7 Techniques from Creative Writing You Can Use to Improve Your #Essays

---

 

You wouldn’t have thought that essays have much in common with creative writing.

You should also read…

• How to Improve Your English Writing Skills
• How to Write Dazzlingly Brilliant Essays

Creative writing, by definition, involves being ‘creative’: making things up, letting your imagination run wild. Essays are about being factual and objective, communicating ideas and arguments in the clearest way possible and attempting to enhance the reader’s knowledge, rather than their imagination. But while the literary devices and colourful tales we associate with creative writing are indeed out of place in an essay, these two very different kinds of writing actually have a few similarities. Above all, they’re both meant to be read by other people, and that means that they need to sustain the reader’s interest. So, are there any writing techniques you can borrow from creative writing to help make your essays more interesting and original? Yes there are, and in this article, we’re going to show you how.

1. Think about your reader

Chances are your teacher or examiner will have a lot to read – so keep them interested.

With creative writing, as with any kind of writing, your reader is your most important consideration. You need to know and understand whom you’re writing for if you’re to do a good job of keeping them interested. Let’s think for a moment about the kind of person you’re writing for when you’re writing an essay and what you need to do to write specifically for them:

• Teachers or university lecturers – they’re going to be marking your essay, so it needs to answer the question effectively.
• They’ve set the question and they probably have a pretty good idea of how you’re going to answer it – so be original and unpredictable; catch them by surprise with an unusual approach or structure.
• They’re going to be reading many other responses to the same question – so they may well be bored by the time they get to yours. Keep them interested!
• They’re probably going to be pressed for time – so they won’t have time to reread badly written passages to try to understand what you’re getting at. Keep your writing easy to read, succinct and to the point.

What all these points boil down to is the importance of keeping your reader interested in what you have to say. Since creative writing is all about holding the reader’s interest, there must be some lessons to be learned from it and techniques that can be applied within the more limited style constraints of the academic essay. We’ll now turn to what these are.

2. Three-act structure

Yves Lavandier argues that, although traditionally divided into five acts, Hamlet consists of three dramatic acts.

The three-act structure is a writing device used extensively in modern writing, including for film and television dramas. These ‘acts’ aren’t as distinct as acts in a play, as one follows seamlessly on from another and the audience wouldn’t consciously realise that one act had ended and another began. The structure refers to a plotline that looks something like this:

1. Set-up – establishes the characters, how they relate to each other, and the world they inhabit. Within this first ‘act’, a dramatic occurrence called an ‘inciting incident’ takes place (typically around 19 minutes into a film) involving the principal character. They try to deal with it, but this results in another dramatic occurrence called a ‘turning point’. This sets the scene for the rest of the story.
2. Confrontation – the turning point in the previous ‘act’ becomes the central problem, which the main character attempts to resolve – usually with plenty of adversity thrown their way that hampers their efforts. In a murder mystery, for example, this act would involve the detective trying to solve the murder. The central character – with the help of supporting characters – undergoes a journey and develops their knowledge, skills or character to a sufficient degree to be able to overcome the problem.
3. Resolution – the climax of the story, in which the drama reaches a peak, the problem is overcome, and loose ends are tied up.

This structure sounds all very well for made-up stories, but what has it got to do with essay-writing? The key similarities here are:

• The central argument of your essay is the equivalent of the main character.
• The essay equivalent of the set-up and resolution are the introduction and conclusion.
• The inciting incident in an essay encourages you to get to the point early on in the essay.
• The equivalent of character development in the second act is developing your argument.
• The equivalent of the supporting characters is the evidence you refer to in your essay.
•  

The tornado is the inciting incident in the Wizard of Oz – so to take the analogy a little further, the longer you leave your essay before you get to the point, the longer you leave your reader standing around in dull black-and-white Kansas, waiting for something to happen.

So, applying the three-act structure to an essay gives you something like this:

1. Set-up – the introduction. This establishes what you’re talking about, setting the scene. The ‘inciting incident’ could be the introduction of evidence that contradicts a common theory, or the highlighting of a central disagreement in how something is interpreted.
2. Confrontation – you discuss the different problems surrounding the topic you’re writing about. You develop the argument using various bits of evidence, moving towards an overall conclusion.
3. Resolution – the conclusion. You summarise and resolve the argument with your own opinion, by coming down on one side or the other, having weighed up the evidence you’ve discussed. You could perhaps tie up loose ends by offering an alternative explanation for evidence that doesn’t sit with your conclusion.

Using this structure keeps you focused on the central point, and stops you from waffling, because everything you write is working towards resolving your argument. The use of the inciting incident in the first ‘act’ encourages you to get to the point early on in your essay, thereby keeping the reader interested. The principles of good plot-writing are centred around the connection between different events that show cause and effect, and this central tenet of the three-act structure has obvious parallels with the way in which essays work through presenting evidence in support of arguments.

3. An attention-grabbing opening

A murder mystery novel might start with the murder and then establish the build-up in flashbacks.

An oft-spouted piece of advice in creative writing is to use an attention-grabbing opening. One way of doing this is to start with a ‘flashback’, which could disrupt the chronology of events by transporting the reader directly back to the midst of the action, so that the story begins with maximum excitement. In a murder mystery, for instance, the writer might skip a slow build-up and instead use the murder itself to form the opening of the novel, with the rest of the story charting the efforts of the detective to uncover the perpetrator and perhaps telling the events prior to the murder in a series of flashbacks. The same principle can be applied to essays, though it’s easier to use in some subjects than others.
To take an example, let’s say you were writing about how the First World War started. Rather than building up slowly with the various factors, an attention-grabbing opening could (briefly) describe the drama of the Battle of the Somme, perhaps citing some statistics about the number of men involved and killed, and quoting some war poetry about the horrors faced by the soldiers on the Front Line. Then, to introduce the purpose of the essay and launch into your argument about what started the war, a phrase such as, “It seems hard to imagine that all this began with…”. Alternatively, a rhetorical question: “But how did these tens of thousands of soldiers end up in the mud and horror of trench warfare? The story begins several years earlier, with…” It may not be the standard way of writing an essay, but you’ll certainly score points for originality and perhaps ruffle a few feathers.

4. Extended metaphors

Metaphor is used extensively in Romeo and Juliet. Film still from Romeo and Juliet (F. Zefferelli, 1968).

Creative writing often makes use of extended metaphors. For example, when Shakespeare wrote the passage in Romeo and Juliet referring to “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” he was using an extended metaphor. With this in mind, it’s time to revisit a point we made in a previous article about writing more original essays, in which we argued that, rather than battling on with trying to explain a complex concept in a straightforward way, it might be easier to use an analogy to convey the meaning by drawing comparisons, which people find easier to understand. A metaphor is a kind of analogy, so the similarities with creative writing are strong here. In our previous article we used the example of radioactive decay. An analogy for this is the pressure with which water escapes from a hole in a bucket. It does so exponentially, just as radioactive substances decay exponentially. In both instances, the rate of a consumptive process depends on how much there is left of whatever is being depleted, which results in an exponential rate of decay. This concept is so much easier to explain using the analogy of water flowing from a hole in a bucket, as you give your reader something familiar to visualise in order to explain a concept with which they are unfamiliar.

5. Interesting details about setting and location

Augustus lived frugally.

Another way of keeping your reader interested is to bring your essay to life with details about setting and location, just as creative writers do. Essays can become quite dry if you focus solely on the academic problems, but you can make them more interesting by peppering them with details. This may not work quite so well for a scientific essay, but it’s certainly relevant for some humanities subjects, in particular English literature, history and archaeology. For example, an essay about the Roman emperor Augustus could mention that he lived a famously modest lifestyle, quoting details from Roman writers and archaeological evidence that support this: Suetonius mentions his “low bed” (interesting because of what it says about accepted standards of Roman beds!) and coarse bread and cheese diet, and the relatively small and non-lavish remains of his house on the Palatine Hill in Rome back up the idea of his having lived a modest life.

Incidental details like these can actually prove to be more significant than you initially realise, and you can use them to build your argument; in the case of Augustus, for example, his modest lifestyle is particularly important when seen in the context of Rome’s troubled history with kings. As he gradually acquired more power and became Rome’s first emperor, he had to avoid coming across as being too ‘regal’, and the little details we know about his way of life are significant in light of this. So, not only have you brought your essay to life, but you’ve raised an interesting point, too.

6. Editing

Few writers get it right first time. Once you’ve written a first draft, read through it and think about whether the order of your points is optimal and whether what you’ve written actually makes sense. It’s easy in the age of computers to chop and change – you can simply copy and paste part of your essay into another part where it might fit better, and then make minor changes to your wording so that it flows. After you’ve finished editing, have a final read through and check that you’re happy with the wording. Don’t forget to proofread to ensure that your spelling and grammar is impeccable!

7. And finally… record your ideas

Keeping a notebook to hand helps you gather good ideas when they come to you.

Creative writers swear by having a notebook with them at all times, ready to jot down any ideas that suddenly spring to mind. You can adopt the same principle for your essay-writing, because you never know when the inspiration might strike. Have a think about your essay topic when you’re out and about; you’d be surprised what occurs to you when you’re away from your normal place of study.
As you can see, there are more similarities between two apparently unrelated kinds of writing than you might have realised. It is, of course, possible to go too far with the creative writing idea when you’re essay-writing: literary devices aren’t always appropriate, and your essay still needs to retain objectivity and conform to the more formal conventions of academic writing. But there are certainly techniques to be borrowed from creative writing that will help your essays stand out from the crowd and give your teacher or lecturer a welcome break from the monotony of essay-marking.

A very short guide to the most #creative part of your brain

As far as your brain is concerned, “creative problem-solving” is a contradiction in terms

 

 

By Tara Swart

Want to have more “aha!” moments and free up your brain to think more creatively? Of course you do. The key is to tap into your brain’s built-in system for free-association and mind-wandering. But to do that, you need to know how that system operates. So here’s a quick primer.

Meet your mind’s “default network”

We all have the capacity for creative inspiration simply by being human. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a highly logical or a highly empathetic person (and maybe you’re both!)–there’s still a natural “seesaw” effect at work in your brain. At one end are traits and qualities like being results-driven, focused, and analytical, while at the other are your social and communication skills as well as your empathy.

---

Related: How to be less creative at work (and why you sometimes should)

---

Each end of this spectrum reflects one of two cognitive networks that operate like counterweights in your brain. The task-focused “control network” helps you execute on clear goals, while the “default network” is associated with mind-wandering and spacing out. And it probably won’t surprise you to learn that it’s the default network that’s primarily responsible for creativity. These two networks bookend all the systems and sub-networks in between that together give rise to cognition. When the seesaw is unequally weighted, overall brain agility tends to suffer.

The default network is something we’ve recently learned more about. Researchers now know that even while we aren’t engaged in a task or consciously focused on a specific topic, the entire brain remains busy–not just the control network. The default network (sometimes called the “task-negative network”) helps us free-associate and think in abstract terms all the while.

This actually makes a lot of sense; a brain that’s functioning with real agility can integrate logic with creativity, intuition, and motivation alongside one’s emotional response and sense of physical place. Even abstract thinking is a complex process, combining memory and knowledge as well as problem-solving and flexible thinking in order to examine a concept at the “meta” level. If our default and control networks couldn’t share these burdens, our brains would hit information overload.

Still, there are times when you’ll want to lean more heavily on your default network. It’s what enables us to imagine, to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, or to enter a state of mindfulness (over time, practices like meditation can balance out activity in both networks). When the default network is more active than the control network, our brains process less external stimuli–which is often a precondition to creative insight.

---

Related: Your brain’s personal trainer would give you this advice

---

Removing mental roadblocks to creativity

Generally speaking, many of us learn to over-rely on our control networks and wind up wishing we could think more creatively. In my experience, that tends to happen due to educational, cultural, and societal emphasis on analytical, logical, dispassionate thought and decision-making–all of which are extremely valuable cognitive skills, just not the only ones we need to make sense of the world and succeed. Those who’ve developed overly dominant control networks may cling to facts and talk a lot about evidence while dismissing emotional content or intuition as irrelevant or even negative.

In recent years employers have rolled out dozens of initiatives to help fuel creative thinking, but many have a fatal flaw: They’re designed expressly in order to help workers solve problems. Yet the type of mind-wandering that generates real creativity is unresponsive to clearly defined problems. That’s why many of us struggle to use hacks and exercises to jumpstart creative thinking at work; at a subconscious level, our brains’ control networks activate at the faintest suggestion that there’s a task that needs solving or an end-goal we need to achieve. It’s like having a little gremlin tapping you on the shoulder to ask, “Had a good idea yet?” every few minutes. Exactly what you don’t need.

---

Related: Feeling stuck? Here are four exercises to boost your creativity

---

Fortunately, there are a few ways to banish that gremlin from your brain in order to let your default network truly kick into gear:

• Get to a work- or task-free space. The default network thrives when you aren’t distracted, so going for a mindful walk or just sitting quietly, without the interruption of calls, emails, or members of your household, can create the perfect conditions for free association, abstraction, and creativity.
• Don’t create problems: Try not to set any objective for your mind-wandering. Free yourself up to let your imagination roam to unlikely and unexpected places, otherwise it simply won’t!
• Disrupt yourself: Add a dose of novelty to whatever task-free experience you’re using in order to activate your brain’s default network. Meet somebody outside your usual circle, try an unfamiliar workout, go to a museum exhibition on your own. Novelty helps shake the brain out of its familiar cognitive patterns, opening up opportunities to engage in new ways of thinking and being.

Of course, the control network will continue running in the background, adding a counterforce to the default network even when you’ve successfully ratcheted up activity in the latter. And that’s fine. Your brain can never be strictly creative or strictly analytical at any given moment. It’s more a matter of learning how to operate the seesaw inside your skull–rather than making it stop.

---

Dr. Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, leadership coach, author, and medical doctor. Follow her on Twitter at @TaraSwart.

Learning #Metacognition as Higher Order Thinking

PERSPECTIVES OF REALITY SERIES

Jesse Martin 

 

 

I have written in the past about the two levels of metacognition with the higher order allowing an individual to use a full suite of higher order thinking skills across any context. How is this kind of thinking achieved?

The initial consideration is to consider the maturity of the brain. Metacognition is about as abstract as it can get: thinking and understanding your own thinking along with an awareness of yourself. Because of the considerable thinking resources necessary for this kind of activity, the pre-frontal areas of the brain must be reasonably well developed. With the significant development of myelination of the frontal areas beginning at the onset of puberty with the massive release of sex hormones, trying to teach full metacognition to pre-pubescent children is akin to trying to teach a three-month-old to walk. Regardless of the admirable intentions, it simply isn’t going to happen. I find it sad that so much energy is expended in primary schools to teach this skill when the time could be so much better used to teach and reinforce basic cognitive skills. I can write this as often as I want, but only a minuscule number of practitioners who believe that this should be done will even consider it.

Lower order metacognitive thinking skills take a couple of well understood learning methods to achieve.

 

The first is to understand what you know and what you don’t know. This can be quite easily developed. Keep in mind that knowing what you know (or knowing what you don’t know) relies on a feeling that arises when something is considered.

I developed a method of both testing this and developing a person’s recognition of that feeling a number of years ago. The test involved asking general knowledge questions that we knew the subjects would be able to answer correctly about 50% of the time. In addition to asking the subjects to try to correctly answer the questions, we asked them to indicate whether or not they knew the answer or were just guessing. When testing first year university students at a reasonably selective university, we found that about 80% of the students were simply guessing as to whether they knew the answer or were just guessing.

This result was surprising. However, we soon learned that after a number of sessions (about six, one week apart) where they did the task over and over they improved their ability to recognize the feeling of knowing to about 80% correct.

We can easily (and enjoyably) teach people to learn to recognize the feeling of knowing. In fact, we found that this method worked at the older, middle child age (10 – 12).
The foundation for metacognition can be taught.

The next stage in learning metacognitive abilities is the monitoring of thought processes. This involves actively engaging in your own thought processes. Highly abstract and much more difficult than learning to recognize when you know something. By constantly reflecting on our own thought processes, we can develop basic metacognition. This basic recognition helps us to recognize aberrations in our thinking and differing states of health in both our bodies and brains. A powerful higher order thinking skill that allows to monitor ourselves on the inside and harness much of our thinking to deal with challenges that we face in the environment.
This is why I refer to basic metacognition as the most powerful higher order thinking skill that we can acquire.

Using this skill and the other higher order thinking skills still falls prey to the problem of transference. After all, metacognition is something that we learn, and we usually learn things within a given context. The problem of transference is overcome when we use what we have learned across contexts. This means that we need to monitor our thinking in whatever context we are in that requires thinking. Almost every activity we engage in. This is more difficult than simply learning the skill in the first place and takes considerable self-discipline.


Now, after considering the acquisition of basic metacognition and the challenges that this entails, ratcheting it up to the highest level of thinking is far more challenging.


The first thing that is necessary is to acquire a number of the higher-level thinking skills: critical thinking, higher order creativity, complex inductive reasoning, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, higher order reasoning, and higher order logic. This, in and of itself, is a challenge for anyone. It is difficult enough to master one of these skills, but to acquire a full suite is a long-term pursuit. In addition to that, using these skills across a variety of contexts is most difficult.


Besides creativity, by far the most difficult skill to generalize across contexts is the ability to self-correct. Self-correction is rarely seen in the wild. Self-correction occurs when an individual is willing, based on evidence alone, to change their thinking. When was the last time you witnessed an academic, politician, business person, celebrity, ideologue, or anyone else throw their hands in the air and say to the world, “I have been wrong for all this time and am, sincerely, changing the way I think.” Changing direction does not count when it is done simply for the purpose of personal gain (political, business etc.) and is usually not because of evidence.
Self-correction involves the careful weighting of evidence along with the thorough evaluation of the source of the evidence. Because we rely so much on trusted authorities to gain much of our knowledge, we need to be aware of basic research methodology – we have all heard, “Science has proven…” when careful examination of the claim reveals sham, pseudo-scientific methods that are used to promote a belief, idea, or product.

In addition, trusted sources needed to be considered for the presence of biases that taint their messages. If scientific research is sponsored by an organization, the game of trivial pursuit, that is called research today, almost guarantees that the published results are always found to be in favour of the funder – you don’t bite the hand that feeds you.


However, this does not preclude someone from holding irrational beliefs – beliefs that will not stand up to any kind of scrutiny. Such beliefs would include religious beliefs, extreme ideological beliefs, or known pseudo-scientific beliefs (extra-terrestrial kidnappings!). There is nothing wrong with holding these beliefs – I did not say that there is nothing wrong with the beliefs themselves. There is nothing wrong with holding irrational beliefs as long as there is no pretence of rationality and claims about the beliefs are not presented as rational.

Metacognition, in general, is the most powerful thinking skill that we can acquire with the higher of the two types of metacognition setting people apart as someone truly different. Not usually as a “look at me – I’m charismatically special” kind of way, but the kind of special that almost immediately engenders trust and admiration. The kind of person that can be both frightening and brilliant at the same time. This kind of person is rare, even amongst the billions of us.

Jesse Martin

Society Guru

Jesse is #8 LinkedIn Global Top Voice 2017 - Education. He is a world leader in the integration of the science of learning into formal teaching settings. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Lethbridge and Director at The Academy for the Scholarship of Learning. Huge advocate of the science of learning, he provides people with ideas about how they can use it in their classrooms. Jesse holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Wales, Bangor.

View more

#Neurofeedback: How Is It Used for Treatment?

 

Neurofeedback is effectively used to treat a wide variety of symptoms.

In my previous blogs in this series on Neurofeedback, I explain what it is and how it works. This blog is devoted to how Neurofeedback treatment is used for a wide variety of symptoms, such as anxiety, sleep problems, headaches, memory problems and ADHD along with causes relating to dysregulation of the brainwaves and/or neural hubs as seen in a Concussion, Stroke, MS, Autism,  and Parkinson Disease, as well as how it is used for Brain fitness for athletes, executives and seniors.
 
To best understand how Neurofeedback is used for treatment, one must understand how the brain functions.  The brain is made of over 100 billion neural cells and these cells are a part of a vast network of nerve connections through white matter, which includes specific neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (chemical messenger).  A complete list of these and their functions is on page 13 of Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, a book that I co-authored with Barbara Albers Hill.

It is the electrical system of the brain that allows communication between the various parts of the brain. What Neurofeedback is capable of doing is capturing the electrical signal of the brain through metal electrodes, made of either tin, silver, silver/silver chloride or gold. The electrical signals are then amplified through an amplifier and then, depending on the specific software, displayed on a computer screen. 

In 1929, Hans Berger was the first to identify and name Alpha and Beta waves, while E.D. Andria and Brian Mathews were the first to name Delta and Theta waves in 1930.  Since then, many others have identified additional waves as seen in the table below. In the illustrated table it not only shows the name and frequency.  It also provides the effects of these specific waves on brain function (see table).

 

Brain Waves, Frequency and Brain Function

Source: pg. 15, Coping with Concussion and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury by Dr. Diane Roberts Stoler and Barbara Albers Hill

The height of a brain wave is equal to the quantity of the wave, called amplitude, while the width of the wave reflects the amount of time that the cycle takes to repeat itself.  The wave’s frequency, or number of cycles per second, is the inverse of the duration of one cycle in units or hertz.

In a brain map, called Quantitative EEG (QEEG), 19 electrodes are placed on the head individually or in a special cap and either conductive past, gel or saline solutions is used with these electrodes to send the signal to the amplifier.  All 19 locations electrical signals are being recorded and provide the needed information of the amount (amplitude) of each frequency through the brain.  Along with this is provided how the various hubs communicate with one another.

As mentioned in my previous blogs, I have had brain surgery. I have a hole in my brain. I’ve described these hubs as similar to the hubs in aviation and airlines. To fly from Boston to Atlanta, you must fly to Chicago.  There isn’t a direct flight. However, Chicago doesn’t exist in my brain, it is offline. Thus, my brain had to form a new hub to Houston to get to Atlanta. The QEEG looks at each individual frequency from 1 Hz to 64 Hz; to see how to the hubs communicate and how the brain functions when your eyes are open, closed and doing specific tasks.

QEEG is not the only form of brain map, there are others use such as Loretta, which provides a 3-D view, which is similar to an MRI of the brain, while a LENS map that is done in a sequential process of the 19 leads, provides information of where the brain is stuck in a specific frequency and location.

Some providers of neurofeedback use these maps to guide them, while there are many other methods, such as NeurOptimal or the Othmer approach, that do not use specific maps. This leads to how Neurofeedback is used to treat various symptoms and results in brain rehabilitation and even brain fitness.   
There are two basic modes of Neurofeedback treatment. It is similar to buying clothing from a department store, clothing boutique or going to a tailor and having your clothing custom fitted. For the majority of symptoms, causes in brain rehabilitation and brain fitness, the standardize protocols developed by the various manufactures of Neurofeedback equipment are very effective.

Thus, if you had the standard ADD, or ADHD, you would do a protocol for increase SMR ( 13-15 hz) while decreasing Theta ( 4-8 hz ) and decreasing High Beta (20-32 hz). If you are using NeurOptimal, you would allow the brain to regulate itself without any major intervention. And for the most part these standardized methods alone as mention are very effective in changing symptoms and improving the dysregulation of the brain.

However, when you get into the causes of the various symptoms and are using only one standard protocol or equipment it is often ineffective.  The most effective methods include a combination of home use, a neurofeedback tech under the supervison of a BCI certified provider or professional with training in neuroanatomy trained in multiple methods.  

 

 In the future blogs, I will be presenting in-depth methods, various treatments, protocols and methods that are used alone and in conjunction with one another for specific symptoms and causes, such as a Concussion or Stroke to help you regain your life again.   Remember.... There is a Way!®

© 2014 Dr. Diane Roberts Stoler, Ed.D.

Diane Roberts Stoler Ed.D.

The Resilient Brain

This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your #Life

by Joe Bunting| 

I’m sure this never happens to you, but there are times when I don’t feel very creative. We just had a new baby (our second), bought a house (our first), and are now busy managing a thousand new details. All the busywork and bill paying leaves me feeling pretty dry.

But no matter how un-creative I’m feeling, there’s one creative writing exercise that never fails to fire up my writing.

Why We Need Creative Writing Exercises Like This

I’ve worked with hundreds of writers in the last five years, and I’ve found that the biggest killer of creativity is perfectionism. (Share that on Twitter?)

“This is so bad,” we think after one particularly difficult sentence. “Why would anyone read this? Why would I want to read this? I thought I was better than this. I thought I was talented. So why am I producing such crap?”

And so on…

Sometimes, writers don’t even allow themselves to go through this kind of painful monologue. Instead, they put off writing altogether, procrastinating until the very last minute, then whipping something together that may not be very good but at least it’s done!

The creative writing exercise I’m going to talk about in this post is designed specifically to combat that kind of perfectionism.

Where Does Perfectionism Come From?

Perfectionism begins with pride. “I’m so talented how could I not write the next great book? Bestseller? More like best book of the century.” (Full disclosure: this used to be me.)

Or, for the slightly less narcissistic, “I may not be the best, but I have the best idea. And what’s more, I care the most.”

Unfortunately, this kind of pride doesn’t survive “contact with the enemy”: the blank page.

I’ve watched so many writers be humiliated and completely demoralized by the process of writing.

“I never want to do this again,” they confess to me, usually when they’re about two-thirds of the way through writing their first book. “Writing is horrible. Miserable. I’m horrible! Why did I ever think it was a good idea to write this? to write at all?!”

Neither of these two postures—pride and despair—are helpful if you want to create great work.

What’s missing? What’s the secret ingredient writing in a way that both displays your natural that is both an absolute joy to write and your best possible work?

The secret ingredient is PLAY.3

That’s right, the same thing that toddlers are so good at is the keyto writing your best work.

This Writing Exercise Brings the Joy Back to Writing—Here’s How

How do you play with writing?

Two words: modernist poetry.*

Pioneered by poets like Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot, modernist poetry often makes very little sense. In fact, it can sometimes even seem like gibberish, like a Rauschenberg lithograph.

And that’s what makes it such a great exercise. Because it allows you to play with words in a way that the perfectionistic side of your brain won’t be able to stop.

5 Steps to This Writing Exercise

I’ve broken it up into five steps so simple a two-year-old could follow them:

1. First, get out a blank page. Feel free to open a new document on your computer, get out a pen or a blank piece of paper, or even whip out your old-school typewriter (the preferred method!)
2. Next, write the first word that comes to your mind. When I did this exercise this morning, the first word I thought of was “Boom.” Why not?! So I wrote it down.
3. Then, the hard part: write another word. Why is this hard? Because for this exercise to work, the second word must be random and disconnected from the first. This will completely piss off that perfectionistic little writer in your head. Do it anyway!
4. After you write the second word, write a third, fourth, and so on. After a few words, you can start a new line. It doesn’t matter where you break the line. Just do it when it feels right. And as you write, don’t forget the most important step of all…
5. PLAY. When you do this exercise, write with the sounds of words in mind, not their meaning. Try out movie/historical/song/literary references, mashing them up with gibberish rhymes (e.g. “Twain’s hammersaw is bringing me low slow like a long bow“). Make up new words. Pay attention to the sounds of words. Try to come up with the most random noun you can. Then, put it next to a list of five verbs. DON’T use punctation (unless that sounds fun to you, of course).

*I’m of course using the term modernist poetry very loosely here. Good modernist poetry is about much more than random gibberish strung together.

Embarrassing Examples of My Own Attempts at This Exercise

To give you a sense of how your poems might look, and to hopefully give you much room to improve upon, here are two of my worst attempts at this exercise (for humor’s sake, it’s best to read these aloud in the sincerest voice you can muster):

Boom story
Simple reason hides
the only response to holiness tears
and I’ll love you I’ll love you
Asparagus dream tell me I’m happy6
Bromate the worn door
Catalyst of evergreen
I’ll sing it all dusk
Thiery weeps
Allspice leaves
Kroner folder brning
Someday I’ll participate in
wishful thinking

Amazingly bad, right? Here’s the next one (I actually like this one):

bloom you folly seeking
pinwheeling song stealers
float your lilly feelings
youround a hold
and follow
the starring
problem holder

Ready to write yours? Check the practice section for today’s exercise!

Why This Creative Writing Exercise Is Genius

When you finish—after ten lines or a hundred— read your poem out loud. You’ll probably be surprised at how good it is!

That’s why this exercise is so perfect. Because when you try to write badly, you free up your creativity and end up making surprising connections.

Sure, some of your lines will be horrible, embarrassing, and never to be read again. But others will be much better than you expected.

Finally, with your new playful spirit, you’ll be able to go back to your work in progress with a new level of creativity.

How about you? Do you ever play with words? Share in the comments!

PRACTICE

Ready to try out this creative writing exercise? Use steps above to write a modernist poem. Make sure to PLAY!

When your finished with your poem, post it in the comments section. (Come on, it can’t be worse than mine!)

Have fun!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is a writer and entrepreneur. He is the author of the #1 Amazon Bestseller Let's Write a Short Story! and the co-founder of Story Cartel. You can follow him on Twitter (@joebunting).