Dear friends,
Coming off the back of a Q&A I just did with the Electric Sheep writing group based around my short stories, I wanted to put to text one of the exercises I talked about.
When I was at Indiana University (where I did my MFA), I went to a generative workshop run by one of the poetry professors, Catherine Bowman.
She gave us an exercise that has become an important part of most of my short work. At the very least, it leads to some of my favorite lines. The goal—for me, anyway—is to use the broader range of language available to us.
That particular workshop led to “The Cook” but I also remember notably using it on “Burning Season.”
Here’s the exercise:
- Pick an overarching topic. (For the workshop, I think we were given the word “kitchen.”)
- Make a table as follows.
| 1 syllable | 2 syllables | 3 syllables | 4+ syllables | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| noun | ---------- | ----------- | ----------- | ------------ |
| verb | ---------- | ----------- | ----------- | ------------ |
| adjective | ---------- | ----------- | ----------- | ------------ |
| adverb | ---------- | ----------- | ----------- | ------------ |
(I think that adverb goes in there, I don’t really remember, why not do it anyway.)
- Fill in the table with as many of each category as you can. Especially the rightmost columns.
There you have it! Have fun!
If you use it, share some of the more exciting words or tell me about what you wrote!