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take the topic you want to develop and write the word in the middle of the page and circle it. Then every word association that comes to your mind, you write down in a web fashion as quickly as possible. Circle each entry and connect it to the other circled words with a line. You do not question the words as they come tumbling out.
Some sources suggest you set a time limit of 10 or 20 minutes and stay with it even when you think you have exhausted all words in 2-3 minutes. (One source recommends 30 minutes.) You will get past that dry period and come up with less obvious but more creative words if you stay with it.
Some people are reluctant to do the webbing, and when they do try, they omit the circles around the words. When I was first asked to try this clustering, I was similarly very reluctant; the old left brain training again. Somehow the whole exercise smacked of kindergarten and I felt I was far too sophisticated.
But I had paid my money, and before taking the course I had decided to try every suggestion that was offered since I could simply discard the useless when the course was finished. I was surprised to find that I learned a great deal, and one of the best methods of getting content was the clustering.
Circling the words creates a more pictorial landscape that nourishes the growth of the bright original ideas from the right side of the brain by tricking your mind into thinking the words are really whole ideas, pictures, while repressing the creativity-squashing activity of the left side of the brain.
Criticism stops the flow of new ideas or the growth of ideas. So many people can’t get started, sabotaging themselves after the first few words – “that is no good, that’s dumb, that probably isn’t what he/she wants.” And they crumple the paper and dramatically chuck the few words into the basket.
We are so used to self-criticism that this process of clustering is almost mandatory to those people brought up to be sensible and reasonable, being trained to discard the frivolous in their lives. By getting past your ‘silly’ you tap into the creative. Inspiration and invention spring from unfathomable sources.
After you have exhausted the creative and start to sort out the useful material, you may have a lot that is just useless, but you will also have some surprisingly good stuff. Look at all the words and phrases that provoke any surge of interest, an emotion, a smile or a sorrow. Then you can do another cluster on that one topic and write a paragraph or more on it.
One student simply rewrote each circled entry from the cluster into prose form without any adjustments and it was amazingly beautiful.
The prime element in this getting content is to let the ideas flow freely, getting them all down on the paper before editing, checking the spelling or otherwise imposing any left brain braking of the creativity. The continued practice of letting the words come will provide a sort of training in your self-expression. Style, after all, is simply the most truthful expression of one’s own personality.
Controlling The words
Having generated content, there are several exercises that help you learn to control the words for effective purposes.
The Art of the Particular
Using words for their maximum benefit is to develop the poetry in your writing, and poetry is the art of the particular. You look for the concrete specific word that says precisely what you see, feel, know… No other word will do.
For instance, looking out of the window of this cabin, I could write, “The seagulls are flying without moving forward above the stormy water.”
What would stormy water look like? If you were reading stormy water you would have to fall back on your memory of what stormy water looked like the last time you saw it. Or you would conjure some fictional account or a Turner painting would come to mind. Just saying stormy water does not show the reader what you see. Obviously it is not smooth, glassine or rolling gently or blue or blinding the eyes with reflected sun-light. What exactly is it?
You have to look for the honesty in the words so that the picture you create with the words you choose will create the same picture in the reader’s mind.
By using fuzzy words, stormy water, the writing fails and does not do the work for the reader. In ten years, you won’t remember what that stormy water looked like and the writing is boring and dull.
So looking again at the stormy water (which I have been doing for two days) I carefully look at the water and try to choose the words with the most nourishment to Show the water.
Sharp white-peaked waves surge
on cold gun-metal water
gulls hang in the wind.
So the writer must show the water not tell us about it. Train the eye and the mind to look at the details avoiding all general terms such as a nice day, had a good time, etc.
This little poem about the stormy water is a Haiku, and writing Haikus is excellent practice in word discipline. It is an old poetic form originated in Japan consisting of only three lines, the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables. Each line answers one of the three questions, where, what, and when? In Japan there is always a seasonal reference to Haiku
Long-necked geese fly low (what)
Over bumpy lines of kelp (where)
Cold sun on grey waves. (when)
The structure of the Haiku is based on the fact that one can say 17 syllables in one breath. When you look at a sunset across the water and the mauves and reds light fire in the west, you try to breathe it in. You fill your chest with the magnificence of the sight and try to inhale the beauty. This is an attempt to capture the ‘aweness’ of the spectacle. That spectacle can be a beautiful sight, a thrill, a new sensation or the sudden appreciation of a previously unnoticed sensation. It is a moment of wonder in your life.
This is what the Haiku tries to capture, that moment of wonder, that sense of awe that is so fleeting. The North American application of the Haiku is less rigid and we often do not use natural subjects as the Japanese do.
Yellow flowers wilt
In the people-filled office
After four o’clock.
Look around and see something that is awesome. Write it down in lists or a cluster. As in all poetry you keep to the nouns as much as possible, omitting as many transitions, adverbs and adjectives as you can. Choose the best and follow the form of the poem.
Capturing the awesome experience is also the basis of a journal or a blog; capturing the wonder of your life. And the horrible and the ugly and the huge pains, sorrows and griefs are as much a part of the wonder of life as the sunsets and the celebrations.
Ultimately, you want to use the ability to expand or condense your writing to precisely suit the occasion. You need this interchangeable flexibility, and this skill is very satisfying.
Look at “the speech was tiresome.”
What made it so?
Was it the stuffy hall, the vagueness of the speech, the monotonous tone of the speaker, the recycled content?
When we are very small, a tree is a blocky circle on top of two parallel lines.
As we get older, we notice the difference between an evergreen tree and other trees, and the element of comparison is introduced.
Then as we get older still, we learn about more types of trees, the cedar trees that give one a rash, the deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the winter like the chestnut tree, the pine tree that costs more at Christmas,