Creative Writing Cataloging 1: Concrete Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives page 1
Cataloging 1: Using Concrete Words: Nouns,
Verbs, Adjectives
A catalog is a list of people, places, and things in a
literary work.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens;
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens;
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
These are a few of my favorite things.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes;
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes;
Silver white winters that melt into springs;
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the dog bites, when the bee stings,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels;
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles;
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings;
These are a few of my favorite things.
“My Favorite Things” Oscar Hammerstein II
Note:
 many items
 brevity of each item
 concrete nouns,
verbs, and adjectives
Looking for Change
I run into a phone booth,
Digging through my
coat pockets
For some change.
Instead I pull out
A handful of old gum
wrappers
And a stale Hershey bar
That I never got around
to eating.
Three unemployed
hairpins
That once kept the hair
off my face.
A note I meant to send
To my best friend,
Unopened ketchup
packets
From recent binges at
Mickey D’s.
A shiny gold locket
With a broken clasp
…and a broken heart….
I find a tissue to wipe
away a single tear
Running down my
cheek,
And still no change.
Fidencia Solomon,15
In Seventeen Magazine
Assignment: Using the cataloging technique, develop a topic such as: your favorite (least
favorite) things, people you know or have observed, gifts (best/worst), toys, games,
relatives, friends. Keep each item brief. Use concrete nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Creative Writing Cataloging 1: Concrete Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives page 2
Activity
A.
Using concrete nouns, verbs, and adjectives that specify, make these sentences
more graphic, creating a sharper total effect.
1.
We ate a good breakfast.
2.
The winners were happy.
3.
The room was filled with flowers.
4.
A book had been left out in the rain.
5.
She became very emotional.
6.
They distributed the leaflets.
7.
The table was clean.
8.
We went downtown.
B.
For each word, list two or three words that create a more specific image.
1.
tree
2.
vehicle ____________________________________________________
3.
tools _____________________________________________________
4.
meat _____________________________________________________
5.
building ___________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Creative Writing Cataloging 1: Concrete Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives page 3
The Doll House by Phyllis McGinley
After the children left it, after it stood
For a while in the attic,
Along with the badminton set, and the skis too
good
To be given away, and the Peerless Automatic
Popcorn Machine that used to fly into rages,
And the Dr. Dolittle books , and the hamster
cages,
She brought it down once more
To a bedroom, empty now, on the second floor
And put the furniture in.
There was nothing much
That couldn’t be used again with a bit of repair.
It was all there,
Perfect and little and inviolate.
So, with the delicate touch
A jeweler learns, she mended the rocking chair,
Meticulously laundered
The gossamer parlor curtains, dusted the grate,
Glued the glazed turkey to the flowered plate,
And polished the Lilliput writing desk.
(Yet not till now had known that she had known),
This was no daughters’ fortune but her own—
Something cautiously lent to the careless young
To dazzle their cronies with for a handful of years
Till the season came
When their toys diminished to programs and
souvenirs,
To tousled orchids, diaries well in arrears,
Anonymous snapshots stuck round a mirror
frame,
Or letters locked away.
Now seed of the past
Had fearfully flowered. Wholly her gift at last,
Here was her private estate, a peculiar treasure
Cut to her fancy’s measure.
Now there was none to trespass, no one to mock
The extravagance of her sewing or her spending
(The tablecloth stitched out of lace, the
grandfather’s clock,
Stately upon the landing,
With its hands eternally pointing to ten past five.
Now all would thrive.
She squandered
One bold October day and half the night
Binding the carpets round with a ribbon border;
Till, to her grave delight
(With kettle upon the stove, the mirror’s face
Scoured, the formal sofa set in its place),
She saw the dwelling decorous and in order.
It was a good house. It had been artfully built
By an idle carpenter once, when the times were
duller.
The windows opened and closed. The knocker
was gilt.
And every room was painted a suitable color
Or papered to scale
For the sale of the miniature Adam and
Chippendale.
And there were proper hallways,
Closets, lights, and a staircase. (What had always
Pleased her most
Was the tiny, exact, mahogany newel post.
And always, too, wryly she thought to herself,
Absently pinning
A drapery’s pleat, smoothing a cupboard shelf—
Always from the beginning,
This outcome had been clear. Ah! She had known
Since the first clapboard had been fitted, first
rafter hung
Over this house, most tranquil and complete,
Where no storm ever beat,
Whose innocent stair
No messenger ever climbed on quickened feet
With tidings either of rapture or despair,
She was sole mistress. Through the panes she was
able
To peer at her world reduced to the size of dream
But pure and unfaltering.
There stood the dinner table,
Invincibly agleam
With the undisheveled candles, the flowers that
bloomed
Forever and forever,
The wine that never
Spilled on the cloth or sickened or was consumed.
The Times lay at the doorsill, but it told
Daily the same unerring report. The fire
Painted on the hearth would not turn cold,
Or the constant hour change, or the heart tire
Of what it must pursue,
Or the guest depart, or anything here be old.
“Nor ever,” she whispered, “Bid the spring
adieu.”
Creative Writing Cataloging 1: Concrete Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives page 4
And caught into this web of quietnesses
Where there was neither After nor Before,
She reached her hand to stroke the unwithering
grasses
Beside the small and incorruptible door.