Looping Prewriting Activity
From Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff, A Community of Writers
A great exercise for tracking an idea through the forest in your mind is this looping exercise from Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff. It works by having you look at the idea from several perspectives, like turning over leaves on the forest floor to look for signs of an animal. In this exercise, you'll write about yourself from five different perspectives. Each perspective asks you to look at yourself a different way. Spend 20 minutes of solid writing time on each task. Write by hand or on a computer keyboard, whichever feels more comfortable. Not every perspective will feel useful or productive, but remember, your task is to generate as much material as you can to use in your next draft of the Who am I piece.
First Thoughts, Prejudices, Preconceptions
Select an event from your time line or from your first draft, and then write about the first thoughts, prejudices, or preconceptions that come to mind. This is mostly a matter of putting down the first things that come to mind. If you picked a time when you were in the first grade to focus on, just jot down everything that comes to mind. It's okay to focus on prejudices in this approach because your task is just to explore. You may not use everything you generate, but you will have explored carefully.
Moments, Stories, Portraits
On your second, 20-minute writing, focus on one story, one moment, or one person and develop your thinking as much as you can. Here you are allowing your experience to tell you something important. You could choose to develop one story, one moment, or one portrait of a person, or you could develop several that come to mind.
Dialogue
Sometimes, in talking to people, we discover things we didn't know we knew. That's the value of this third writing. Write out a dialogue between yourself and someone you know. Choose someone from your time line or your first draft and remember a conversation you had. Imagine a conversation you had or would like to have with someone from your time line or your first draft. You can, if you want (even though it will feel strange) create a dialogue between you and an object or place from your time line or your first draft. The important thing is to allow the conversation to tell you something you didn't already know.
Variations on the Audience, the Writer, the Time
This writing will seem odd to you but it can be quite powerful. Have you ever noticed that you'll present an idea one way to your parents, but in a very different way to your best friend or your roommate or your boy or girl friend? The person you talk to can influence what you way. Similarly, the place or time where you write can influence what you say. Imagine yourself in a very different place, or speaking to a very different person, or as a very different person than you presently are. What would you have to say, either in general, or about anything on your time line or your first draft? What changes would you make? How would you think differently?
Lies, Errors, Sayings
If you thought the last writing was odd, this one may seem even more so. Behind every stereotype or aphorism or adage, there is a real event that prompted it. Even lies have a basis in truth somehow. Tell as many lies as you can about yourself, not because you are in the habit of lying, but because in stretching the truth, you learn what the truth is. Come up with sayings about yourself and comment on how they explain who you are. Mention errors that people have made about you, and then contradict these errors. Remember, your objective is to generate information.
Spend 20 minutes on each of these perspectives. Generate as much information as you can. Use it to develop any essay that you need to write. If you have questions, you can contact me at closserb@andrews.edu