Exercise for the day: Draw your story

Sometimes when I start new classes, as I did last week at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, I talk myself through my nervousness by thinking of my job not as teaching, but as listening.

I think about ways I can listen to writers: to their work, their feelings about their work, their questions about it. How can I ask new questions and see things from different angles?

Here's something I tried last week that gave me(and the writers. an interesting visual snapshot of where they are with their work now, at the beginning of the fall session.

I put my kids' magic markers in a bag, brought them to class, and dumped them out in the middle of our big table. I gave everyone 11  x 17 paper and asked them to turn it to landscape orientation. 

Turning paper sideways (an idea often used with mind mapping), and using different colors and sizes of markers are all ways to pop yourself out of the linear, purely verbal, black-and-white thinking you most often use when you're writing, editing, and revising. 

I set the timer for seven minutes and asked everyone to make a visual representation of their plot-- in ANY way they wanted. Using shapes, figures, squiggles, words, colors. I emphasized there was no pressure to be artistic or clever; that if your best visualization is nothing but a straight red line, or a frowny face with a tear coming out of its eye, that's valid. Everything is valid, as long as it's honest. 

Then we went around the table and had each person explain how they're seeing their book right now, using what they'd drawn. After each person spoke we responded with our impressions.

Try it! 

Draw your story

Get a piece of paper (11 x 17, regular printer paper, whatever) and some colors (markers, pens, pencils). Turn the paper sideways. Set the timer for seven minutes. Set down any kind of visual representation of your plot, moving from one end of the paper to the other. 

This is a way of listening to yourself, and seeing your story from a new angle. What do you learn about your story from doing this? What's strong in it? What's missing?