Boris Fishman - The Creative Writer. Level One, Five Finger Exercises

THE

CREATIVE WRITER

LEVEL ONE

FIVE FINGER EXERCISES

by

Boris Fishman

This e-book contains some places that ask the reader to fill in questions or comments. Please keep pen and paper handy as you read this e-book so that you can complete the exercises within.

Copyright 2011 by Peace Hill Press

All Rights Reserved

Cover design by Sarah Park.

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Fishman, Boris, 1979

The creative writer. Level one, Five finger exercises / Boris Fishman.

p. : ill. ; cm.

Interest grade level: 5-8.

" designed to be used in a mentor/student relationship, with teaching, guidance, and evaluation tips provided for the mentor or teacher."--Publisher's e-mail communication.

Includes index.

ISBN: 978-1-933339-55-9

ISBN 978-1-942-96827-6 (e-book)

1. Creative writing (Elementary education) 2. English language--Composition and exercises--Study and teaching (Elementary)

I. Title. II. Title: Five finger exercises

LB1576 .F57 2011

372.62/3

2011933500

The illustration and on the back cover, Mark Rothko, Untitled (Black on Gray), 1969/1970 Acrylic on canvas 80 1/8 x 69 1/8 inches (203.3 x 175.5 cm) is reproduced by permission of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Gift, The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Address requests for permissions to Peace Hill Press, 18021 The Glebe Lance, Charles City, VA 32030

DEDICATION

To Susan Wise Bauer, who provides an example.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

T his book consists of 36 weeks of lessons and exercises, divided evenly into two sections: Fiction and Poetry . These, in turn, are divided into multi-week units of study such as Plot (in Fiction), Sound (in Poetry), and so on. The Fiction and Poetry sections culminate in assignments to write a complete short story and poem, respectively.

Although the first 18 weeks are devoted to fiction and the second 18 to poetry, all writers are encouraged to complete both sections. Awareness of plot and character makes for a better poet; understanding of meter and rhyme, a better fiction writer.

Each lesson is built around an exercise meant to practice that weeks subject. In addition to the main exercise, each lesson provides challenge exercises for the writer willing to go further.

The Creative Writer provides an aspiring writer with a workshop-between-two-covers. Writing is an intensely individual undertaking, but it also must be practiced in relationship to others. Instead of merely addressing the writer, The Creative Writer also provides directions, instructions, and answers for a writing mentor . These mentoring sections, found at the end of the Fiction and Poetry assignments, allow any intelligent reader to help the aspiring writerand recognize that writing is, ultimately, an act of communication with others.

Younger writers may give these mentor instructions to a parent or teacher; older writers, a trusted friend or colleague.

Those practicing on their own should feel free to look at the mentor guidance for useful tips on how to do the assigned exercises. Ultimately, though, the mentor sections should encourage solitary writers to find a writing communityand become part of it.

Introduction

To the Writer

S o you want to write stories or poems (or both). Perhaps this is a new idea. Or maybe youve been writing for years. How will this book help make you a better writer?

Lets start by talking about what creative writing is. Creative writing tends to rely on the imagination much more than other kinds of writing. Also, creative writers pay attention not only to what a sentence saysthat is, the information included in itbut also to how the sentence says it. Another way to put this would be: Creative writing pays attention not only to content but style.

Look at the following excerpt from an essay called The Sands of Cape Cod by the great American nature writer, Henry David Thoreau.

The Sands of Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau

The sand is the great enemy here. The tops of some of the hills were inclosed and a board put up forbidding all persons entering the inclosure, lest their feet should disturb the sand, and set it a-blowing or a-sliding. The sand drifts like snow, and sometimes the lower story of a house is concealed by it, though it is kept off by a wall. The houses were formerly built on piles, in order that the driving sand might pass under them. We saw a few old ones here still standing on their piles, but they were boarded up now, being protected by their younger neighbors. There was a schoolhouse, just under the hill on which we sat, filled with sand up to the tops of the desks, and of course the master and scholars had fled. Perhaps they had imprudently left the windows open one day, or neglected to mend a broken pane.

Note where Thoreau says Sand is the great enemy here. Think about the images, feelings, and associations that phrasing brings up for you, as the reader. For me, it conjures sand as a marauding menace. Cape Cod is surrounded by water, so the sand is like some terrible, merciless invader storming the area from some faraway place.

Now imagine if Thoreau had written, Sand is a big problem in Cape Cod. That gives you the same information, but would you agree that it comes across much less vividly? No colorful associations (enemy) pop into the mind, no feelings are aroused (problem is mild; enemy is forceful); the brain sluggishly registers the information and stalls, waiting for more input instead of running off on an imaginative journey.

When we read writing that is vivid and originalbecause the author has chosen interesting and unusual words, images, or comparisonswe become more excited about what were reading. Creative writers can spend an hour looking for the perfect word. Compare the verbs throw, chuck, and lob. All more or less mean the same thing, right? But if you spend a bit more time thinking about each, youll begin to notice subtle differences: Throw is generic, as generic as Sand is a big problem. It does little more than communicate basic information. A lob is a specific kind of throw, a high arc. Chuck, as in He chucked the basketball, suggests casualness, disinterest, even derision. We chuck things about when we dont needor wantto be careful. You couldnt get simple old throw to do that much suggestive work. Youd have to say, He threw the basketball with irritation. This sentence is okay, but its twice as long. And when sentence after sentence isnt as concise and efficient as it can bewhen it uses more time to say something than it shouldwe become tired, just as we do with a person who says too much to make a simple point. Creative writers search for the perfect word because they want to say as much as they can with a single word or image. They want to keep the attention of their audience.

Creative writing doesnt only convey information; creative writing also tells a story . Compare these two sentences:

1. The train stalled between Washington and Richmond.

2. The train stalled between Washington and Richmond, making it almost certain that Sandra Hayes would miss the most important deadline of her life.