This set of experimental exercises is based in part on Anne Lamott’s advice that all writers should carry an index card with them and that they should aim not to write an overwhelming number of pages but to instead fill the space of a picture frame. The exercises also aim to separate writers from their everyday, “normal” experience of their senses and rational minds. Students (and instructor!) should each take seven index cards of any size and aim to do one experiment every day, freewriting on anything that comes to mind. The goal is to fill the card on one side (or both, depending on the ambition of the class). After seven days, the class should meet again and debrief, sharing any promising writing or interesting experiences.
- Day 1: Find video or audio of someone speaking a language you do not know at all. Try to avoid languages that share many sounds, words, and cognates with your native language (so, if you speak English natively, avoid French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc.). Listen to the language. Try to imagine what is being said based on the sounds you hear. Write your card.
- Day 2: Obtain a piece of candy or other small treat and put it in the freezer. Set an alarm for a time in the middle of the night when you know you’re usually deep in sleep. When you wake up, eat your treat. Write your card. Go back to sleep.
- Day 3: Blindfold yourself. Use a scarf, towel, sleep mask—anything you have lying around. Walk around a safe and familiar space, like your home (be careful of stairs!) for about 15 to 20 minutes. Experience the space without your primary sense of sight. Write your card.
- Day 4: Pick a familiar word or phrase. It could be the name of a pet, a common saying, a catchphrase. Go alone to a quiet place where you won’t feel self-conscious (your car might be a good spot). Say the word or phrase out loud, to yourself, over and over. Keep saying it until it loses meaning and becomes strange to you (this is an actual phenomenon called semantic satiation). Write your card.
- Day 5: Get on YouTube or iTunes University and find a college lecture on something that seems very far away from what you think of as creative writing—maybe something on engineering? Listen to it with headphones on, but don’t consciously copy down what you hear. As you listen, write your card.
- Day 6: Find a music video of about three minutes in length. It could be anything, but make sure it’s a video you haven’t seen before. Turn the sound completely off. Record yourself narrating the video or providing some kind of commentary as you watch. Transcribe what you said onto your card.
- Day 7: Find a drum. If you don’t have a drum, use a plastic food container with a lid or even an upside-down wastebasket. Go to a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed (and where you won’t disturb anyone else). Set a timer for five to seven minutes. Sit comfortably and begin beating your drum or drum-like object. Try to keep a consistent rhythm and volume. Every time your mind begins to drift, try to bring it back to your drumming. When the timer goes off, stop drumming and write your card.
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Julie Platt’s critical and creative work has appeared in Assay, Computers and Composition, Barn Owl Review, Weave, and others. She is the author of the poetry chapbook In the Kingdom of My Familiar (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2014) and an editor for the Journal of Creative Writing Studies.