An update from our sixtieth Writing Workshop A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, March 5th, plus some of the output published below For today’s workshop, William built upon his previous workshop on stream-of-consciousness but taken in a different direction: nonsense words. William challenged the writers to focus on sounds, made-up words, saying the “unsayable.” We heard a poem of made-up words, the Klingon war song, and a poem in Elvish. Then the writers tried a 5 minute writing exercise in which they were encouraged to make up words. After, the writers watched some scat singing and double-talk comedy videos. The Challenge: Use pseudo words within a story or a poem to say something beyond words. The Participants: Agatha, Kelby, Peri, Lauren, Yueling, Rachael, Elbert, Liam, Iago, Anya, Kate, Stella Pelpesu Pelsoo (Five-Minute Writing Piece) Peri Gordon, 12Sherman Oaks, CA by Peri Gordon, 12 Pelpesu palei lepasu pepoo Perstali hofana hopsalli soo Pelmasu selfasu falelu falee Pesafa safa fipsifee Melsti melfopo pelmif sifa Pelpesu pelsoo Elefaso elwasu Pelpesu pelsoo Pelsa feeliofip Pelpesu pelsoo Lololefipfip celso Cesse Pelpesu leamell Deeper than English (Main Writing Piece) by Peri Gordon, 12 Lily tucked her laptop under her arm and headed outside into the Sunday morning fog. Her feet knew the way; they were so used to carrying her where she was going that it was barely a voluntary movement. Her legs walked calmly, allowing her mind to drift. Her English assignment was to observe nature, something she had already been doing every day for the past four years. But today was different. Today, she had to write about nature, and she wasn’t at all sure whether she was up to the task. Sure, she knew every nook and cranny of the forest. Sure, she could describe every detail by heart, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted the reader to feel the forest, the way she did. Her piece needed depth, depth that the English language could not give her. She sat down on her usual tree stump, which was two feet high and the color of chocolate. She closed her eyes and let her instincts guide her. Her fingers began to type. She wrote: I see the tree stump: preet, sliff, cerlous. I feel it, grudie yet solseena. I listen to the air. It says, “Shee shee selsa shee sho seeeeeee.” It rustles the treetops with a shtet and a tibbletoo. Beneath my feet, the curusutu, bloi grass frimfoops, and a squirrel shutalets away with a yeep. The sky is cleepy and selfessen, and the sun is an oorious togopot. There is so much to explore, so much to willawave and croprast and yuptop and yerm. Yoo repsendin kee toom fwee! Monday did not go well. Lily held her breath, and her teacher read her report aloud—actually, it seemed more like she scukbeaded it. The other kids sleed at her from the other side of the plaso maso room. Lily’s teacher skudded and yued at her. So did her classmates. Finally, the teacher said, “What is this nonsense?” Lily sighed with impatience. “Mrs. Campbell,” she finally said, “would you please stop spleefing at me?”
writing workshop
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #30: Character Description
An update from the thirtieth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday March 5, plus some of the output published below We began this week’s workshop with an exercise; first, we chose a character from a story or novel we had been writing and then made up a new character in our minds. Once we had this new character envisioned, we wrote 3-4 sentences describing this character. From there we entered into a discussion centered around the question, “how does description work?” The answer: when a writer transforms a physical or psychological reality into written language. Our first literary example was the novel Anna Karenina as it is a classic example of a well-wrought character, however based on the book What We See when We Read by Peter Mendulsund, we found that even with a plethora of character descriptions it is difficult to create a true image of the character. This observation led us to our first basic “rule” of character description: behavioral descriptions are more effective than physical ones. We then read a few specific examples including this sentence, from Don Delillo’s White Noise, “He moved with a loser’s hunch.” Other examples came from Anna Karenina, East of Eden, and The Sound and the Fury. The second “rule” was that minimal description makes for easier visualization, that a good description withholds as much as it reveals. One such example of this came from Jonathan Safran Foer in the sentence, “He looked like nothing special.” Another, from Barbara Kingsolver: “There she was. Her elbows stuck out like wings.”The third and final “rule” of the day was that good description teaches us how to pay attention, best exemplified in this sentence from Guy de Maupassant: “He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway.” The Participants: Zar, Penelope, Nova, Emma, Sophia, Alice, Josh, Amelia, Ellie, Gwynne, Chelsea, Quinn, Anna The Challenge: Write a full scene in which you describe the character(s) without naming his/her physical traits. To watch more readings from this workshop, like Sophia’s below, click here. Sophia, 12
Writing Workshop #59: Rhythm and Cadence
An update from our fifty-ninth Writing Workshop A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, February 19th, plus some of the output published below In this workshop, William emphasized the importance of rhythm in pieces of writing. The participants looked at pieces that utilize iambic pantameter and other well-known rhythmic standards. William also touched upon the comparison to music, and how reading a piece and stopping for breath is not dissimilar to playing an instrument and having to stop to breathe. The writers then went into a small writing exercise where they were challenged to write something in the vein of the famous opening line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Challenge: Write a piece that focuses on phrasing with arcs, the rise and fall of speech, repetition, and heart-beat rhythm. The Participants: Liam, Agatha, Yueling, Kelby, Lauren, Peri, Elbert, Kate, Lena, Rachael, Anya, Iago Peri Gordon, 11Sherman Oaks, CA Heart Leaps, Heart Sinks Peri Gordon, 12 Alarm. Ding! Heart leaps, leaps, leaps as I bound out of bed in a hurry, ready for a brand new day. School. Remember? Heart sinks, sinks, sinks as I slide down the stairs. Scent. Pancakes! Heart leaps, tongue licks lips. Sound. Bus! Heart sinks, feet spring into action. Scurry scurry after bus—it sails away. Heart sinks lower, feel its absence in my chest. Feel my heart in my throat, feel it in my stomach, feel it in my legs. Legs run faster, time slows down. Streets seems longer, I seem shorter. Need to relax. Breathe, breathe. Breathe in, breathe out. Deep breath in, deep breath out. I inhale, I exhale. Slowly, calmly, I evaluate the situation. Cars zip by on the street next to me, so much faster than I. Sounds of horns blarethrough my ears, and sounds of wind soothe them. Tons of noise melts into white noise all at once. My heart leaps as the familiar sight of my home fills my vision, and sinks as I realize my parents have already left for work. The sun smirks at me. I have dreams, dreams of becoming an astronaut, dreams of soaring through space and viewing the sun up close, but how can I reach the blinding ball of fire in the sky when I cannot even reach school? The white noise hardens, jeering at me, and I cover my ears. Stop. Just stop worrying? I don’t know. You can’t get to school, you won’t. You won’t, you won’t, you won’t. You can’t. Heart sinks, sinks, sinks. Feel its absence in even my legs.
