Writing Exercise: Body
David Sedaris and Norah Ephron were both betrayed by their bodies and by what they
(and others) took their bodies to mean. Write about your own body. Has it ever betrayed
you? Do you worry that it will? How would you describe your relationship with your
body – symbiotic? Practical? Joyful? Complete in journal.
Writing Exercise: The Confession
We listened to David Sedaris read about his trip to Greece in “I Like Guys.” In it, Sedaris
confesses not only his attraction to other boys, but his first sexual experience, his
proficiency in shoplifting, and the fact that he was constipated for weeks. His confessions
are surprising, but they draw us closer to the narrator, and perhaps inspire trust in him.
Think back to your own childhoods. Do you have any confessions? Were you ever caught
cheating? Is there a secret you wanted to tell your best friend, but never could? Now’s
your chance. Complete in journal.
Writing Exercise: The Artifact
We’ve read and discussed two personal essays that center around an artifact – namely,
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Autobiography of a Dress” and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Silent
Dancing.” Do you have any artifacts from your own childhoods? You may choose to use
a picture or home movie as these authors did, or you might opt for an object like a
favorite stuffed animal or the pair of pants you wore on the first day of junior high. Sit
with your artifact for a few minutes, and then begin to freewrite, focusing on any
thoughts or memories that come up (you might be surprised, or the stories might seem
unrelated to each other). After fifteen minutes, re-read what you’ve written. Can you find
any common arc? Any “second story” that’s underneath the action? Turn your freewriting
into an approximately 2-3 page draft to hand in.
Writing Exercise: Place
George Orwell’s “Such, Such Were the Joys” is a classic in the personal essay canon, in
part because of his facility in switching between the current self’s commentary and
detailed, evocative scenes from his memory. As such, the piece is both personal and
society, historical and timely. Choose a place you spent a lot of time as a child and
describe it in great detail, enumerating scenes of times you spent there. How can you
bring this place to life? How has that place helped to shape the person you are now?
Writing Journal Special Assignment: Character Sketch
One common error when beginning to write personal essay is forgetting that your
audience does not yet know you, or your sisters, or your first boyfriend or your third
grade basketball coach. Write three character sketches, one of yourself and two others of
people who appear in your life. You should include details like physical appearance, but
also explain that person’s personality, attitudes, life history, even politics or religion.
Remember to treat yourself just as you would any other character who has not yet
appeared on the page. You may use these character sketches to inform your writing of
any piece.
Writing Journal Special Assignment:
David Sedaris’ “Ashes” accomplishes a lot of indirection characterization and the
creation of intimacy through its scenes and dialogue. Re-read pages 146-147. Now go
back through your own writing (either an exercise response or your first essay) and pick a
moment that you’ve narrated or touched on briefly. Now make it into a scene, complete
with dialogue. Be as detailed as possible. Next, edit your scene so that you make
purposeful choices – what do these lines add to the overall tone and atmosphere of my
piece? Have I differentiated between my characters’ voices? Have I included sufficient
thought so that the reader might understand the way my mind was working at the time?
How does this scene move my story forward?
Writing Exercise: The Ipod
Put your music player on shuffle. As the first song begins, ask yourself of whom it
reminds you. For as long as that song plays, write about that person. When the song
changes, stop what you’re doing, and write about the person the next piece reminds you
of. Do this for the duration of three songs. Your significant person could be anyone, as
long as you’re reminded of them by the song. It might be an extra in a music video, it
might be your first boy- or girlfriend, it might be your great uncle. After you’ve
completed the timed writing, go back over what you’ve done and choose a person. Type
up that writing, expanding and solidifying as you go, and hand in the result. 2-3 pages.
Writing Exercise: The Love Letter
Who said essays should all look the same? Write a piece in the form of a love letter. You
might choose to address it to your seventh grade boyfriend, pizza, the person you’re
about to meet on a blind date, your cousin. It might be a warning or an ode, humorous or
bittersweet. Work on the balance between addressing the letter to a particular person
(who clearly already knows what s/he looks like, etc) and making it readable to a wide
audience (who needs details of characterization). About 2 pages typed.
Writing Exercise: Perspective
One of our tasks as personal essayists is to perfect the art of looking at ourselves fromwithout-from-within. Take this opportunity to write a 2-3 page personal essay about
yourself but from the point of view and in the voice of another person. The other person
may be real (mother, roommate, boyfriend, grocery cashier, woman on street corner) or
imaginary (reality show cameraman focused on you, a person who may have seen you
from across the dining hall). This self and society based exercise should be typed and
handed in.
Writing Exercise: Political Office
In your journal (or to be handed in, if you would like comments before your next essay is
due), write about a thing or event that could be used against you if you were to run for
public office. The thing or event that you choose, in itself, does some work for you: what
kind of things are used against people? Religion? Lack of religion? Affairs? Associations
with certain people or groups? Sexuality? Gender? Race? Drug use? You don’t just have
to be a murderer or embezzler to invite a smear campaign. In this self and society based
exercise, remember to contextualize and explain your stories.
Writing Exercise: Inside-Out/Outside-In
This is the beginning of our Writer’s Choice unit, meaning you’ll have the opportunity to
write about anything you haven’t yet. So is there something you wish people would
understand about you? Do you feel like your outsides don’t match your insides? Do you
have fundamental experiences or histories that are invisible? Or maybe you really, really
hate chili and wish people would stop saying, “oh, but you’ll love it the way I make it.”
Pick something you wish people would understand and drive it home.
And for the second half…is there something you really wish you understood about the
world? Maybe it’s the economy; maybe it’s why the law gets involved in people’s love
lives; maybe it’s vegetarians. Pick something and see how far you can get in figuring it
out. A lot of information is just a google away, but the star of this exercise should be your
own wonderings and processes.
Writing Exercise: Belief
There are some moments in our lives when we know with certainty that we believe – in
love, in God, in our own greatness. Conversely, there are moments of great
disillusionment…of heartbreak, of atheism, of discovering our parents fail. Langston
Hughes took us back to the moment when I discovered he could no longer believe in
Jesus, and how that made him feel about life and question is his elders. Decades later, he
was still thinking about it. Write about a time you believed … or a time you didn’t.