I shall be leading an online creative writing session form 2
p.m. until 5 p.m. today at the BAM – Bury Art Museum. We shall be working through
a variety of exercises and using some of the material from the BAM web site.
Here is a taster exercise:
The Haiku Exercise
Sit by a window in your home and look and listen for ten
minutes. Make a list of what you see or hear. Or maybe even feel or smell. Jot down a few words and phrases as you are
observing. You can write down odd thoughts as well. Don’t worry if you can’t write
all of the time.
Here are some words and phrases I found earlier by looking
out of my window:
TV aerial at jaunty angles, trees fluttering, old trees with
TPOs, next door’s roses dancing, blotches on the brickwork, radiator creaking,
clock ticking, whoosh, grey clouds, old
brick wall, warmth on my toes, in June,
Metrolink, that woman, isn’t she locked down? Some red trees, near the flats,
that’s the graveyard, ping pong, an email arrives, aeroplane, are those leaves
yellower? Clock on wall, satellite dish, rumble rumble, tick tock, tick tock,
measuring time, PVC, plastic doors, lamppost looks like Narnia, blackbird
flies
Writing Haiku
• A
haiku is a short poem consisting of three lines.
• The
first line has five syllables
• The
second has seven syllables
• The
third has five
• There
is some sort of shift often between the second and third line.
Some examples
• Five
syllables:
– Old
trees fluttering
• Seven
syllables
– Are
those leaves there yellower?
• Five
syllables and change
– Trees
with red leaves dance.
old TV ariels
stuck at jaunty angles mock
satellite dishes
radiator creaks
clock on wall tick
tock tick tock
measuring out time
Follow up work
You can write a lot of these. Some you may throw away. Some
that you think work really well you can put in a notebook and collect. It’s also fun to make them into cards, wall
hangings, coffee mugs, mouse-mats, tote bags, calendars, and many other
items.
We’ll be working our way through six projects and having a follow
up session next Wednesday form 4.00 until 5.00.
Work will be show-cased later at the BAM and on this blog.
If you’d like join us, use the contact form here and I’ll send
you the links.
