At present we have 10 in the workshop, including me.

I’m going to ask you to bring 14

copies of each of the 2 completed assignments below to the workshop. That way, if more
register, I don’t have to keep bothering you with numbers.

Two Exercises To Bring To Saturday, April 25th Workshop

1. Exercise One: 15 words

Write a one-pager incorporating the following words within your sentences. None
of the words can be used in its usual sense. You want to utterly defamiliarize each one
while still creating a coherent piece. Your one-pager can be a scene, meaning it doesn't
have to have to be complete with a beginning, middle, and end. And just a reminder:
Defamiliarize means to use each word in a new and strange/unusual/surprising way, a
way that is unique but still makes sense. For instance, one word I've given you is
“unbuttoning.” You might say, “His words unbuttoned, one at a time.” Had I given you
“decimal point,” you might say, “The boat moved off across the water until Hulga was
nothing but a decimal point.” Even adulterers, you must not use in the usual sense. Let
loose and see what your characters bring you.
        Here are your words:
adulterers, borrowed, rains, chop, bookcases, fathers, nastier, mystify, nothing, dare,
yellow, nick, sculpt, motorized, unbuttoned.
Please bring FOURTEEN typed, 12 point, double spaced (not space and a half),
Times New Roman or Cambria, normal-margined copies to the workshop. Do NOT
go over one page. Write in the next few days so you can edit it several times before
running it off for the workshop.

2. Exercise 2: Opening Doors By Trolling for Material

Research: Understanding what our characters understand. No less and no more.

Andrea Barrett.

Andrea Barrett, American writer, in her essay “Research in Fiction,” says,

“Research is dangerous! It’s so tempting to research extensively, then take everything
we’ve learned and dump it, untransformed, onto the page, to stuff in all we’ve found,
emptying our files of notes into the story in an effort not to waste our hard work.” This is
research that connects neither to our characters, nor to their emotions. Such characters
become mere mouthpieces for exposition, or a simplified camera lenses for recording
travelogue data. Research, to be effective, must appear so natural that the reader
hardly recognizes it as such, so natural that it doesn’t even feel researched. Research,
when approached in a spirit of play and open-mindedness, is far more likely to enter, by
osmosis, the minds and hearts of your characters. Research works best when it’s
dissolved entirely into the work, embodied in characters, images, and natural
details.
Research something this week that surprises even you. Something you would never
normally think to write about, but will enjoy. Then write a one-pager, dissolving the
research as naturally as you can into the piece. It should not stand out in a clump or
explanation. Have fun with how you use it. Try to do it in time to edit several times for
“clumpiness” before next weekend.
Bring 14 typed, 12 point, double spaced (not space and a half), Times New Roman
or Cambria, normal margins. Do not go over one page. This too, if possible, write in
the next few days so you can edit it several times before running it off for class.