Five 2 Word Exercises for Practicing Seeing as a Literary Artist in the Airport (or the Mall or the Train Station or the University Campus or the Car Wash, etc)

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Later this week at the Women Writing the West conference in Santa Fe,  I'll be talking about seeing as an artist, apropos of which, this brief exercise:

Wherever there be a parade of people, there's an opportunity for a writerly exercise. This is a quick and easy one, or rather, five. The idea is to look-- using your artist's eye, really look at individuals and come up with two words (or 3 or 4 or 7) to describe them. Yep, it is that easy. 

It helps to write the words down, but just saying them silently to yourself is fine, too. The point is to train your brain to pay attention to detail and generate original descriptions.

As someone walks by:

1. One word to describe the shape of this person's hair; a second word (or two or more) for the color of his or her shoes (referring to a food item), for example:

knife-like; chocolate pudding

She had a knife-like bob and slippers the color of chocolate pudding

curve; pork sausages

His head was a curve of curls and he wore pinkish clogs, a pink that made me think of pork sausages

sumptuous; cinnamon candy

She had a sumptuous do and spike-heeled sandals the red of cinnamon candy

stubbly; skinned trout

He had stubbly hair and tennis shoes the beige-white of skinned trout.

(By the way, it doesn't matter if the words are any good or even apt; the point is to practice coming up with them. Why the color of a food item? Why not?)


2. Is this person carrying anything? If so, describe it with one adjective plus one noun, e.g.:

fat purse

She carried a fat purse

lumpy briefcase

He leaned slightly to the left from the weight of a lumpy briefcase 

crumpled bag

She clutched a crumpled bag 

white cup

On his palm he balanced a white cup

3. Gait and gaze

loping; fixed to ground
shuffling; bright
brisk; dreamy
tiptoe; squinty

4.  Age range

older than 10, younger than 14
perhaps older than 20
I would believe 112
obviously in her seventies, never mind the taut smile 

5. Jewelry

a gold watch; a silver skull ring

feather earrings; a toe ring

eyebrow stud; hoop earrings

a wedding band on the wrong finger; an elephant hair bracelet

One need not use all this detail; the point is to generate it in the first place-- to get beyond stereotypes (eg she was a short Asian woman) and write something more memorable and vivid. 

She had a knife-like bob and slippers the color of chocolate pudding. She carried a fat purse. Her walk was brisk, her gaze dreamy. Perhaps she was older than twenty. She wore a wedding band on the wrong finger and an elephant hair bracelet.

>> How to select the detail and avoid clutter? See "On Respecting the Integrity of Narrative Design: The Interior Decoration Analogy."

More anon.

UPDATE: See the transcript from my talk 
"On Seeing as an Artist or, Five Techniques for a Journey to Einfuhlung"

Emulation Exercises

Writing Loglines and the Concept of the Eyespan

Giant Golden Buddha and 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises

Techniques of Fiction: The Number One Technique in the Supersonic Overview

I've been giving this "Techniques of Fiction" workshop for a few years now at the Writer's Center, Dancing Chiva, the San Miguel Workshops and San Miguel Writers Conference, and upcoming this weekend at the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference and again at the Writer's Center (near Washington DC).

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There are 2 versions: the Supersonic Overview, a 3 hour workshop (or a little longer, as for Dancing Chiva) and the Ridiculously Supersonic Overview (as for the writers conferences), which typically go for about an hour.

You can get a PhD in creative writing (people actually do, shake my head at that as I may), and though I do believe learning to write is a never-ending, ever-deepening process, I also believe that because of the way the human brain is wired, the same very few but very powerful techniques have provided, provide, and-- barring bizarre genetic mutations-- will continue to provide the most effective instructions to the reader to form, in John Gardner's words, "a vivid dream" in her mind.

That's what a novel is: instructions for a vivid dream. Sometimes I get all Californian and call it a "mandala of consciousness." But whatever you call it, a novel is about providing the experience of someone else's experience: Anna Karenina's, Madame Bovary's, Scarlet O'Hara's, Harry Potter's, [insert name of your main character here].

How do we, whether as readers, or as any human being (say, folding laundry, or maybe digging for worms with a stick) experience anything? Well, last I checked we are not free-floating blobs of consciousness (except maybe when we have out-of-body experiences and/ or when dead); we are in bodies. We experience what we experience through our bodily senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch-- and I would add a "gut" or intuitive sense as well. So any fiction that is going to be readable -- a successfully vivid dream--- needs to address the senses.

The reader responds to specific sensory detail such as the color of the sweater; the sound of the wind in the ficus; the droplet of honey on her tongue; the mustiness of the refrigerator that had been left unplugged in the basement; the cottony bulk of an armload of unfolded towels; the sudden twinge of tightness in his throat just before he picked up the telephone.

There are an infinite number of techniques, but this -- giving the reader specific sensory detail --- is paramount.

Compare:

He was sad.
vs
He sank his chin in his hand. With his other, he reached across the table for a Kleenex.

Poor people lived here.
vs
The hallway smelled of boiled cabbage and a bathroom that needed scubbing.

Rich people lived here.
vs
Everything gleamed and behind her, a pair of white gloves pulled the door shut with a gentle click.

She disliked him.
vs
The sight of him made her grit her teeth.

She ate too much.
vs
She didn't leave one crumb of Mrs Ward's crumbcake.

The neighbors were obnoxious.
vs
Though the Hip-Hop came from three houses down the block, she could feel it in her breakfast table when she put her hand on it.

Here's my favorite quote about detail, from a letter by Anton Chekhov:

In descriptions of nature one should seize upon minutiae, grouping them so that when, having read the passage, you close your eyes, a picture is formed. For example, you will evoke a moonlit night by writing that on the mill dam the glass fragments of a broken bottle flashed like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled along like a ball. . .

More anon. For more about my workshops at Bay to Ocean and the Writer's Center next weekend, click here.

P.S. For some fun exercises to generate specific detail for fiction, check out "Giant Golden Buddha" and 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises.

See also my recommended reading list on craft.

And: many more resources for writers here.

Seven Minutes of Yoga (+ 5 Minutes of Writing)

Over at the the Cowgirl Yoga Blog, Margaret Burns Vap talks about a news year's resolution of a minimum of 7 minutes of yoga per day (as inspired by the NY Times' Dr Oz). Speaking of new year's resolutions, why not try 5 minutes of writing per day? If you're flummoxed by a blank page, "Giant Golden Buddha" and 364 more 5 minute writing exercises are available free on-line here. Namaste & more anon.

Christina Baker Kline's "A Writing Life"

Today I'm guest-blogging at novelist Christina Baker Kline's "A Writing Life" with this piece on how to break a writing block.

Christina Baker Kline's "A Writing Life" is an excellent and wide-ranging blog on writing--- one of the best I've seen in my nearly 4 years of reading blogs. Here are just a few of the recent guest blog posts:

Thirteen Tips for Actually Getting Some Writing Done by Gretchen Rubin

Novelist Aimee Liu on Writing Like a Grownup

Q & A with Graphic Designer and Memorist Julie Metz on Judging a Book by Its Cover (Julie Metz's new memoir, Perfection, has one of the most arresting covers I've ever seen; she also designed the cover for Kingsolver's The Posionwood Bible.)

Baker Kline, an accomplished novelist, offers numerous posts herself. Here are two of her more recent:

What If: The Fear That Inspired My Novel Bird in Hand

My Ten Year Overnight Success

More anon.

Guest-Blogging on Dialogue Exercises Over at the Writers Center's Blog, First Person Plural

Today I'm guest-blogging over the Writers Center's blog, First Person Plural, with some dialogue writing exercises. More anon.

Use an Egg-Timer If You Must: The Five Minute Cure for Writer's Block

A brief article of mine about "'Giant Golden Buddha' & 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises" is on-line at ForeWord Magazine's blog. I'm doing three more pieces for the the "Publishing Insider" column for March--- look for my next column on Wednesday 3/10.

P.S. See also Tom Christensen's excellent piece for this column, on Book Design Primer.

Lit-bloggers, Update Your Links Pages: The Writers Center Has a Blog

The Bethesda MD Writers Center, a nonprofit founded in 1976, and one of the premier independent literary centers in the country, has just launched a blog. Check it out at thewriterscenter.blogspot.com and read the Writers Center's communications and publications director, Kyle Semmel's welcome here.

Apropos of the July 26th one day "Flash Fiction" workshop I'll be leading at the Writers Center, Kyle has posted my bit on "Giant Golden Buddha" and 364 More Five Minute Writing Exercises. Said archive includes writing exercises contributed by several fellow Writers Center members, friends, and instructors, among them, Leslie Pietrzyk, Lisa Couturier, Basil White, Kim Roberts, Deborah Ager, Mary Quattlebaum, and Robert Giron. More anon.

Giant Golden Buddha and 364 More 5 Minute Writing Exercises

Ye olde page has a nouveau look. New header by graphic designer Kathleen Fetner. More anon.

Literary Travel Writing One-Day Workshop in Mexico City

This January 19th, from 10 - 3 pm, in Coyoacan, Mexico City, I'm giving a literary travel writing workshop (in English, of course) via Dancing Chiva. For the full description, and to apply, click here. If you can't sign up for this one, I'm giving another at the Writers Center, near Washington DC, in February. And if you can't sign up for any of them, well, help yourself to the daily 5 minute writing exercises! As well as other resources for writers. More anon.

Ready, Set, Nanowrimo!

Today is the start of Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month. Could be fun. Could give you carpal tunnel syndrome. If you decide to do it, check out my daily 5 minute writing exercises for a nudge. And I ardently recommend the founder of Nanowrimo's book, No Plot, No Problem, believe it not... (With such a title, I admit, I never would have picked it up in the first place, but novelist Mary Kay Zuravelff did me the favor of convincing me to have a look.) More anon.