Writing prompt #63: THE POWER OF OBJECTS

Hi Everyone,

Often, we underestimate the placement and/or recurrence of evocative objects in our work.

A few years ago, Katie Blackburn—a wonderful writer and co-director of our Las Dos Brujas conference in New Mexico—shared this story about a workshop she had with the luminous Kim Barnes. Here it is, with thanks to both!

THE KNIFE

I was in Kim's workshop for the knife exercise -- and it was unforgettable. 

She actually brought a knife, a pocket knife of some sort. It was small. A paring knife would work well, too. She explained that our memories attach to concrete objects; that the furniture of the world conjures memories or stories. She also talked about how the art of storytelling began as an oral tradition. Keeping with that tradition, we took turns passing the knife around and telling a "knife story": a story that we associated with a knife from our pasts. We started by describing the concrete details of the knife. Then we told a story involving the knife. The idea was to keep the story elastic, to let it take shape through the telling.

I remember something about holding the knife, feeling the weight in my hand, that made the experience much more visceral. Some people held it; others placed the knife in front of them and stared at it while they spoke.

This took two workshop days, as I recall. There were close to 18 people in the workshop and each person took about 10 minutes to tell her story. 

The next step was to write the story. Kim encouraged us to let the story take surprising turns in the writing, to let ourselves slow down with it and see what new layers unfolded. 

She told me later that she likes to use a knife because it's a kind of violent object that helps us reach some of our most urgent material.

In the final workshop, we all read our micro-knife-essays aloud. It was pretty amazing to see what everyone came up with.

The mini-essays were drafts for most of us, though I remember some writers had close to finished pieces. It was a riveting experience.

YOUR PROMPT: Choose an object in the world of your writing that is charged with meaning, with history. Get ahold of this object, if you can, and hold it, examine it, live with it for a while. When you’re ready, slowly write what unfolds, allowing for surprises. Write a page or two to start.

Have fun!

Abrazos,

Cristina