{"id":21,"date":"2024-01-09T23:52:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T04:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/eng125-05-sp24\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2024-01-10T00:03:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T05:03:11","slug":"habit-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/eng125-05-sp24\/habit-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"
Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. \r\n\u2013 Anne Lamott\r\n\r\nOn plenty of days the writer can write three or four pages, and on plenty of other days he concludes he must throw them away. \r\n\u2013 Annie Dillard\r\n\r\nPursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life...Know your own bone: gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still.\u00a0\r\n\u2013 Henry David Thoreau\r\n\r\nEver tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. \r\n\u2013 Samuel Beckett<\/pre>\n
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The Writing Habit<\/strong><\/p>\n
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  1. You must find a place and a time to write every day. Experiment with locations; search for the place(s) that will allow you to write freely and without interruption. Find a time to write that suits your work \u2013 play around with different times. Explore writing routines and approaches (notebook vs. laptop, library vs. under a tree). Take walks. Exercise your imagination. Hone your senses. I am a believer in actively embracing the world through observation and informal writing whenever possible.<\/li>\n
  2. You will need to own at least one substantial notebook (I recommend unlined to enable absolute freedom to work beyond lines and for visual and multi-media exploration), and one small pad to keep in your pocket\u00a0at all times\u00a0(you\u2019ll thank me for this). Bring your notebooks to classes and conferences. These can be your most useful tools as a writer and observer of the world, and are required for this course. You must write in your notebook daily. Too many details can slip through the cracks if you don\u2019t record them, and the process of recording cultivates your awareness of what surrounds you. The effort and fun you have in these pages will provide some of the most significant opportunities to try out writing and to find your way to the kind of writing you want to pursue. It is not a diary or a journal in the-\u201cThis is what I did\u201d tradition; look at it as the writer\u2019s version of the visual artist\u2019s sketchbook. The best writing always comes from fooling around, from playing with abandon on paper. Jot down snippets of conversations, thoughts, descriptions, words you like the sounds of, questions, quotes from the readings, anything that might be useful to you in your writing, even if you\u2019re not sure how or why. Write in fragments or sprawls, horizontally or vertically \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter. Draw, collage, paste, whatever you want. Do anything and use anything to get you going; whatever you\u2019ve always wanted to try out and never dared to or had the time to before now. This is a chance for you to discover your particular relationship with language, your playing field. Be bold, inventive, loose. I will often assign brief specific entries to jumpstart certain play within each genre. Do not limit yourself to these assignments. You must do them, but you must also go to your notebook for yourself. This notebook is also the place for you to track your development as a writer. Consider your process, your growth and struggles and moments of breakthrough, etc. \u2013 by the end of the quarter you will have an account of your journey throughout this course.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    Daily Possibilities:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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    • Automatic Writing a la Gertrude Stein.\u00a0<\/em>Start with one minute a day, work up to ten or more by mid-quarter.\u00a0 Get out your notebook, and say, \u201cGo.\u201d And then write without stopping, thinking, editing.\u00a0 Write in lines or sprawls or fragments or real sentences \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter. Just go until the time limit is up.\u00a0No excuses.\u00a0See what comes out.\u00a0From time to time read these bits and find out if anything is stirring.<\/li>\n
    • Idea and image jottings<\/em>.\u00a0Keep a section for anything that pops up: overheard conversations, a striking image, a thought, an observation of someone\u2019s actions \u2013 anything that could possibly be material for your writing someday.<\/li>\n
    • Snippets<\/em>. of things you admire from what you\u2019ve read.\u00a0Jot down a line from a poet, a paragraph from an essay or story, a few words from a peer\u2019s latest story, something you read online \u2013 let these stay with you by writing them down (and write down the source, too \u2013 you might need it someday).<\/li>\n
    • Memory writing.<\/em>\u00a0Write write write about all you\u2019ve done, known, felt, and thought \u2013 make it as sensory as possible.\u00a0Record places, people, events, conversations, etc. Then write about everything you haven\u2019t done but imagined doing.\u00a0And then write about stuff you haven\u2019t a clue about. (Take just a few minutes a day.)<\/li>\n
    • Formal Exercises<\/em>. Sometimes giving yourself specific demands can be helpful, especially if you\u2019re stuck. See me for ideas.<\/li>\n
    • Anything at all.<\/em>\u00a0Drawings, collages, photos. Stuff you find in the world. Anything to get you going.\u00a0Anything that you\u2019ve always wanted to try out and never dared to or had the time to before now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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      Nonfiction Notebook<\/strong>\u00a0Ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n
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      • List 5 memories that were life-shaping for you; describe 1 in detail within a 10-minute story.<\/li>\n
      • List 10 places that are important to you; describe 1 of these places in detail.<\/li>\n
      • Go to a physical place; spend 10 minutes writing an evocative description; later that night read what you\u2019ve written and write 1 sentence stating the meaning you hope to convey of this place.<\/li>\n
      • Go to a place in a photograph or in your memory spend 10 minutes writing an evocative description; later that night read what you\u2019ve written and write 1 sentence stating the meaning you hope to convey of this place.<\/li>\n
      • Go find an unusual spot at an unusual time and sit there for a while; later, write about what it felt like to be there.<\/li>\n
      • Look out the window from wherever you write and describe a single object outside in detail in a way that reflects your mood at that particular moment, let the description evoke the mood (show don\u2019t tell).<\/li>\n
      • Write down the names of 5 places you\u2019ve traveled to (as far as overseas, as close as some local town); then, write a brief collage description of each capturing the senses (smell, taste, sight, sound, touch) of each place portrait; consider the experience of moving through these places as a traveler\/observer in interaction with the culture, lifestyle, or community of a place; write down any words or phrases that come to mind (1 piece may be turned into a fuller piece for an assignment).<\/li>\n
      • Extend 1 of your travel collages, and change the voice to 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0person p-o-v.<\/li>\n
      • Find a photograph of someone you know and write the story of that image.<\/li>\n
      • Describe the physical appearance of someone you know, characterizing that person only through description; then interview that person, removing yourself entirely and letting him\/her speak as the only present voice.<\/li>\n
      • Stranger Study #1: people watch, taking notes on a stranger\u2019s appearance, actions, speech, etc., then go back to your writing place and write a brief portrait. Do this exercise every day observing a different stranger, accumulating 5 total. (You will use one of these for an assignment.)<\/li>\n
      • Write about an extraordinary experience with food.<\/li>\n
      • Write about an extraordinary encounter with art.<\/li>\n
      • Write a 10-minute true story. Do this once per day, giving yourself a time limit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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        Fiction Notebook<\/strong>\u00a0Ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n