Mineral, Animal, Veggie--Personal Metaphors

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 22:36:11 EST

[sorry about the delay--this week has been a bit hectic, and today was...less than benign? anyway, I was relaxing at home, letting the residual tremors work themselves out, and I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to post an exercise! mea delinquent, but here we go]

might be a poetic exercise, might simply be a mind stretcher, but I think some of you will like it...

1. Take a concept or idea that you want to express. Write it down in a few short words (e.g. I'm lonely)

2. Take some word from the mineral arena. For example, pick a number from one to six and:

a) opal b) marble c) iron d) pewter e) lava f) flint

Write this word down in column one under the concept or idea.

3. Take one word from the animal world...one to six?

a) kangaroo! b) bat c) orangutan d) tiger e) mule f) pig

Write this word down in column two under the concept or idea.

4. Take one word from the veggies...one to six?

a) cypress b) hemlock c) fuchsia d) bluegrass e) oregano f) ivy

Write this word down in column three under the concept or idea.

5. If you aren't sure about them, look them up...

6. Now, for each column, mineral, animal, veggie, think about some characteristics of that specific thing. Make a list of at least ten different points about the piece of marble you are thinking of, the mule hiding under your porch, and the ivy cracking the shingles off your roof... I think this works best when you do ten in column a, then ten in column b, then ten in column c, but do it your way.

7. Now, let your mind wander down the lists. If the sharp edge of your piece of flint reminds you of the darkness under the looming cypress trees--make a note of that. You've got 34 or so words to play with at this point, let your intuition lead you into a web of relationships, similarities and differences, alliances and juxtapositions...mirroring and distorting the concept or idea you wanted to think about.

8. Put that away. Grab a piece of clean paper. Tap your fingers, beat your feet, get a rhythm going--and let words bubble up out of that cauldron of thought you've just immersed yourself in. Write them down, make them fit the beat, fight the beat, bite the feet--and stick to those cracks in the pewter matching those veins in the leaves of oregano that bite in the back of your nose when you sniff the spaghetti--ye olde concrete experience. If you slow down, glance at the lists and notes you made, fit pieces of that in, and keep going. When it slows down and stops, that's okay--that's when you go back, look at what you've done, and polish.

9. Polish, polish, clear away the detritus that hides the shining scalpel of the metaphorical linkages you have created, make it cut...

[that's it!

oh, the start of a story folken are clamoring? they should get out of those unpleasantly cold and sticky things right now and slip into something more comfortable...

"Kill him now," the head cheerleader said, and ran onto the field.

tick-tock, marjory-daw, the cheerleading squad has its own little secrets...

For those who wonder, the idea is to start with that line, and write a little, write a little, write a lot onward, into the jaws of a climax, wrote the fingered keyboards...]

later

Twisting Plots

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 10:40:29 EST

A. One method of tsiwting plots...

1. Take a story you like. Write down the plot in a very skeletal form. For example, you might simply write down the opening scene and question in one sentence, then each intermediate scene in one sentence, and summarize the climax in one sentence. Strip it to the bones.

2. Now consider alternative endings. Did the girl get the boy in the story? Maybe you want to consider letting the boy escape before the jaws of the trap slam shut--or maybe you want to consider a different dungeon for the kid to languish in? Anyway, think about other endings.

3. Then back up and adjust the intermediate steps. If the boy is going to get away in the end, maybe we need to see him struggling more beforehand, not simply laying back and letting the fangs sink in.

4. Now redo the piece. One suggestion is to combine two or more plots--perhaps the boy is being chased towards the girl, while she, in turn, is trying to overcome feelings of inadequacy due to growing up as the orphan of unknown parents from outer space...

Or, of course, you could rest.

B. One Starting Blockbuster...

And for those who like one sentence starters:

"Did you see that?" he said, and hit the gas.

[take this sentence, add thought, sprinkle lightly with keyboard presses, and see what grows...]

C. One Question?

With great thanks for noticing these little exercises...

If you have topics, exercises, questions, and so forth that you would appreciate me trying to turn into an exercise, please let me know. I appreciate the help!

and here come the words, around the bend and into the stretch...

(yipes, late again--write!)