First Day Exercise

We started off the semester last night with an in-class "descriptive immersion" assignment, which I've posted below. We only had time to hear from a few people during the workshop period, but I was encouraged by the sensory details that drove some of the work presented. I was also pleased to find that a handful of people in the class were willing to discuss what they heard and provide critical feedback. These two things -- descriptive detail and critical feedback -- are going to be our focus for the first part of the semester.

First Day Exercise

Look around the room: observe the people around you, very closely. Get up and walk around the room, keep looking. Keep looking until you notice some small, unique detail about one of your classmates—a gesture, a feature, a facial expression, an element of dress, a belonging—that tells you something about that person. Not an overall impression, but a singular detail. Not something that interests you (cool shoes, nice sweater) but something that tells you about the individual person you’re observing. Not something obvious (that t-shirt means he listens to the Wu Tang Clan) but something subtle, something quiet—something no one else will notice. All writing is detective work.

Take a few notes. If you are focusing on someone’s clothing or belongings, pay special attention to patterns of use and wear—the features that make an object different than the same object would be if it were owned by someone else. Note the size, shape, color, and placement of objects, their newness or oldness, and the precise details that let you know whether they’re new or old. Look again. If you are focusing about someone’s facial expression or gestures, try to describe them as they are—don’t write what you think they mean. (“She looks grouchy” is a judgment, not a detail. What about her looks grouchy?) Don’t write anything about what you think anything means.

Now write down what you’ve seen in two or three sentences, choosing your words carefully and using them as precisely as you can. Try to write in a way that will let your reader “see” exactly what you’ve seen. Remember, the “meaning” of a piece of writing is what happens when the reader reads—it’s not what the writer meant to say, but what is on the page.

Be prepared to share your work with the class.