Try a Fibonacci
poem: the Fibonacci progression is a mathematical formula
that starts with 0 and 1 and then builds by adding numbers
that are equal to the sum of the previous two numbers.
The famous sequence begins as follows: 0-1-1-2-3-5-8.
A Fibonacci poem, or Fib, is
a six-line poem (though, rarely, some are longer, and
multiple-stanza versions are sometimes seen). Each line
contains the same number of syllables as the corresponding
digit in the Fibonacci sequence: 0 - 1- 1- 2- 3- 5-
8. (The unspoken first line of each Fib is silence.)
Here’s an example:
Rain
So
Thick this
Summer day
I can barely see
Ginkgo offer small umbrellas
15 minutes.
Imagine a
stone wall. Imagine someone building it. Imagine someone
living in it. Write whatever comes, 25 minutes.
Write anything
as long as it has 3 kinds of blue in it. 30 minutes.
Make a list
of your favorite foods (or your character's); now list
your least favorite foods. Write beginning with something
from the second list as though it were the best food
in the world. Write 25 minutes.
You or your character
stands before a mail box. Open it and write 25 minutes.
Close your
eyes and clear your mind. With your mind's eye, see
a pair of shoes. Notice everything you can about them,
the style, the color, how worn they are. Do they belong
to someone known to you or the character you are working
with? Begin writing with some small image from the shoes,
a picture, a feeling, a smell. Write from image to image
until the writing begins to take over. Write 40 minutes.
Name five
places you or your character love best, and five you
love least. Begin with "This is not about...".
Write 25 minutes.
Make a list
of everything you associate with the color orange (e.g.,
an orange orange, an orange chicken). Now change the
color to blue (a blue orange, a blue chicken, etc.)
and write from one or two of the items on your list.
20 minutes.
Fortuna Grace
Espera meets Sinclair Berkeley Adams at a dog show.
Fortuna speaks first. Write 25 minutes.
It is a rainy morning. Imagine the
smells, colors, the feeling of the air. At the periphery
of vision, surrounded by fog, something emerges. Watch
what happens, and write for 20 minutes.
You (or your character) are standing
in the middle of a bridge. Begin writing with one small
detail and let that detail lead to the next, and so
on. Write for 25 minutes.
The worst advice your mother ever
gave you. 25 minutes
Write about "home," without
reference to an actual house. 20 minutes.
Remember something light does. Make
a list. Being writing with "This is not about...."
25 minutes.
Here are 4 abstract words: rage, peace,
loss, evil.
List 5 images (pictures in your mind)
that come when you say each of these words.
Begin writing with one of the images, and let it lead
you to another one. Keep writing for 25 minutes, or
as long as it takes.
"I wish I lived......."
Write in the voice of a character or in the 3rd person.
25 minutes.
Write down a question you have about
your writing, or your life. Turn over the page. With
a pencil or pen let yourself doodle for 5 minutes, without
thinking about the question. Let the doodle speak to
you as a Rorschach inkblot test would speak. Write what
comes, 20 minutes.
Imagine one wall of a hospital room.
What is the quality of light? Are there smells, sounds?
Is anyone else there? Begin writing with the smallest
image you can visualize and the write whatever comes.
25 minutes.
Write a story or poem that begins
under an umbrella. 25 minutes.
Write a piece that is entirely dialogue.
Here are some possible beginning lines:
You never told me....
Where is the cat?
Can't he ever remember to .....
I would like a little respect around here.
And where did you say you were?
30 minutes
Write anything as long as it has
bells and blood in it. Write 25 minutes
This little piggy went to market,
this little piggy stayed home.....begin writing with
lines from a favorite nursery rhyme. Weave every other
line of rhyme with a line of dialogue you've heard recently.
25 minutes
Look out the window. Imagine that
what you or your characters sees is 50 years from now.
Write anything, 30 minutes.
Imagine you (or a character) are
standing in a doorway in a bathrobe. Begin writing with
one small detail of the robe. Write 25 minutes.
"Where, oh where, can my little
(blank) be......?" Write anything for 20 minutes.
