Today’s Wednesday Writing Workout comes to you
courtesy of a TeachingAuthor I so admire and respect, an award-winning picture
book author, poet and UCLA instructor whose hands-on text Writing Picture Books (Hint! Hint!) I recommend at least once a
week to writers and students. She could
truly be M.B. Goffstein’s “writer,” seated on her living room couch, cutting,
pruning, shaping and planning the words she wishes to set upon paper. Her picture books include Word Builder (Simon & Schuster) and Tortuga
in Trouble (Holiday House).
* * * * * * * * *
Have you ever wondered how a book feels if
you close it before the end?
Have you ever pondered how a tree endures
a thunderstorm? Can you guess what a snowman’s last words might be?
This exercise will give you an opportunity
to answer those questions.
To show you how, let’s take a pencil.
Imagine that you are the pencil. What might you say to the person holding it?
Then write without stopping or revising.
For example, here’s what I wrote:
“You think you have complete control of
me. It’s true you do and I hate it. I have to write what you insist, but if I
could write my own story, if I could swirl my words across the paper, here’s
what I’d say. Inside me lurk words more beautiful than you could ever express.
I long to spill my soul, to stand up and shout gray silver words. Then you
would know that I too, have thoughts. And I am sure, then, that you would never
chew on me. . . how I hate the way you bite down my eraser and your saliva
slivers down my yellow. You wouldn’t like it if I did that to you. How I hate
the way you fling me into box with other pencils, not knowing, not caring how
special I am.”
Okay, a rambling paragraph of unedited raw
spillage, but rereading, I was surprised by several things here. The phrases
“shout gray silver words” and “how I hate the way you bite down on my eraser”
and “your saliva slivers down my yellow,” they gave me a niggle that I took as
a sign to explore them further. I thought and thought about those phrases and
after much revising came up with this poem in the form of a cinquain.
PENCIL
SPEAKS TO WRITER
Don’t
biteMy eraser. Don’t
Gnaw my stub. Treat me right
Or I will refuse to record
Your words.
So here’s your writing workout for this
week: Go up to those questions I asked
earlier.
Then be a book, a tree or a snowman, or all three if you’re feeling ambitious,
and let your words flow. I guarantee you’ll surprise yourself.
You may not get a story, a poem or an essay out of it, but you’ll be exercising your imagination, something all writers need to do regularly.
* * * * * * * * * * *
So,
did you guess our Mystery Guest Author, Ann Whitford Paul?
You
might recall the Thumbs Up review I gave Writing
Picture Books when our TeachingAuthors blog began.
For more Writer Tips from Ann, click here.
Ann Whitford Paul gets - and loves - the picture book.
Even better,
Ann Whitford Paul gets - and loves – writers and writing.
Thanks, Ann, for
keeping my writing muscles, and those of our TeachingAuthors readers, burning.
Esther Hershenhorn
4 Comments on Mystery Guest Wednesday Writing Workout: Exercising Your Imagination!, last added: 2/7/2013
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Thanks for the imagination exercise! Here's what I ended up with:
PENCIL
Sharpness
isn't everything.
What about
the value
of a good
impression?
Great Workout, Ann. And Andrea, thanks for sharing your response to it. I'll have to try it myself!
We love Ann and this is a wonderful exercise.
Ohh thank you for bringing this stellar talent to us.
Energizing exercise!
Just pulled down ALL by HERSELF from the shelf. Since I enjoy presenting on biography, it's one of my favorites.
Especially this poem excerpt about Golda Mabovitch :
"But some friends lived in poverty
and buying books was out of reach
Though just a student in fourth grade,
Golda ran a book crusade"...
The entire poem by Ann Whitford Paul should be read but these lines so lyrically channel the spirit of the future prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir.
more thanks to TA for this surprise visit!