English 223
Greg Martin
Craft Exercises
One of the paradoxes of writing is that the more we place limitations on ourselves, the more we have to say. The more we give ourselves arbitrary tasks, the more our unconscious is left to roam, to say things we wouldn’t have said had we not started saying something. It’s completely daunting to try to write about “the meaning of life,” but it’s far less daunting to make a map, characterize a family member, or describe an object. The generative exercises in this class are not intended to be merely “practice,” and they are not merely “drills.” Writing exercises are valuable for (at least) three reasons:
for the low stakes
for the ability to master one area of emphasis, and
because exercises often give you something hard to find: access to memory, access to material, access to ideas, access to the unconscious, and finally, access to meaning.
Generative Exercise #1: Map Making
Generative Exercise #2: Writing the Family
Generative Exercise #3: Object Lesson
Revision: Cracking Open Exercise