a snow fight. To see blue is to see the beautiful color of the sea, the brightness of a clear sky, the deepness of a royal sapphire. Blue reaches beyond the sight of man and links his deep inner emotions to the depths of the ocean and timelessness of space. Blue is the cool side of life.”
Another student described yellow as “white with a touch of gold.”
Columns
Some writers have used columns to generate content, with the 1st column having words that describe the subject word. The 2nd column lists what is good about the subject.
The 3rd column, what is bad about the subject.
The 4th column, what significance does the subject have
The 5th column, what can be changed about the subject.
Clustering
This method is also called making a web and is designed to draw on the non-linear creativity of the right side of the brain.
According to Gabriele Lusser Rico in her book Writing the Natural Way,
the left side of the brain controls the logical, reasoning, intellectual thought patterns of constructing the whole from the parts, analyzing and judging.
The right side of the brain controls the intuitive aspects of the brain, the creative, overall concept perception ability which responds to the pictorial, who image rather than the verbal word expression.
Therefore, to gain access to the images that the right brain perceives, you can use a clustering method which turns the verbal words into pictures that the creative side will continue to generate without the left critical side will not reject as ‘stupid’ or ‘inappropriate.’
You take the topic you want to develop and write the word in the middle of the page and circle it. Then every word association that comes to your mind, you write down in a web fashion as quickly as possible. Circle each entry and connect it to the other circled words with a line. You do not question the words as they come tumbling out.
Some sources suggest you set a time limit of 10 or 20 minutes and stay with it even when you think you have exhausted all words in 2-3 minutes. (One source recommends 30 minutes.) You will get past that dry period and come up with less obvious but more creative words if you stay with it.
Some people are reluctant to do the webbing, and when they do try, they omit the circles around the words. When I was first asked to try this clustering, I was similarly very reluctant; the old left brain training again. Somehow the whole exercise smacked of kindergarten and I felt I was far too sophisticated.
But I had paid my money, and before taking the course I had decided to try every suggestion that was offered since I could simply discard the useless when the course was finished. I was surprised to find that I learned a great deal, and one of the best methods of getting content was the clustering.
Circling the words creates a more pictorial landscape that nourishes the growth of the bright original ideas from the right side of the brain by tricking your mind into thinking the words are really whole ideas, pictures, while repressing the creativity-squashing activity of the left side of the brain.
Criticism stops the flow of new ideas or the growth of ideas. So many people can’t get started, sabotaging themselves after the first few words – “that is no good, that’s dumb, that probably isn’t what he/she wants.” And they crumple the paper and dramatically chuck the few words into the basket.
We are so used to self-criticism that this process of clustering is almost mandatory to those people brought up to be sensible and reasonable, being trained to discard the frivolous in their lives. By getting past your ‘silly’ you tap into the creative. Inspiration and invention spring from unfathomable sources.
After you have exhausted the creative and start to sort out the useful material, you may have a lot that is just useless, but you will also have some surprisingly good stuff. Look at all the words and phrases that provoke any surge of interest, an emotion, a smile or a sorrow. Then you can do another cluster on that one topic and write a paragraph or more on it.
One student simply rewrote each circled entry from the cluster into prose form without any adjustments and it was amazingly beautiful.
The prime element in this getting content is to let the ideas flow freely, getting them all down on the paper before editing, checking the spelling or otherwise imposing any left brain braking of the creativity. The continued practice of letting the words come will provide a sort of training in your self-expression. Style, after all, is simply the most truthful expression of one’s own personality.
Controlling The words
Having generated content, there are several exercises that help you learn to control the words for effective purposes.
The Art of the Particular
Using words for their maximum benefit is to develop the poetry in your writing, and poetry is the art of the particular. You look for the concrete specific word that says precisely what you see, feel, know… No other word will do.
For instance, looking out of the window of this cabin, I could write, “The seagulls are flying without moving forward above the stormy water.”
What would stormy water look like? If you were reading stormy water you would have to fall back on your memory of what stormy water looked like the last time you saw it. Or you would conjure some fictional account or a Turner painting would come to mind. Just saying stormy water does not show the reader what you see. Obviously it is not smooth, glassine or rolling gently or blue or blinding the eyes with reflected sun-light. What exactly is it?
You have to look for the honesty in the words so that the picture you create with the words you choose will create the same picture in the reader’s mind.
By using fuzzy words, stormy water, the writing fails and does not do the work for the reader. In ten years, you won’t remember what that stormy water looked like and the writing is boring and dull.
So looking again at the stormy water (which I have been doing for two days) I carefully look at the water and try to choose the words with the most nourishment to Show the water.
Sharp white-peaked waves surge
on cold gun-metal water
gulls hang in the wind.
So the writer must show the water not tell us about it. Train the eye and the mind to look at the details avoiding all general terms such as a nice day, had a good time, etc.
This little poem about the stormy water is a Haiku, and writing Haikus is excellent practice in word discipline. It is an old poetic form originated in Japan consisting of only three lines, the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables. Each line answers one of the three questions, where, what, and when? In Japan
