Drop In Writing Workshop June 2017

Images Out of Thought into Meaning

This week, we created powerful pieces out of image banks based on abstract words.
 
Warmup 
 
I’d like us to start today by writing, in list form, in free form, however works best for you, all of the images from your day, from the moment you got up to this moment.

Warming up the mind/heart/body/spirit in this way, writing without stopping, and without a lot of talk or explanation, about everything you’ve seen, heard, tasted, felt, smelled, experienced, noticed. Be specific and go deep into each moment as much as you dare. Show us your day from your perspective, as though you carried around a video recorder from the moment you woke, one that captures all the senses and has a perfect memory.
 
Read 

How did that go? Let’s keep those detailed, concrete images swimming through our consciousness as we read Mary Oliver's essay from Upstream, Bird. Pay attention to what you notice, what words or phrases stand out, and especially what sensory images hit your gut and skin. Read it out loud if possible. 

Photo by Victoria Alexander.

Bird
by Mary Oliver

"The light of the body is in the eye."
(Matthew 6:22)

On a December morning, many years ago, I brought a young, injured black-backed gull home from the beach.  It was, in fact, Christmas morning, as well as bitter cold, which may account for my act. Injured gulls are common; nature’s maw receives them again implacably; almost never is a rescue justified by a return to health and freedom. And this gull was close to that deep maw; it made no protest when I picked it up, the eyes were half-shut, the body so starved it seemed to hold nothing but air.

You can continue reading one version of the essay HERE.

Discuss

What do you notice when you read this essay? What words and phrases stand out?
What does it make you see? Hear? Feel? Smell? Taste?
What images does it show you?
What emotions and meanings come out of those images?
What big abstract ideas, thoughts and feelings can you pull out? (longing, grief, love)
 
Image Bank Prep 

Images create meaning/meanings create images. Concrete sensory images can conjure up the abstract, and we can generate visceral material out of abstract thoughts and feelings. We’re going to experiment with this concept/practice for a while.

Image Banking is a material generating activity I love, learned from writer and theater maker Dwayne Blackaller, that can draw up tons of fodder for stories, poems, essays, plays, anything, through mass producing images based on abstract words. What images can you pull out of the word “hope”? Things you can see, feel, tangibly, scenes created. A single strip of white cloud over a turbulent ocean, perhaps. 
 
Image Banks 
 
Have a timer ready.
Give yourself an abstract word. Have a list of them ready, perhaps.
Words like love, war, fear, laughter, joy, hurt, ugly, violence, hope...
Announce the word to yourself or a group.
No need to write the word down.
Instead, spend 3-5 minutes writing on each word.
Write images based on that words. Tons of images. Whatever comes.
Images you can feel smell taste touch hear.
Could be one huge image all detailed out, based on one abstract word. 
Could be a mix of several one after the other, tiny phrases.
Or a mix.
Don't think think about them. Let your gut do the thinking. Keep your hand moving. 

When each timer goes off, give yourself a new word, and start the timer again.
Then write a new bank of images, right after the last one.
It's better not to show deliberate spaces between each section of images. 
Better to make it one full text, all these images colliding.
BUT: Leave one free space in the middle, anywhere.

Again: Write without thinking, without stopping, keep hand moving.
If it makes you react physically, great – push into that image more.
 
When done, write one true thing in that free space.
Whatever that means to you. Don't think about that much, either.
What is true for you right now?
 
Share 
 
Are you brave enough to share this whole piece in full with a friend?
If you're alone, read it aloud to yourself. 
Pay attention to what what you hear.
What makes you react physically?
Notice those aloud, exact words and phrases.
Mark those in your first draft. 

The one true thing is important.
Adding something true in our writing, even if it’s fiction, makes it sing with heat.
 
Extract 
 
Now, read back over your image banks.
Your image writing from the beginning, too.
Find three statements that really make you react.
The most powerful, risky, vulnerable perhaps.
It’s okay if it’s more than three, but keep it five or less.
 
Rewrite 
 
Now, take those 3-5 statements and begin creating something new.
A poem. A story. An essay. A play. A crossword puzzle. Anything.
Don’t worry about it being good or making sense. Do what your gut impulse wants.
You can improve on the statements you made, revise them.
But try to get all those 3-5 underlined images in this new piece, to connect it.
Make them sing together.
 
Share
 
Share anything you’ve written today.
Share it with a friend. With a neighbor.
Make it into something you can share with the world. 

Or even read aloud to yourself. And notice: 
What do you hear in this? What is meaningful? What images hits you hardest?
 
Closing
 
Thank you for taking time out of your day to write with me.
My gratitude goes to all of you.