Book Group

The Book Group meets every second Thursday of the month, September through June, in the Hershey Room of the Hershey Library at 12:30. New members welcome; please contact jillmuscat@msn.com to get on my email list. Here are our upcoming meeting dates and book choices.

January 9

The Maid by Nita Prose. A hotel cleaning lady is thrust into a world of intrigue when she finds the dead body of a tycoon.

February 13

Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Funny, touching account of a woman dealing with half-grown kids, aging parents and her own personal problems. 

My thoughts on Elbow...albeit a little late

To begin, I'd like to say that I believe that the "Teacherless Writing Class" is a good idea. I say this, because, if nothing else, it facilitates the sharing of opinions and ideas among a small band of writers, and, I would argue that this process could only be helpful. After all, I don't think any writer can get an honest assessment of their writing until someone else reads it. So, it makes sense that Elbow recommends that 7 to 12 people read it. The more, the merrier.

Here is something interesting that I picked out of the reading: Elbow says, "Whenever people work in only one genre, they gradually become blind to certain excrescences" (79). He makes a good point. I think that good readers are those individuals who possess an ability to negotiate a wide range of texts. The same thing goes for good writers, I would imagine. It seems to me that the more diversified someone can be in respect to their writing abilities, the better the writer they will become.

Something else struck me: Elbow says, "Hearing your own words out loud gives you the vicarious experience of being someone else" (82). This is a unique way to look at this experience; one that I have never considered before. But, I guess he's right, because I often find that while I am writing at home, I routinely speak aloud during the process. This is my way of finding my own voice while I am actively engaged in the writing process. And, more often than not, this technique seems to work -- at least until I make alterations in the next draft.

I like that Elbow stresses not to make apologies for one's writing. In doing this, he seems to be saying that it's okay to produce writing that doesn't always come out the way you planned, or that, once in awhile, it might not even make sense. This things are expected, especially from writers who are new to the process. Moreover, I think that, in saying that it's okay to make mistakes, he tries to lessen some of the impending doom, or fear, that many writers feel toward the writing process itself. Bravo to Elbow for saying this. I get the feeling that he just wants to implore writers to pull up their sleeves and get into the muck and mud of this arduous task known as writing. Sure, it's going to be hard sometimes, but why should that hinder us as writers (I feel like I am spilling my own thoughts out on paper right now; this thoughts really aren't Elbow's, but that's okay).

Anyway, the best thing that writers can do is simply write, and then share their stuff. That seems like the best way to learn -- or, at least, that's what I got after reading the last third of Elbow. Sorry this is late. Enjoy, and thanks.

I apologize for publishing the wrong blog a few weeks ago. I should have checked the schedule.

Jason

Unjournaling

For any writers looking to step out of their comfort zones and really tap into their creative side, Unjournaling is the perfect tool to spark the imagination. The introduction of this text reiterates an important point about the matter of a writer’s attachment to his/her work. Too often we (writers) become possessive and obsessive about our creations; we don’t care to take anyone else’s critiques or suggestions for improving the final product into consideration. We fear criticism and the fact that the words we’ve stressed over in our struggle to convey our particular meanings may be discarded. Unjournaling says that writing doesn’t have to be formal or stuffy and it doesn’t always have to be a matter of personal integrity. Instead the book reminds and encourages us to let loose every once in a while in our writing and to truly enjoy the process of putting our ideas on paper.

Writing can be a pleasurable experience, it can even be silly. Sometimes writers just need to let go of their inhibitions. The exercises presented in the book certainly help to do this and to get the juices flowing in our mind. These drills are tailored to fit the skill levels of middle-schoolers and adults, so anyone who wants to expand his/her creative horizons can take advantage of Thurston and DiPrince’s book. For myself, I liked that these exercises offer instruction and guidance. Sometimes it’s nice being told what to write. When I know that I have a certain task to fulfill, I attack it more readily and immediately begin developing avenues which will lead me to the final goal. These prompts provide some direction (like, write a paragraph about a girl named Dot without using the letters 'i' and 'j'-which to me seems impossible), but that’s it; the author controls the overall development of his/her writing. Some of these prompts are challenging and some appear to be quite ridiculous-but that’s the beauty of each one. In the future, I hope to have the time to use these whacky prompts to improve my own creative writing abilities.

restrictions reveal to us a deeper level of freedom

The thing I like most about this book is the fact that it encourages the writing assignments to be “not personal” and “not introspective.” As I’ve mentioned before, I love personal writing assignments and I do think that a lot of good writing tends to be very personalized. However, this kind of writing also tends to be very limiting. Sometimes students need to think outside of themselves. This book of prompts could help students with just this.

I had a creative writing teacher praise pieces of writing that were “disconnected” from the student. I was always quite baffled by his notion. It went against everything I was taught previously. His explanation was that it shows true creativity to expose a piece of writing that has nothing to do with the writer. He felt that it showed discipline and commitment. I also had a poetry teacher who personally experimented with restrictions within her writing process. This teacher published different books of poems and essays. One book of her poems excluded the letter “e.” She often experimented with no punctuation. Like my other teacher, she sometimes encouraged her students to be “distant” from their pieces of writing. She felt that poetry did not have to be personal, and that some of the best poetry she ever read or wrote was detached from her personal emotions and feelings. I remember her telling my class that sometimes restrictions reveal to us a deeper level of freedom.

I believe that getting students to write outside of themselves is a challenging task. I struggle with this. Even within these blogs, all we ever do is talk about ourselves and our past experiences. “I had a bad experience in my 10th grade English class.” “I always liked to write poetry because it was such a personal experience.” “I think this assignment is stupid and I will never teach it in my classroom!” Even though I would not use all of the writing prompts within the book, I feel that there are some “awesome” ones (as Kaitlyn’s mommy would say). These non personal topics help students to write to a specific audience and create characters that have nothing to do with themselves. Students are going to face assignments that do not revolve around their personal feelings or experiences. Many struggle with research papers and analytical essays because of these issues. These prompts provide practice for students to write about something that is unusual to them. Hopefully, it could also be a fun experience. Maybe it can reveal to students that writing is not as restricting as they thought it to be.

Rachael brings up a great point in her blog. It might be disconcerting to students for a teacher to present writing as being restricting. I agree with her that writing is ultimately not restricting. Yet, not all students feel this way. I feel that by exaggerating restrictions, some writers will be surprised to find freedom, and might even realize that writing is not as restricting as they thought. This could build confidence.

Overall, I love being challenged by a creative prompt. Sometimes I am surprised by what my mind and hand can come up with. Two of my favorites from the book were “What would blue taste like if you could chew it” or “What if the sky were not blue but red.” These prompts could be a great way to introduce sensory/figurative language and images to a classroom. I do believe that some of these prompts are a bit childish and silly. Yet, isn’t that the point of this book? I think this book could be used for elementary school kids up through college level students. The main point of this book for me is that our writing should not be limited by limitations. Our creativity should surpass that of an initial prompt. Something phenomenal can surface from a pointless prompt. Writing does not have to be personal! Sometimes real freedom can be found within restrictions.

unjournaling

I thought the unjournaling exercises were great! It is a fun way to get you thinking about writing. There were so many prompt choices. I liked prompt number 162. It asked you to write a short story using the letters of the alphabet in order to start each sentence. It really made you think about what words you could use to start each sentence. I thought it would be hard to come up with words that start with v, x, and z. If I couldn’t think of something, I usually just used a person’s name. To my surprise, my story actually made sense.

I also wrote about someone being bored. This was prompt number 12. There were certain words that were not allowed to be used. After I was done writing, I looked in the back of the book to see the example for the prompts. The example in the back of the book was very similar to my description of someone being bored. I am not sure I like that there are examples in the back. I know they said the examples were there so we knew that each exercise was possible to complete, but I don’t think they were necessary.

Some of the prompts given might be good topics for free writing exercises. Other topics wouldn’t work so well. For example, the prompts that I wrote about might become difficult to keep writing. I had to stop and think about what word I was going to use to start the sentence. Free writing is all about not stopping. The first topic I wrote about would work for free writing. There were a few words that were not allowed to be used, but that didn’t stop me from free writing.

Unjournaling is probably appealing to most kids. I think it would make kids excited about writing. I don’t remember doing silly writing exercises in school. It would have made writing much more interesting if we would have had them. Writing should be fun. It shouldn’t be something that everyone dreads. These exercises show that writing isn’t always boring and tedious.

Great ideas

I did the same thing that Jen did, read this book out loud to my family. I as well as my children liked that idea of a book like this and I will surely use it within the classroom. I found so many prompts to be fun, but also could see the benefits of using them within the classroom setting.

I was unsure at first how I felt about the answer key or idea key in the back, but as I read the prompts and then the ideas in the back I could see how they would help in a younger classroom situation for starting the ideas flowing. I don't think in an older classroom setting I would use the hints at the back of the book.

I found it very hard to narrow down the ones that I liked better then others because they all were pretty good. I had to sit down and really look at them and actually tried to write a few of them before I determined what ones I like more. I found the ones that I like the most were the ones where you had to use your emotions to write, like in # 145 "What would blue taste like if you could chew it?" (45) I also like # 44 "In one sentence communicate fear" (18).

I think that both of these really made you think and compose your thoughts and emotions to put down on the paper. I will certainly hold onto this book as I think that it is a valuable tool to have as a teacher. This is one of those many things that a teacher can carry in their bag of tricks!

Thinking outside of the box and outside of the book

I LOVED this book! I think that a lot of student writing either has writing from a personal nature or writing that often doesn’t connect with a student. While the prompts in this book are often disconnected from students in terms of subject, they allow a more creative side to come out-- or at least a more relaxed side.

I read this book out loud in front of my family, while we were in the midst of finishing dinner, doing dishes, getting ready to go to a Girl Scout meeting, and preparing to pack for a business trip. Some of them intrigued us; others felt a bit more perplexing. But, I noticed that my 9-year-old daughter, who doesn’t always enjoy writing, was becoming more interested in each prompt. Perhaps I will use them with her already, and I am seriously considering using some with my Girl Scouts, connecting them to a writing badge we are working on.

I enjoyed the prompts that involved thinking more creatively about something that is common or ordinary. For example, Prompt 8,”How many ways can you say No? Write ten sentences that say no in various ways, but without using the word no.” Right away, I thought of five ways, and my daughter said, “Ooooh, Does that mean we could use how you always say ‘not right now’? Two little sentences got her thinking. Yea!! She’s thinking outside of the box.

My kindergartener liked the prompts relating to rhyming (ex. 3, 60,62). She even likes to make up words to add to the list. I notice that doing things like this spark her imagination or spark a conversation about a topic we wouldn’t normally talk about. (Why do bees live in trees?) (Why do we have geese, but not meese?)

I personally like the prompts that can have any answer possible, such as number 145: “What would blue taste like if you could chew it?” This could have any answer possible. I would hope that some students would think outside of the ordinary, and not pick things like blueberries, raspberries, etc. When I said that I thought blue would taste like creamy chocolate and cherries, my daughters stared at me. They first told me I was wrong, and when I asked how they knew I was wrong, they couldn’t answer. It let them know that there are not always right and wrong answers to every question.

There were a few prompts that I thought I would get frustrated doing myself. The first was to “write a paragraph consisting of only six-letter words” (#159). I would really have to think about all of the words I know, and I think I could find myself getting frustrated with that one. The other prompt that I was trying to write in my head over the last few days was #46 :”Write a sentence in which the first word is one letter long, the second word is two letters long, the third word is three letters long, etc.” So far I got to I am two days older.

Overall I think this book has great ideas to use to get students out of the writing doldrums. Some make little sense, but get thoughts from anywhere put on paper. Others make you think, but to have fun doing it. I can’t wait to try these out on my own kids, my Girl Scout troop, and my eventual class.

Note: Another good place to find some thinking/writing prompts is Highlights magazine. They have the “Brain Play” section that can get the wheels turning.