WRITING EXERCISES (AND VARIOUS APPROACHES TO LIFE ON EARTH) by Joshua James Amberson
WRITING EXERCISES (AND VARIOUS APPROACHES TO LIFE ON EARTH) by Joshua James Amberson
One of the many jobs Joshua James Amberson has and does do in his day to day life is being a writing teacher. Doing this work and his own work as a writer, he has collected, curated, and composed writing exercises for use by his group classes, his one on one students, and himself. Our hope for this volume is that it finds a treasured place on the shelves of folks who identify in any small way as a writer, used regularly for both pleasure and purpose.
Joshua is the author of the previous Two Plum Press titles “Slow Motion Heroics” (038) and “Everyday Mythologies” (026) and the forthcoming novel “How To Forget Almost Everything,” (Korza Books) amongst others.
Create a Space Exercise
You can write anywhere. It can happen in any room of your home, in a park, a coffee shop, a library, a car, the woods, or any number of other places. But it can often be nice, especially when getting started, to set aside a place for it and to make that space, in some way, special. Prepare your favorite beverage, grab a notebook you’d like to write in, turn the internet off, put some decorative items (photos, talismans, knick-knacks, etc) around you for inspiration, make it cozy.
You don’t need any of this stuff to write. But why not treat yourself at the beginning?
The Selves I’ve Been Exercise
This exercise is to help you think about the various identities, roles, and ideas of self you’ve taken on over the course of your life. This can include both big identi- ties and roles, and/or really small ones (a short-lived social group, a temp job, the one day you went surfing and imagined you might become a surfer).
•
First, make a list of these assorted selves.
Then, pick one and expand on it. You could pick one that currently has a lot of meaning and resonance in your life, or you could pick a former self you don’t normally talk about.
Entry Points Exercise
I often think about entry points—ways into the story you want to tell, or paths to get into personal ma- terial. One of my favorite entry points is by way of art and media. For one, most people have something to say about at least some form of art or media. But also: it’s fun to write about, it often causes you to write in ways you don’t usually write, and is initially impersonal enough to not feel intimidating.
• Option One
Think of a book you like (or have liked) a lot. It could be any genre and for any age-group—just some book you’ve had a personal relationship with at some point in your life. Now write a paragraph about how the book came into your life, and/or how it has affected your life.
My one limitation here: try to avoid the book’s plot as much as possible. Instead of the story within the book, think about your story. This is about your relationship with the book; the book is a character in your story.
• Option Two
Pick an artist, song, or an album, and write about how it has affected your life (or a character’s life). This could be an “every time I hear this I think of _____” or how a song/album/artist changed the course of your life. Maybe you started dressing differently, you started hanging out with different people, started doing differ- ent things. If nothing else this exercise leads you to a moment in your life, a glimpse into what big ideas ex- cited you at the time, who you thought you were and who you wanted to be.
