Writing Try this fun creativity exercise!

[LeilaniOtter]

When I was taking writing classes (in the Long Ago =P) our teacher taught us first not to write but how to use our senses on the first day. Since we count mostly on our vision when writing, he asked that we picture in our heads an apple on a table about five minutes, and then write what was in our heads.

The mixture of details was staggering. One writer pictured a half-eaten apple with maggots crawling in it, while another writer saw an apple shining in the sunlight, with a little leaf still on the stem. Some saw the table as a simple wooden desk, like in a school classroom, and others saw the apple on a massive ornate desk in an office.

One of the best things about writing is the vision you relay to your audience. They can't see what you see until you show them. So, for a little fun, try this creativity exercise and picture an apple on a table, take five minutes visualizing it, then write out what's in your head, and go through what you wrote. Try to imagine what you "saw" and how well you were able to put it into words. The key to great writing is a great imagination.

if you weren't happy with what you wrote, try again. Keep trying until you're comfortable with it and that you feel you can project what you "saw" into the minds of your readers. And if you want to share what you wrote, feel free! ?

 

[Keene]

This is a great piece of advice and it's also good to keep in mind to not overdescribe a scene. It's good to allow the reader flexibility in imagining the scene in their own way. The extreme of this is, of course, Bella Swan from Twilight, who was intentionally described very little so that the female audience could project themselves onto her.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

This is a great piece of advice and it's also good to keep in mind to not overdescribe a scene. It's good to allow the reader flexibility in imagining the scene in their own way. The extreme of this is, of course, Bella Swan from Twilight, who was intentionally described very little so that the female audience could project themselves onto her.

And then there's completely off-the-wall extreme detailing, as seen in Stephen King's "Desperation", in which he describes a hot summer day for about two whole pages. Of course, he can get away with that stuff because he's Stephen King. *^^*

The point is, use just enough. Employ the Goldilocks approach: not too much, not too little, but just right. lol

 

[beast_regards]

I would feel strong distrust towards the assignment given by any professors of literature.

From my experience, they aren't particularly open-minded about the concept of modern entertainment, and in the best-case scenario, it would be awkward... in worse you would offend them, and it's not good to offend the teacher who is in control of your grades.

Vast majority of the works you are taught about in school curriculum are at best early 20 century.

School never taught us of anything which wasn't at least 30 or 40 years old.

It's a while since I graduated, but I very doubt the curriculum had changed, which means to literature professor last 50 - 60 years of literature doesn't exist. As all literature teachers know, the books all mysteriously disappeared after the WW2

But who knows ...

I don't have a degree in literature.

Perhaps they do teach different things these days than they did to us, the technical schools did the literature as something to satisfy bureaucrats when I was still a student.

Still, if school - any school, from elementary, high-school, or university, orders to you write something:

Descriptions are probably the most benign of those.

Never fiction, it is too radical for their sensibilities.

 

[VertisGuguChalimoth]

A picture perfect apple sat upright on the polished surface of a wooden table. From where Vertis stood, a gleam of light reflected from its skin--the result desired from its wax sprayed peel.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Vast majority of the works you are taught about in school curriculum are at best early 20 century.

School never taught us of anything which wasn't at least 30 or 40 years old.

It's a while since I graduated, but I very doubt the curriculum had changed, which means to literature professor last 50 - 60 years of literature doesn't exist. As all literature teachers know, the books all mysteriously disappeared after the WW2

I would be very curious to know what the reading curriculum is like for high school Lit kids these days. Maybe someone who is a recent graduate or early college student could let us know.

My reading list was "The Great Gatsby", "The Jungle", "The Lord of the Flies", everything Shakespeare, "Great Expectations", "Call of the Wild", "To Kill a mockingbird", "The Crucible". I'm sure I'm missing others but those are the ones I remember. Oh, wait, "Moby Dick". Can't forget the whale. lol

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I would feel strong distrust towards the assignment given by any professors of literature.

From my experience, they aren't particularly open-minded about the concept of modern entertainment, and in the best-case scenario, it would be awkward... in worse you would offend them, and it's not good to offend the teacher who is in control of your grades.

Vast majority of the works you are taught about in school curriculum are at best early 20 century.

School never taught us of anything which wasn't at least 30 or 40 years old.

It's a while since I graduated, but I very doubt the curriculum had changed, which means to literature professor last 50 - 60 years of literature doesn't exist. As all literature teachers know, the books all mysteriously disappeared after the WW2

But who knows ...

I don't have a degree in literature.

Perhaps they do teach different things these days than they did to us, the technical schools did the literature as something to satisfy bureaucrats when I was still a student.

Still, if school - any school, from elementary, high-school, or university, orders to you write something:

Descriptions are probably the most benign of those.

Never fiction, it is too radical for their sensibilities.

Except in my AP English class (which taught for a test that 95% of schools don't use), my teachers focused on the "Turn of the Century" stuff for the most part, with occasional forays to (modern translations) of Classical Greek or Shakespeare (Turn of the Century, in literature, is defined as "anything published between the 'On the Origin of Species' and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand"), AP English added in Chaucer and some 1940s-1960s poets.
Ah, there were two exceptions- my fifth grade teacher was a big fan of the guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach, etc., and the short story writers who inspired Hitchcock and Serling, so we got a sampler of that (including the original version of The Birds), and my 7th grade Creative Writing class basically focused on Hemingway, Steinbeck and Sartre (a bizarre mix, to be sure).

Oh wait - I was in the only class 9th grade class that did NOT read "The Catcher in the Rye" (we read "Night" and "A Separate Piece" instead), and did have "The Diary of Anne Frank" required for all students, but that was about as modern as they were allowed (or, in that last one, required) to go.

 

[beast_regards]

Except in my AP English class (which taught for a test that 95% of schools don't use), my teachers focused on the "Turn of the Century" stuff for the most part, with occasional forays to (modern translations) of Classical Greek or Shakespeare (Turn of the Century, in literature, is defined as "anything published between the 'On the Origin of Species' and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand"), AP English added in Chaucer and some 1940s-1960s poets.
Ah, there were two exceptions- my fifth grade teacher was a big fan of the guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach, etc., and the short story writers who inspired Hitchcock and Serling, so we got a sampler of that (including the original version of The Birds), and my 7th grade Creative Writing class basically focused on Hemingway, Steinbeck and Sartre (a bizarre mix, to be sure).

Oh wait - I was in the only class 9th grade class that did NOT read "The Catcher in the Rye" (we read "Night" and "A Separate Piece" instead), and did have "The Diary of Anne Frank" required for all students, but that was about as modern as they were allowed (or, in that last one, required) to go.

In my cases, the focus was mostly on 19th century Russian literature, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and many more than I could count or recall, and other 19th century European authors.

It did follow with the 20th century literature, mostly authors influenced by the war like Hemingway or Heller...

The most modern was absurdist drama...

I forgot most of it.

Perhaps that's the point.

The works of the 19th century intellectuals mostly felt utterly alien or at least uninteresting to us, and truth to be told, most of us didn't seriously read anything we were suggested (read ordered) to.

As far as "creative writing" goes, I found out that anything that involved the pure descriptions was the safest and produced the least amount of ridicule from both teachers and student, and no, the tendency didn't end with the elementary school as one might assume. Reflection essays were also surprisingly accepted. I loved reflection essays. No one could ridicule me for it (or at least, no one bothered to), and I could question the very existence of the essay itself and receive a good grade for it.

I would be very curious to know what the reading curriculum is like for high school Lit kids these days. Maybe someone who is a recent graduate or early college student could let us know.

My reading list was "The Great Gatsby", "The Jungle", "The Lord of the Flies", everything Shakespeare, "Great Expectations", "Call of the Wild", "To Kill a mockingbird", "The Crucible". I'm sure I'm missing others but those are the ones I remember. Oh, wait, "Moby Dick". Can't forget the whale. lol

I wonder it myself.

It was more "War and Peace" kind of thing for us.

As for "modern" literature, I even recall we were actively dissuaded from reading the sci-fi except Bradbury. It was quite noticeable since Bradbury's books were roughly contemporary to Asimov or Clarke. I never understood what made him special...

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Except in my AP English class (which taught for a test that 95% of schools don't use), my teachers focused on the "Turn of the Century" stuff for the most part, with occasional forays to (modern translations) of Classical Greek or Shakespeare (Turn of the Century, in literature, is defined as "anything published between the 'On the Origin of Species' and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand"), AP English added in Chaucer and some 1940s-1960s poets.
Ah, there were two exceptions- my fifth grade teacher was a big fan of the guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach, etc., and the short story writers who inspired Hitchcock and Serling, so we got a sampler of that (including the original version of The Birds), and my 7th grade Creative Writing class basically focused on Hemingway, Steinbeck and Sartre (a bizarre mix, to be sure).

Oh wait - I was in the only class 9th grade class that did NOT read "The Catcher in the Rye" (we read "Night" and "A Separate Piece" instead), and did have "The Diary of Anne Frank" required for all students, but that was about as modern as they were allowed (or, in that last one, required) to go.

I did read "Cattcher in the Rye", a lot of Chaucer, and we actually read the stage play of "Anne Frank" and performed it. Okay, it's nice to see the kids still getting a steady diet of less modern-day literature still. @beast_regards it seems like we had the same menu, early 20th and late 19th Century works. *^^*

 

[beast_regards]

it seems like we had the same menu, early 20th and late 19th Century works. *^^*

Similar, though I don't recall "Catcher in the Rye" ever being mentioned. I googled it up, it doesn't ring a bell.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Similar, though I don't recall "Catcher in the Rye" ever being mentioned. I googled it up, it doesn't ring a bell.

I hope you'll read it.
It's the ultimate slice-of-life novel and probably paved the way for slice-of-life stories to follow. *^^*

 

[CharlesEBrown]

In my cases, the focus was mostly on 19th century Russian literature, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and many more than I could count or recall, and other 19th century European authors.

Ah! Other than dad trying to "share the misery" when mom finally put her foot down and said "No more books until you've read everything in your collection at least once" (in college he bought War and Peace, a collection of Dostoyevsky short stories and something else by Tolstoy, but every time he'd considered pulling them out to read, he re-read Tolkien instead until then), I was not exposed to them until my college Turn of the Century Literature and 20th Century Literature classes.

As far as "creative writing" goes, I found out that anything that involved the pure descriptions was the safest and produced the least amount of ridicule from both teachers and student, and no, the tendency didn't end with the elementary school as one might assume. Reflection essays were also surprisingly accepted. I loved reflection essays. No one could ridicule me for it (or at least, no one bothered to), and I could question the very existence of the essay itself and receive a good grade for it.

My sixth and 12th grade English teachers felt "creative writing" = "Poetry" ... the 7th grade Creative Writing class was good, really, better than it deserved to be, and my tenth grade English teacher let us pick some of our own stuff to read (had some really strange moments in that class - for one paper I found a quote I NEEDED on the book jacket, with no clue where it was in the 400 page book... took us half an hour to figure out the proper format for THAT footnote; for another, I managed to get an A+ on the rough draft of a paper, a C+ on the final draft, and a B overall as she was grading the research, style, and content, rather than just the final project).

My reading list was "The Great Gatsby",

Read in college

"The Jungle",

Never read

"The Lord of the Flies",

Eighth grade "free reading" choice.

everything Shakespeare,

One of my parents had a "complete plays of Shakespeare" which I pulled out occasionally and read on my own. For classes, only ever did Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth (and saw the latter on stage as a field trip) before college, A Midsummer Nights Dream in college.

"Great Expectations",

Never read

"Call of the Wild",

Read that and one other London novel (White Fang, I think) in the "Classics Illustrated" form in 6th grade. Also once played in a Call of Cthulhu game where a woman distantly related to Jack London actually played HIM as a character.

"To Kill a mockingbird",

Never read that.

"The Crucible"

Seventh grade.

. I'm sure I'm missing others but those are the ones I remember. Oh, wait, "Moby Dick". Can't forget the whale. lol

Tried reading that for myself the summer between high school and college (so 1985). Didn't get past chapter two. Had read the Classics Illustrated for "Billy Budd" though.

 

[Thraben]

I HATE these exercises. It's one of those subtle things you would never notice or think about if you never have explicitly encountered someone like me who's TOLD you, but Aphantasia makes these exercises about as useless as they can possibly get, and teachers (and artists generally) Will deride you for 'not trying' or 'not participating' or 'being uncreative' when someone like me just can't make these exercises function in any meaningful way.

In general, if it starts with 'Imagine a-' it's already failed to me, through (as far as I know) no fault of my own or a fault of the person giving the exercise

 

[Tempokai]

This only works for total newbies, because it's used for putting words on a page, without thinking about the constraints. Sure, for an exercise it's great, but when put on practice, it doesn't account for the whole scene structure, how pacing is done, is it persuasive for the reader to continue to read or not.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

This only works for total newbies, because it's used for putting words on a page, without thinking about the constraints. Sure, for an exercise it's great, but when put on practice, it doesn't account for the whole scene structure, how pacing is done, is it persuasive for the reader to continue to read or not.

True. I actually have a fun exercise for story structure I'll include later. *^^* We had the best teachers and the writing retreats were a lot of fun too. We studied with Heinlein and Vonnegut one year! ?

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

I don't know how it is in other countries, but in France every lit exam has a part about the pieces you studied in class, and another about free expression. You get, for exemple, an extract from a classical piece, and you need to write the scene from another character's perspective. Or they give you a scene, and you need to imagine what happens next. Or they give you a prompt, like 'Right here, right now, in this exam room, someone rushes in with widened eyes and batted breath. Write what is happening and why did they run here.' Another one I got is 'The teacher overseeing this exam has a terrible secret. Observe them and write your findings. What may they be hiding ? What are they thinking right now, with you looking at them ?'. It was hilarious, the teacher was shaking with 50 people staring at them, not knowing what atrocities they were writing about them.

It's quite fun, honestly. My best scores were always for the free expression part.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

A green apple sat on top of a white desk near the window. Darkness seeped into the classroom, and rot spread along the apple's surface. White splotches coated the exterior, ruining the green skin. Rain from outside smacked against the window. The apple wept for its loneliness. The poor sour and rotten green thing.

 

[Danja]

I would be very curious to know what the reading curriculum is like for high school Lit kids these days. Maybe someone who is a recent graduate or early college student could let us know.

My reading list was "The Great Gatsby", "The Jungle", "The Lord of the Flies", everything Shakespeare, "Great Expectations", "Call of the Wild", "To Kill a mockingbird", "The Crucible". I'm sure I'm missing others but those are the ones I remember. Oh, wait, "Moby Dick". Can't forget the whale. lol

I read The Catcher in the Rye, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Lord of the Flies.

I love Nineteen Eighty-Four. The imagery was DECADES ahead of its time!

 

[LeilaniOtter]

I read The Catcher in the Rye, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Lord of the Flies.

I love Nineteen Eighty-Four. The imagery was DECADES ahead of its time!

Awesome, yes, we shared similar reading curriculum in high school then - probably maaany years apart. lol