Weekly write 10 - the action of a sentence
This short writing exercise is adapted from Natalie Goldberg's 'Writing Down the Bones' 2016 edition, pp95-97.
First write down a list of any 10 nouns. You might prompt yourself to think of abstract nouns, as well as proper and concrete nouns.
eg bread, rage, Friday, bricks, worry, Perranporth, sunlight, fender, possibility, glass
Now think of any one occupation - nurse, gardener, chauffeur, tour guide, potter, soldier, teacher - and write down a list of 10 verbs to describe actions which a worker in that field might perform.
eg nurse: bind, soothe, dose, bandage, listen, argue, record, bathe, lift, inject
Finally look at the two lists together and see what noun-verb combinations seem promising/illuminating. Some metaphors might be adjusted, stacked, clustered or extended.
eg One Friday bathed and another bandaged the bruising weeks of term. The weekends just sat and listened.
eg A jumble of broken bricks recorded the point where dad's DIY project had come to a sudden and violent end.
eg The fender argued persuasively with my collar-bone.
eg Soothed by sunlight, her worries lifted.
This is an artificial exercise and not a recipe for writing, but in the process of combining words which may at first seem unlikely, new possibilities of vocabulary and syntax, voice and purpose may suggest themselves. Some of your sentences may suggest starting points for stories, memories. Choose one and write for 10-20 minutes.
Before re-reading your own writing, you might consider for example, how the nouns and verbs work in this paragraph by Hannah Kent in 'The Good People' p109:
December arrived and bled the days of sunlight, while the nights grew bitter, wind-rattled. The water that pooled outside beneath the doorstep was tight with ice by morning and starlings lit upon the thatched roofs of the valley, circling the smoking chimney holes for warmth.
Simon Wrigley, July 2017
First write down a list of any 10 nouns. You might prompt yourself to think of abstract nouns, as well as proper and concrete nouns.
eg bread, rage, Friday, bricks, worry, Perranporth, sunlight, fender, possibility, glass
Now think of any one occupation - nurse, gardener, chauffeur, tour guide, potter, soldier, teacher - and write down a list of 10 verbs to describe actions which a worker in that field might perform.
eg nurse: bind, soothe, dose, bandage, listen, argue, record, bathe, lift, inject
Finally look at the two lists together and see what noun-verb combinations seem promising/illuminating. Some metaphors might be adjusted, stacked, clustered or extended.
eg One Friday bathed and another bandaged the bruising weeks of term. The weekends just sat and listened.
eg A jumble of broken bricks recorded the point where dad's DIY project had come to a sudden and violent end.
eg The fender argued persuasively with my collar-bone.
eg Soothed by sunlight, her worries lifted.
This is an artificial exercise and not a recipe for writing, but in the process of combining words which may at first seem unlikely, new possibilities of vocabulary and syntax, voice and purpose may suggest themselves. Some of your sentences may suggest starting points for stories, memories. Choose one and write for 10-20 minutes.
Before re-reading your own writing, you might consider for example, how the nouns and verbs work in this paragraph by Hannah Kent in 'The Good People' p109:
December arrived and bled the days of sunlight, while the nights grew bitter, wind-rattled. The water that pooled outside beneath the doorstep was tight with ice by morning and starlings lit upon the thatched roofs of the valley, circling the smoking chimney holes for warmth.
Simon Wrigley, July 2017