Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can
hear and the blind can see.”
Mark
Twain
Begin a journal for word ideas to build a
sensory vocabulary based on connecting. Here are a few suggestions to get
started.
Color Exercise
Choose any color. Do a five to ten minute
free write on anything that comes to mind for that color whether cliché or not.
Remember to include phrases that are already used in common language like
yellowbelly or red-eye.
Now look back
at your own list. Which references are literal and which are figurative? What
categories can you place your connections in? What areas are missing? Can you
add to them?
Sensory Vocabulary
Do the same as above but use a different sense
to develop a list. In a workshop I once took with author Ethel Herr, she
suggested choosing a different sense per day and paying close attention to just
it. So on Monday notice everything you smell. On Tuesday touch, Wednesday
taste, Thursday hear, Friday see.
Then next to each word on each list expand.
Did something smell rotten? As I shared earlier was it rotten like an egg, a
sewer, or a dead fish? What distinguishes each ‘rotten’ smell?
Repeat for any words that you want to develop
more depth.
Action Steps:
1.
From
each sense category take one of your own experience examples and then assume
that a person does not have the ability to identify with that sense, either
always or for that particular situation. For example, a cave might be so dark
it is impossible to see without light, or a person might be blind.
2.
Make
a list of ways for your character to experience the same emotional response you
had but through different types of connections.
Share: Which was the most difficult
category to find a substitute connection for?
Read deep, marcy
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