EXERCISE: Life in a metaphor or two...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 20:31:00 -0400

Recently, I saw a plaque that consisted of four relatively short chunks of writing (I hesitate to call them poetic, although others might).

The first consisted of several statements about "Life as a rainbow."  The second talked about "life as an unsung song."  Then it ended with two simple lines:

"the beauty of a rainbow may be contemplated in solitude.
The mystery of a song begs to be shared."

I think of this as basically two extended similes (Life is like a cracker, crispy on the outside, dry on the inside, and crunchy when broken...) and then a pair of metaphorical implications (a cracker tastes better with salt [and the silent echoing thought about whether a life also needs a little salt])

Hokay?

So, your job:

1.  Pick two little bits of reality (rainbow, song, tree, pebble, river, hurricane, etc.)
2.  Pick a general thing (life, love, peace of mind, justice, etc.)
3.  Stretch those similes!  Make lists of characteristics of the reality chunks.  You might make a list of the characteristics of the abstraction, too.  Mix and match, compare and contrast, and pick out the ones that really feel powerful.
4.  Arrange into two extended similes and a pair of observations.
5.  Polish, tighten, and make the words twinkle.

Write!

EXERCISE: love potion number 9

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 20:34:00 -0400

Here's the pitch...

Suppose (it could happen, somewhere, sometime, right?) that someone has developed an actual love potion.  Pheromonal?  Hormonal?  Or maybe just plain mystical magical goo? That's up to you.

Story seeds:

1. The discoverer -- should s/he tell anyone?  What do you do with this powerful mist?
2. A perfume manufacturer -- how do you market this?  Network marketing?  Highest bidders only?  What about a limited membership club, that gets exclusive use?
3. Someone who has used it?  I mean, what does it do to realize that you've done something by chemicals?  Do you respect him/her in the aftermath?
4. Someone who has been subjected to the potion?
5. How about someone who isn't affected by the potion, watching all the wild relationships forming?
6. Maybe someone who refuses to use the potion, for ethical reasons?

And so forth, and so on.

What are the limitations of the potion?  Does it wear off?  Quickly, slowly, nevermore?  Does it affect all sexes and people, or only selected ones?  What happens when the potion accidently is sprayed on a car -- does everyone want an affair with the bumper?

Let your mind play with the potion, and the effects, and the changes that result...

[bonus points for other potions and liniments -- anger rub, the love killer pill, and such.]

and Write!

(BTW: to provide proper attribution, this exercise is based very loosely on an episode of "My Favorite Martian" in which Uncle Martin brews up a love spray...)

EXERCISE: A Creative Whack?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

I'm working on a course in creativity right now, and of course I've been looking at various books and other materials that I've collected over the years. Fair warning -- you are likely to be hearing bits and pieces as I mutter over the stuff. Prepare to duck now?

Among them is a Creative Whack Pack (r) by Roger von Oech. It's 64 cards each of which has has a little description -- a creativity strategy if you will. He identifies four roles, with 16 cards in each. The roles are interesting.

The Explorer discovers resources to help create new ideas. The Artist transforms resources into new ideas. The Judge evaluates ideas, making decisions about the idea. And the Warrior kicks things from ideas into action. Between them, they cover four major parts of the creativity process. Collecting knowledge and stimulation, generating ideas, picking and choosing, and then taking the steps to make the idea concrete and real.

Just as a first step in playing with this, you might consider how you tackle each of these roles. Since we are talking about writing, when you want to write a new story, where do you go to get your ideas? Do you look at the news, read old books, or what do you do to get the information for your ideas? And how do you transform those into pile of new ideas? What do you look for to pick out the one that you're actually going to work on? And what makes you sit down and turn it into a real story? You may want to have more than one strategy in your kit for each of these.

Just for examples, here are the first in each of the four roles in the Creative Whack Pack (r).

1. Give Yourself a Whack on the Side of the Head

The more often you do something in the same way, the more difficult it is to think about doing it in any other way. Break out of this "prison of familiarity" by disrupting your habitual thought patterns. Write a love poem in the middle of the night. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Wear red sox. Visit a junkyard. Work the weekend. Take the slow way home. Sleep on the other side of the bed. Such jolts to your routines will lead to new ideas.

How can you whack your thinking?

17. Think like a Kid

A high school teacher drew a dot on the blackboard and asked the class what it was. "A chalk dot on the blackboard," was the only response. "I'm surprised at you," the teacher said. "I did this exercise with a group of kindergartners and they thought of fifty different things it could be: a squashed bug, an owl's eye, a cow's head. They had their imaginations in high gear." As Picasso put it, "Every child is an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist that you grow up."

What would a six year old see if he were looking at your project?

33. See the Positive

"The human mind," notes scientist W. I. Beveridge," likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy." When you judge new ideas, focus initially on their positive and interesting features. This will counteract a natural negative bias, and help you to develop more ideas.

What's positive about the idea?

49. Take a Whack at It

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put your line into the water. You can't make your idea a reality unless you take a whack at it. If you want to be a singer, go sing. Sing in the shower. Sing for your friends. Join the choir. Audition for a musical. Start now. As adman Carl Ally put it, "Either you let your life slip by by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them."

How can you take a whack at your idea?

How can you shake yourself up? What would a six year old see? What's good about the idea? And how can you get started right now?

Right, write!

When we write, we get to rub our ideas together and see what catches fire.