The Midwest Writers’ Conference Day 1

One thing not so great about writers’ conferences is that they make you do silly exercises. Like this one I did in the workshop of Crescent Dragonwagon (yep, that’s her name. I took this session on “how to writer with the emergency brake off mostly because I wanted to meet the person behind the name. If you were wondering, she has red hair and wears a lot of black.)

The goal is to write your name vertically down the side of the page and then writing a few paragraphs using the letters of your name. The only rule is that you should try to have more than one word associated with each letter and it should be words that just pop in your head so you should do it fast.

K ick down to the depths of
E lephant fish and
L isten to the songs of the
S ea
E cho beyond the
Y ellows.

W ill
I return to the
L and of earthly
T reasures?

T oo many mammals
I mmerse themselves in
M an’s misfortune.
M ight we step aside and sink to
E nlightenment?
R ock bottom
M ight not appear –
N owhere.

Isn’t that just a little ridiculous? What this tells me is that I may be a deep diver, but like “many mammals immerse(ed) in man’s misfortune” I should avoid deep thinking whenever possible.

More on the rest of the conference later.