Minor Creative Exercises

(Any ten; each worth 40 points -- 400 points total)

 
CRW 2001 Students:

When you e-mail (or US-mail) your instructor an assignment, especially the minor exercises, please label clearly what the assignment is supposed to be. For example, Hoogoose D. Moose might send something like what's below.  Be sure to include your e-mail address(es) AND your actual name, along with the name of the exercise:

hmoose@moosenet.net; hmoose@students.fccj.edu

Hoogoose D. Moose

CRW 2001

Minor Exercise: Complete a sonnet

FLOWER POEM OR DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH: Click on here to go to a still life of flowers by Rachel Ruysch. You see an illustration of flowers in a vase. This picture may suggest some images to you. Devising a poem of no more than 20 lines on the picture or a prose paragraph of about half a page.

ABSTRACT POEM OR DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH: Click here for an abstract piece of art by Jackson Pollock. It may suggest one thing to you and something else entirely to another person. Write a poem of no more than 20 lines on whatever the abstract images suggest. (Again, a prose selection may be done.)

FOUR EXAMPLES OF HAIKUS: You may type "haiku" into a search engine to find discussions of this Japanese poetic form. Briefly, the haiku form calls for three lines, the first of five syllables; second, of seven; and third, of five. It focuses on some aspect of nature that becomes a microcosm. Often the third line will feature a little twist. Haiku examples:

Under cherry trees
Soup, the salad, fish and all. . .
Seasoned with petals.

--Matso Basho

Sleepless at Crown Point

All night, the headland
Lunges into the rumpling
Capework of the wind.

--Richard Wilbur

 You may wish to review the computer lesson, The Poet's Pen, part #3 of which focuses on the haiku. (Notice that the lesson gives a different syllable count from the above examples, but that's all right.)

For the haiku exercise, write FOUR of your own haikus.

Oh, for a bonus, we can have some fun with a few "cat" haiku, written by the great American, Anon Anonymous:

Haikus Written by Cats

 

 

The food in my bowl is old

 And more to the point,

 Contains no tuna.

 

 So you want to play.

 Will I claw at dancing string?

 Your ankle is closer.

 

 There's no dignity

 In being sick - which is why

 I don't tell you where.

  

Seeking solitude

 I am locked in the closet.

 For once, I need you.

 

 Tiny can, dumped in

 Plastic bowl. Presentation,

 One star; service: none.

 

 Am I in your way?

 You seem to have it backwards;

 This pillow is taken.

 

 Your mouth is moving;

 Up and down, emitting noise.

 I've lost interest.

 

 My brain: walnut-sized.

 Yours: largest among primates.

 Yet, who leaves for work?

 

 Most problems can be

 Ignored. The more difficult

 Ones can be slept through.

 

 Cats can't steal the breath

 Of children. But if my tail's

 Pulled again, I'll learn.

 

 I don't mind being

 Teased, any more than you mind

 A skin graft or two.

 

 So you call this thing

 Your "cat carrier." I call

 These my "blades of death."

 

 Toy mice, dancing yarn

 Meowing sounds. I'm convinced:

 You're an idiot.

COMPLETE YOUR OWN SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET: One of the greatest creative exercises for the poetically minded is the task of writing a Shakespearean sonnet. (There are other types of sonnets, which we'll skip over, but not because they are unworthy forms.) In writing your own Shakespearean sonnet, you will use a rhyme scheme of ababcdcdefefgg. For practical purposes, the poem will have seven different rhymes. Here is just one sequence that could be used: A is the first rhyme, say, cat and bat; B is the second, dawn and gone; C, brisk and whisk; D, smile and mile; E, day and say; F, bug and mug; and G, post and most). Again, A is whatever rhyme comes first.

A Shakespearean sonnet is also iambic pentameter. Iambic refers to a weak stress and a STRONG STRESS, as in "toDAY." The pentameter means that it has five (pentagon = five sides) feet or, to simplify it a bit, ten syllables. Shakespeare begins one of his most famous sonnets with this line:

Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer's DAY?

Keep in mind that you don't use a mindless, rat-a-tat-type rhythm, but you will vary the stresses when sense and sensibility tell you to do so. Again from Shakespeare:

To BE or NOT to BE--THAT is the QUESTion.

You could use that line from Hamlet as having two strong stresses together. . .or a pause (weak beat) as Hamlet weighs the merits of life or death.

Use this table to help you with your sonnet.
 

FINISHING A SONNET: Below you will see an unfinished poem. You are to finish it using the rhymes that will produce a Shakespearean sonnet (14 lines of iambic pentameter verse, ending with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg).

 Down in the Valley

Down in a valley, by a forest's [edge / side / flank / path]
Near where the crystal Thames rolls on her [way / course / waves / bank]
I saw a mushroom stand in haughty [wrath / mien / sedge / pride]
As if the lilies grew to be his [slaves / prey / thanks / queen]
The gentle daisy, with her silver [leaves / trim / wreath / crown]
Worn in the breast of many a shepherd's [hat / lass / smock / shirt]
The humble violet, that lowly [down / leaf / grieves / cried]
Saluted the gay nymphs as they trimly [sat / pass / walk / flirt]
These with a many more, methought [observed / forbid / complained / sighed]
That nature should those needless things [produce / endear / deny / provide]
Which not alone, the sun from others [hid / gave / reserved / gained]
But turn it wholly to their proper [sphere / grave / place / use]
I could not choose but grieve that nature [said / 'lowed / made / say]
So glorious flowers to live in such a [way / shade / bed / cloud].

 --William Brown
 

VIGNETTE: A vignette ("little vine") is simply a compressed story, the climax of a scene, or a time of epiphany (great insight). Study how Ernest Hemingway used vignettes in In Our Time. Without using Hemingway's subject matter, pattern your vignettes after his. Here are two examples by Hemingway:

Vignette A

 We were in a garden in Mons. Young Buckley came in with his patrol from across the river. The first German I saw climbed over the garden wall. We waited till he got one leg over and then potted him. He had so much equipment on and looked awfully surprised and fell down into the garden. Then three more came over further down the wall. We shot them. They all came just like that.
 

Vignette B

 Everyone was drunk. The whole battery was drunk going along the road in the dark. We were going to Champagne. The lieutenant kept riding his horse out into the fields and saying to him, "I'm drunk, I tell you, mon vieux. Oh, I am so soused." We went along the road all night in the dark and the adjutant kept riding up alongside my kitchen and saying, "You must put it out. It is dangerous. It will be observed." We were fifty kilometers from the front, but the adjutant worried about the fire in my kitchen. It was funny going along that road. That was when I was still a kitchen Corporal.

Write your own vignette.

DIALOGUE: Go to some spot on campus or to a fast-food firm (or wherever) and eavesdrop on some conversation. Take exact notes on the words people are using. Turn this dialogue into speaking passages of prose or into play/TV-movie script form. (Be discreet. We don't want you getting into an altercation because you are snooping. Hoogoose D. Moose was a little too obvious, even asking, "What's that again?", and had a shredded barbecue pork sandwich thrown into his face by a jealous boyfriend.)

POINT OF VIEW: An act of violence has occurred, and three beings "enter" a room and observe things. Write three different descriptions of the objects in the room and the people in the room from that person's/being's viewpoint: (a) the viewpoint of a highly intelligent human being (think of Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Spock, etc.), (b) the viewpoint of a five-year-old child, (c) the viewpoint of a third-person omniscient narrator (an observer who knows all and sees all).  (Check the example in The Densonary for Creative Writing.)

THE PERSONA:  Often we read a poem from the first-person point of view and assume that the poet is speaking for him through the "I."  However, frequently that is not the case.  Let's try a persona.  First, make a list of, say, five of your characteristics.  Then, imagine someone different with five opposite characteristics and then write a poem or a piece of short prose from that viewpoint.  (Or another approach:  Imagine something written by, say, Ted Bundy or The Rock or someone totally different from you.)

BEFORE THE CURTAIN RISES: Read Shakespeare's Hamlet and write a discussion of the action that has already taken place by the time the drama begins.

THREE DRAMATIC ELEMENTS: (a) Write a line that is noteworthy; that is, it captures the personality of the speaker and perhaps looks forward to some action; (b) describe fully someone who could be in a play/script; (c) devise names for the following characters -- an auctioneer, an evangelist, a lady who contributes the most to the symphony, that lady's dog, a dishonest salesman, a psychiatrist, a rock group, a bureaucrat, the madam of a "house," and a debutante. (This exercise is courtesy of Peter Garvey, a playwright who taught at the University of North Florida and later up in Tennessee.)

"AGGIE"-JOKE DIALOGUE: Common throughout the country are "Texas Aggie-style" jokes. In Alabama, they are told on Auburn University. In Florida, the Gators and Seminoles may tell them about each other -- or about the University of Georgia. One example: "The Texas Aggies are having trouble with the night games./ Why?/ The batteries keep running down on the lights shining on the field from their Jim Deere tractors." Or: "Two Aggies were out fishing and decided they had found the best fishing spot in the world. `We need to remember where this spot is,' one said and drew an X on the surface of the water. `You fool,' said the other and drew an X on the side of the boat. `That's pretty dumb,' the first said, "because the next time we might take a different boat.'" Select your own Aggie-style joke and render it into a dramatic scene that could be performed on a stage. Give character to each speaker. (Another Garvey suggestion)

STRONG/WEAK CHARACTERS: Write a short scene in dialogue in which one character is apparently weaker (or more passive) than the other at the beginning, but has the upper hand at the end.

THE EXPLANATION: Write a monologue of explanation for someone who has promised to deliver something to a customer's house/office and shows up (finally) with a l-o-n-g and perhaps sincere explanation of how the world has bedeviled him or her.  You may want to draw upon a time that you were the victim of such a person. . .or perhaps you were the person having problems.  You may have a dialogue between the long-winded explainer and the poor victim.

Give the characters names and be specific about the setting.

CHARACTERS IN ANOTHER SITUATION: Take a set of characters from a drama, television show, motion picture, etc. and put them in a different situation. In Hamlet, for example, we do not have a scene in which King Claudius is talking solely to Hamlet's friend, Horatio.

ARTICLE SUMMARIES: Examine The Writer, Writer's Digest (both of which are magazines), Writer's Market, Writer's Handbook, or other books for articles on writing. Select four articles and write summaries of at least 10 full sentences on each article. In your summary, identify the name of the writer, the article title, the issue, etc.

WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE: Attend a meeting of a writers' group (e.g., North Florida Writers or Bard Society, Nassau Writers & Poets Society in our area. Write a summary of what occurred (ten full sentences). 40 points if you only observed; 80 points if the group critiqued one or more of your pieces.

ACCEPTANCE OR REJECTION: Send a piece of your writing to an appropriate publication. 40 points for either acceptance letter or rejection letter (must be from this term.

LANGUAGE AND STRONG EMOTIONS: Oftentimes, college students feel unfettered when they find out they can actually use, say, fuck or shit in their stories. They may then unleash all the strong language they have ever heard just to be able to use them. Okay, go through the experience. Have fun. Now, when you are through venting your expletives, let's try this exercise:

Write a scene (short story/novel or script form) in which you have one or more characters under TREMENDOUS strain, but write it WITHOUT using any of the usual vulgar words.

Logic: Although some markets may find such pieces appropriate, thousands of others may be more family-oriented. You will still need to be able to depict a character under strain, but the editor may not accept (or buy) the piece if it is going to require massive rewriting.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR or SUBMISSION TO FOLIO WEEKLY: You are to write a letter to the editor (500 words or less) to, say, The Florida Times-Union or your local paper if you are taking the course out of town. Select a story that has just appeared and respond to it with whatever you want to say about the subject being discussed. In Northeast Florida, Folio Weekly also accepts letters but also has a backpage opinion piece (up to 1,200 words). If your letter-to-the-editor goes to more than 500 words, then aim for something like a Folio piece. One letter is 40 points. A backpage submission may even be submitted as a Major Project.

FOCUSING ON WHAT'S IMPORTANT TO THE STORY: On a Major Project, we may envision ourselves writing a novella or a long short story, and what we discuss really just goes on and on without any real point. Imagine what might happen if you took, say, a family trip to Orlando and the theme parks there. Usually it would be "we did this, we did that," blah blah blah.

Here is a situation:

Two people (male and male? female and male? female and female?) are going to Memphis to see Graceland. One of the travelers is an Elvis fan; the other is not. They are going in a 1998 Toyota Tercel. Let's have them leave from Jacksonville. They stop at two rest-centers in Florida, turn to go up I-75, stop at the Georgia welcome station. In Macon, they have a flat tire while stuck in traffic on the interstate. It tears up their tire, of course. They spend an hour and nineteen minutes getting the tire fixed. One traveler gets ill above Atlanta and throws up. They stop to clean up as they turn onto the interstate going in the direction of Memphis. They spend the night in Chattanooga. One throws up during the night. The next day, they head toward Memphis, stopping six times. In Memphis, they locate Winchester Road and then Elvis Presley Boulevard, and they are finally at Graceland. Here they see how the king lived by visiting the home. They view Elvis' private jets, the Lisa Marie and the Hound Dog II, or they peruse "Sincerely Elvis," a collection of the famous singer's personal effects. On the grounds, they visit the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum features the signature autos and cycles that were distinctly Elvis - including his 1955 pink Cadillac and a 1956 purple Cadillac convertible. Before leaving, they visit the Meditation Garden, the site of this Elvis' grave. Something happens during the visit, but what?

Now, here's your exercise: 

Decide when to start telling the story.  Figure out a way to give an idea about the troubles they have gone through. . .and a way to make the reading of your account interesting to the reader.

TEN THINGS THAT ONLY YOU HAVE NOTICED: Although there are billions of humans on earth, there has never been another YOU, and, after you are gone, there will never be another YOU. During this time, YOU are seeing and processing things differently from any other person who has ever lived, is living, or will be living. Make a list of TEN things that you have noticed/realized that others probably have not. Work as many of these items as you can into a prose or poetry (paragraph or two or a short poem).

Do not just say, "I noticed xxx, yyy, and zzz." Instead, say something like, "When the xxx is xxxx, the yyy is yyying," etc.

FROM BIG TO LITTLE: The inspiration for this exercise goes back to the poems of Horace. Write a poem or prose about a descriptive scene in which you describe, say, a mountain in the distance and then come closer and closer until you are telling about some small item (a ring, a photograph, a dog leash, etc.). Let the reader know the significance of what you are describing. (May you go from Little to Big? Of course.)

EXTRA CREDIT: Additional exercises.  You may also do the suggested exercises in A Creative Writer's Handbook.

What do you do if a minor exercise comes alive?

As you are doing a minor exercise, you may find that the darned thing has come alive on you.  Suddenly, you're up to 698 words and you're still writing.  If this happens, you may have a piece that you can convert into a Major Project.  If the directions above have given a certain scenario, you may want to change it enough to leave some surprises in the piece. 

Do you have something that pleases you and your classmates?

During the course (and afterwards as long as you're enrolled at FCCJ), you may want to send submissions to The Experience, the FCCJ student literary magazine.  The current advisor is Professor Jana Kinder (jkinder@fccj.edu).  Check to see if she will accept e-submissions or if she'd prefer for you to send hard-copy to The Experience, FCCJ Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32205.

Return to the Creative Writing Homepage.