Get paper, a writing stick, and a timer and set it for 7-10 minutes. During that time just write. Do not remove the pen from the paper. Post what comes of it.


Pages and pages in a corner rotting gracefully like a rose left unnurtured after spring. In a daze I glance at the sunlight reflecting off rooftops and streets being illuminanated by this yellow refreshing glow. Why does the mind question when the heart knows all? Why can we never believe our heart in it's most furious moment? Furious with anger, joy, inspiration, love, creativity; hate. Sometimes it's this stale bread we leave in our cupboard that refuses to move and free us without the threat of crumbling, leaving us alone and unnourished. You know the bread is stale and will never nourish you like it could have if you hadn't saved it for later, but now it seems like a shame to throw away something that was always there for you. Cracks in the wall lengthen and become more visible over time. Where a doorknob slams into a wall there is left an indent that is usually hidden to the neglegent door goers but aparent to anyone who takes a look inside. With no lights but the dim blue glow from electricity and melted sand the cracks can grow unnoticed.



[This message has been edited by James Freethy (edited May 12, 2006).]

Why?

For excersize, fun, and putting down thoughts that have been floating around in your head without being written down. Yeats did this sort of technique as did/do a lot of poets.

And because you like writing in general?

[This message has been edited by James Freethy (edited May 12, 2006).]

James,
I won't deny that it's a good exercise for the writer, but I should think it's very rarely that it will produce a piece of writing that will be interesting to anyone else. So while I can see the point in doing this to clear the channels, as it were, I don't think the results should be posted, any more than I'd encourage anyone to post first drafts of any piece they haven't worked on at all.
Regards, Maz

Doesn't John Ashbery do this all the time, chortle.

May we extend the idea? If automatic writing doesn't appeal to you, then, as a drill, put pencil to paper, or fingers to keys, and write the best poem you can in 7 minutes. A short one, probably, but aim high. Worth a shot?

Wouldn't we lie, though?

All my poems were written in under 7 minutes. Doesn't it show?

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/biggrin.gif

David -

Was that the best you could do in seven minutes? Yes, there's some nice word play there with "lie", but it's already been done to death.

Sorry but, while you do establish a certain air of inner doubt here that has promise, the meter's off, a rhythm is never established, every line is end stopped, and the monorhyme is more clever than good, and not enough to save this.

Michael

PS - Carol - enjambment would be a big help.

[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited May 12, 2006).]

Sidney Sheldon writes all his first drafts in just two weeks--and now don't everyone go snide before taking a tour past his bank account.

Dick

'Wouldn't we lie, though?'

David,
From my experience, yes. I remember on one list a challenge was set to write a snapshot about current experience and sensations--just write it off the bat and post without any revising at all--only rule was it the posted piece must be exactly 100 words long.
Now, my piece ended in the middle of a phrase,(because I just chopped off the excess words at the end), but everyone else's 100 words ended neatly at the end of a sentence.
Regards, Maz

Maz,
I disagree about it not being something of interest to the reader. If done with a clear yet furiously observing and processing mind, I think this could result in an interesting development of images that might reveal some subconsious insight for the writer and help create what might be images and ideas for later work.

It wouldn't really be meant to be a "piece", just some prose to analyze.
But it could certainly become the core/seeds of a piece if it was a good writing session.

And of course it couldn't become anything in verse because that would be against the rules.

I think writing a poem in seven minutes would be a good excersise too, but since a poem requires things like form, verse structure and line breaks, it distracts the writer from the flow of images and would bring a different effect.

James -

Instead of writing gibblegabblegibblegobble for seven minutes - which is lots of fun, and very easy, and of absolutely no meaning and interest to anybody except you - why don't you try to write and post a poem instead? A limerick or a tailgater on one of the other threads on this Board will give you a structured task and challenge.

What Maz said about not posting free association or rough drafts is 150% correct. It's not that the exercise is useless - it's that it's your exercise. Take it, learn from it, extract the good stuff, put it into a poem - rewrite it and work on it - rewrite it again - sweat - and then post it.



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited May 12, 2006).]

If a particular challenge does not appeal to you, I suggest that you ignore it. Even in the old FunExcise days when only moderators could post new topics here, there were occasional duds...no, wait, that's a critical remark...um, there were low-traffic threads...um, there were challenges that many members chose to decline. That's the ticket! Those who did choose to participate had fun, and the rest of the members simply avoided the thread in question.

"Drills & Amusements" is not a critical forum. Part of the fun is that we are free to post dashed-off, unpolished work without fear of critique. In this same vein, I think ANY member should be able to post ANY challenge without fear of critique, so long as it doesn't violate the ad hom guidelines.

Julie Stoner

As this has turned into a discussion thread I'm moving it to General Talk.
I'd be grateful if everybody would note Julie's comments above. You're free to ignore any challenges you dislike, but please don't debate their merits on this forum.
Thanks