Memory is disorderly, but a calendar is not. Sometimes you can trick unexpected insights from your mind by mapping your disorderly memory onto an orderly calendar. Divide the page into 12 roughly equal sections, each labeled with a month of the year. Scan your memories of the previous year and try to connect the memories with a specific month. When an event occurred. When a … [Read more...] about Month by Month
Memory
Yucky Food
Write about the foods that you do not or cannot eat. First, name the food by printing it in capital letters. Then write down everything that you find distasteful about this particular food. What is the origin of your revulsion? Does your relationship with this food have a history? Have you ever eaten the foods that you dislike? How do you react? Meditate upon all … [Read more...] about Yucky Food
A Tale of a Table
Find a table. They are everywhere--in houses and restaurants, on sidewalks and in parks, at work. You also have tables in your memory and in your imagination. Write a story, true or invented, that includes this table. You could write the history of this table in the world, or the history that a person has with this table. Your history, or someone else's. Write anything … [Read more...] about A Tale of a Table
Wondering Where
Use the phrase "I wonder where..." to begin the first sentence that you write. When you don't know where something is, maybe it is lost. Maybe you don't even expect to see it again. You can wonder where a person is, too. You can wonder about a place where something will happen in the future. A person can wonder where something comes from--an idea or an aspect of their … [Read more...] about Wondering Where
Hats Everywhere
You don't have to mount much of a search to find a hat. On your head, in your pocket, under the couch. On someone else's head or in their pocket. Hats are everywhere. Write something that has a hat in it. A made-up story, or the real, true adventures of some intrepid hat that you have known. You could write about the social function of hats by asking yourself what certain … [Read more...] about Hats Everywhere