness.
  4. Work your way down the list, writing for 15 to 20 minutes.

Notes

  • Pay attention to the sound of your words, their collective rhythm and pacing. Try varying short and long responses.
  • This exercise can create a stand-alone list poem or several spring boards for short stories, flash fiction, and narrative poems.
  • Try reading the finished piece aloud. What do you notice?

How This Prompt Can Strengthen Your Writing

  • Builds upon memory, often ushering you into a place of deeper connection.
  • Encourages experimentation and play.

Further Writing

  • Re-read your piece and circle repeating nouns or verbs that repeat. What patterns emerge?
  • Work the exercise from the perspective of someone else, either fictional or real.

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Choose one of your completed I remember lines and expand upon it.
  2. Discuss one of the I wish lines with others in the group.

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Junk Drawer

May 19, 2014  Prompt #18

IMG_0081Instructions

  1. Locate an object in your home that is generally considered ordinary, outdated, or unnecessary. Don’t spend too much time thinking about what to choose.  One option: If you have a junk drawer in your home or accumulated odds and ends at the bottom of a bag, close your eyes, reach for something, and use it.
  2. Write about this object as if it is something you value dearly. (Tell us why.) Use the word “surprise” once in your writing. Write for 10 minutes.
  3. Write about the same object as if it is something you no longer want, but cannot give away. (Tell us why.) Use the word “regret” once in your writing. Write for 10 minutes.

How This Prompt Can Strengthen Your Writing

  • Encourages you to look at an ordinary object in a fresh way.
  • Encourages imagination and perhaps playfulness.

Further Writing

  • Imagine someone else holding this object. What would surprise them?
  • Write as if a family member asked for this object. Why do they want it? Do you relent?

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Ask each member to bring in one or two objects. Use them as your springboards.
  2. Write as if you discovered the object in a trunk of old table clothes in your attic or basement. You know it belongs to another family member. Write a letter to that person to accompany the returned item.

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Sensory Weekend: Rolling Up Your Sleeves

May 18, 2014  Prompt #17

urban-wall-crack-remove

 

Today features a short prompt: less background, no further writing or writing group variations. Enjoy getting your hands dirty.

 

 

Instructions

Describe an action below. Include at least four different senses.  Write for 15 minutes.

  • Digging a hole.
  • Shucking six ears of corn.
  • Plastering cracks in a wall.
  • Building a ceramic vase out of clay.
  • Handwashing a wool sweater in a tub of water.

 

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Sensory Weekend: Smokin’

May 17, 2014  Prompt #16

cigar smoke

 

 

 

Today and tomorrow feature short prompts: less background, no writing group variations. Have a good weekend!

 

Surgeon General’s Warning

If you are not a smoker, don’t light up to complete this exercise. Work from memory or sit near smokers and take notes.

Instructions

    1. Write for 10 minutes about tobacco (cigarette, cigar or pipe) smoke, either first- or second-hand. Consider how it smells, tastes, and looks.
    2. Write down six adjectives and six verbs that describe smoke or your experience of it. Integrate some of these words into your piece. Write for 10 more minutes.

Further Writing

    1. Write about entering a room that smells of cigar smoke.
    2. Write about someone blowing smoke rings.

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