Wonderful! I love the use of constraints to generate new and interesting ideas. For about ten years I was a volunteer coordinator of a local speaking series where participants shared on a topic for five minutes, with a slide deck of 20 slides that auto-advanced every 15 seconds. The brevity and lack of control over the pace was a challenge!
That sounds very much like pechakucha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha I thought it was challenging too, but kept in line those people who turn up with 87 slides and spend five minutes on each one!
Thank you, Terry~ this is a terrific change from the classic "freewrites."
A writing assignment my students love: first, reading Ocean Vuong's "A Letter to my Mother that she will never read." A New Yorker piece— write a letter to someone you know will never read it. The writing inevitably turns to a lost family member, but nevertheless powerful.
Ooh, wonderful prompt idea, Abigail. Have you ever seen the Letter to a Stranger pieces that Off Assignment publishes? Reminds me of those. https://www.offassignment.com/read
I loved this post - thanks Terry and Julie! I'm an avid reader of your 'Experiments in Style' posts, Terry, and it's lovely to read behind the scenes here. Thank you for sharing so many brilliant ideas - I'm going to be having a play, that's for sure! 🙌
Wow!! Writing using Constraints is a new phenomenon for me as my usual go to for ‘writers block’ is just to let you pen or pencil move and write down whatever your thoughts are. Recently I started setting a timer when I write, and this has allowed me to quickly write down my words without feeling I have to stop and think/ or search for the perfect word that completes or describes my thoughts. I am excited to try some of these techniques.
Wonderful! I love the use of constraints to generate new and interesting ideas. For about ten years I was a volunteer coordinator of a local speaking series where participants shared on a topic for five minutes, with a slide deck of 20 slides that auto-advanced every 15 seconds. The brevity and lack of control over the pace was a challenge!
That sounds like speaker speed dating!
Lol 😂
That sounds very much like pechakucha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PechaKucha I thought it was challenging too, but kept in line those people who turn up with 87 slides and spend five minutes on each one!
Or have 20 lines of text on each slide and then read them....
Eggzactly.
Yes, very similar to that!
Thank you, Terry~ this is a terrific change from the classic "freewrites."
A writing assignment my students love: first, reading Ocean Vuong's "A Letter to my Mother that she will never read." A New Yorker piece— write a letter to someone you know will never read it. The writing inevitably turns to a lost family member, but nevertheless powerful.
Ooh, wonderful prompt idea, Abigail. Have you ever seen the Letter to a Stranger pieces that Off Assignment publishes? Reminds me of those. https://www.offassignment.com/read
I hadn't heard of that site before. I'm looking forward to delving into it. Thanks, Julie
Hi Julie ~ I’m going to the site now!
Thank you!
Let me know what you think. Some great writing there.
Definitely
Hope you get inspired by those essays.
Such a great idea, the letter I mean. Thanks, Abigail
I loved this post - thanks Terry and Julie! I'm an avid reader of your 'Experiments in Style' posts, Terry, and it's lovely to read behind the scenes here. Thank you for sharing so many brilliant ideas - I'm going to be having a play, that's for sure! 🙌
Yes, give them a try and share the results!
👍
Thanks, Rebecca. You MUST try them. It would be great to see what you and others do with them. 😁
Wow!! Writing using Constraints is a new phenomenon for me as my usual go to for ‘writers block’ is just to let you pen or pencil move and write down whatever your thoughts are. Recently I started setting a timer when I write, and this has allowed me to quickly write down my words without feeling I have to stop and think/ or search for the perfect word that completes or describes my thoughts. I am excited to try some of these techniques.
Thank you for sharing Terry
JoAnne
I love the idea of using timed writing by yourself, JoAnne. Thanks!
Great idea! That is a constraint too, and quite hard to do I find!
Hey Terry, thanks for the Oulipo tip, looks like a great development tool to try..... very soon, Peace, Maurice