Writing Exercises

• Change your visual point of view:

  • Stare at the same scene from different focal points

  • Distort reality by looking through prisms, kaleidoscopes, or 3-d glasses

• Make a list of images you find ugly, even disgusting in objects nature or people. Your list might include an amputee’s stump, wrinkles, a smoggy skin, cockroaches, stretch marks, Then choose one image from the list and write a description that redeems that image, removing it from the realm of ugliness and disgust.

• Study a “beautiful” object until you discover an interesting flaw. Record the details you see, giving the ugly and beautiful qualities equal weight.

• Keep a dream journal which you record not only nighttime dreams, but d also twilight imagery, daybreak reverie, and simple old-fashioned daydreams. Once a month, look through your entries, circling arresting images. Use one of these dreams as an opening line in a story, poem or essay, or lend the dreams to one of your characters.

• To engage in the imaginative eye, change an ordinary habitual act by adding a new dimension to it. For instance, eat the same flavor of ice cream in three different ways in three different settings. Write a description of each experience.

• Wear headphones or earbuds while you walk the same blocks three times, varying the style of music each time. Notice how the same scene changes depending on the music.

• Reread one of your old descriptions. circle adjectives that merely label or explain, and replace them with descriptive adjectives that evoke concrete, sensory qualities.

• Choose an object from your past, that has been lost to time. That is, although it may still be physically present in the world, it has lots its former glory, it’s original reason for being. (for Instance, a fall out shelter, a 3-d view master, a wind up clock, or a desert canvas water bag.) Write about the object, beginning with a physical description and moving into other connections, cultural or historical context, personal memories, thematic issues. You might even imagine the objects redemption or reincarnation, showing how it might live on in another form.

• after studying a photograph, describe it as precisely as possible, using concrete and specific detail to show what your naked eye sees. Then engage your imaginative eye. Employe negative space, describing what you can’t see. What might light outside the borders of the image? who do you imagine took the photo? Who or what is missing from the scene? what happened right before the photograph was snapped? or right after? speculate interrogate, place the image side by side with other images. Do whatever it takes to move the description to a deeper level.

• When visualizing a static scene, break it down into smaller parts and then develop an order. Example: describing an orange can talk about rind, juice, pulp, seeds, etc. Order by act of peeling, or by texture, etc.

• Try describing something by what it is not. This works well when the object described is viewed as ideal and the description would only result in something cliche.