7/31/14

7/27/14

Daily Notebooking Exercise July 27, 2014

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July 27: Wordbank Day! Everyone loves wordbank day! Like finding the marble in the kiddie pool of oatmeal, we're all lucky today. If you're new to wordbank day, there will be a few sources provided and you just pick ten of your favorite somewhat out of the ordinary options, write them down in your...

7/26/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 26, 2014

   
July 26: The Wayback Machine. Today we'll look at the ghost of internet past. I have a feeling this one will be recurring. Using the internet archive visit a website from your early internet browsing days. Whether you're browsing the IMDB or the CERN websites, or YTMND or DListed. Using material...

7/25/14

7/24/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise: July 24, 2014

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July 24: Narrative Day! Today work with one of the following narrative threads and form a story or poem around it. 1) In the deep shadows where the trees grew close an evil lurked... 2) King of the hill for a plastic tiara 3) Begin with opening your eyes, and reveal (only very slowly) that you are...

7/23/14

Daily Notebooking Exercise: July 23,2014

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July 23: From A to Zagajewski Today we'll look at the structure that Adam Zagajewski, an excellent Polish poet, used in his poem "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" and use that as a jumping off point for a piece of your own. Begin the poem or flash fiction piece with the phrase "Try to praise _________"....

7/22/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 22, 2014

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July 22: A Look Back. If you've been notebooking along, today look back through your wordbanks and pick five words you hadn't earlier explored. If you're new to notebooking writing exercises, look through posts with the tag Wordbank and find five interesting words from the posts. 1) Write two sentences...

7/21/14

7/20/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 20, 2014

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July 20: Narrative day! Today we'll work with short narrative pieces based on one of the following prompts: 1) Walking to your car you notice something peculiar on the ground which is vastly more important than you first realize 2) Picking up recycling at a local park (good Samaritan that you are--or...

7/19/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 19, 2014

   
July 19: Calque day! What's a calque you say? Essentially it's a linguistic term for a loan phrase from another language that is directly translated. Some of them sound a little off when you really look at the individual words, for instance, Flea Market come from the french term for "Market with fleas"...

7/18/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 18, 2014

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July 18: Wordbank day! Everyone loves wordbank day. Today we'll use a mix of synonyms and antonyms for: Pivot, Escalate, Progress, Betray, Harm. Pick ten words from the links for today's wordbank. As always, follow the rabbithole of internet researching for any unique choices so you fully know their...

7/17/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 17, 2014

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July 17: Picture yourself. Today do a google search (not bing, we're looking for results here) for your first name followed by the word painting. Click to view all the images and look for an interesting picture. For more unusual names it may be a little easier to find an interesting painting. If you...

7/16/14

Be Wary Citizens: Cincinnati Review contest deadline extended until July 22

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There's really not too much to say other than that. Here is a link to the details about the contest, every $20 entry entitles you to a year subscription to The Cincinnati Review. Give it a whirl and get some great reading material delivered to your door for your troubl...

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 16, 2014

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July 16: You've got a little Ekphrasis on your lip there. Today we're going to look at a selection of photographs of unusual architecture by artist Filip Dujardin and imagine what it would be like to live or work in one of these buildings. For added fun, live in one and work in another. Bonus...

7/15/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 15, 2014

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July 15: Word Bank Day! Everyone's favorite. Look through the links for the following words and build a list of ten not-quite-everyday sort of words. Definitely look up the words, do a google search for them, find any alternate meanings, histories, whatever might be an interesting rabbit hole. To use...

7/14/14

7/13/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 13, 2014

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July 13: Wordbank day! Today we'll look at synonyms for some commonplace words that we might use to spice up everyday situations (which sounds like a cover story on Cosmo). 1) Find ten or more words that are interesting or that stick out to you from these links: Suggest Think Attend Sticky  Dark As...

7/12/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 12, 2014

   
July 12: Trivia day! Today we'll look at a short list of interesting facts posted around Thanksgiving time last year on The Huffington Post. Things like "The word 'time' is the most commonly used noun in English" or "An 'earworm' is a song that gets stuck in your head." Also check out this list from...

7/11/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 11, 2014

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July 11: Narrative exercise day! Today we'll deal with one of three scenarios in some way. 1) You're printing something important and your printer's ink has just started going out. 2) Lighting off fireworks on the Fourth of July, one begins wobbling when the person lighting it runs away, and it tips...

7/10/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 10, 2014

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July 10: Narrative day! Pick one of the following narrative threads and expand on it as you like, whether you end at the prompt, begin there, mesh more than one together, stick to a lyric interpretation, write a series of  tweet-length rhyming rants about the valuelessness of said prompts, whatever...

7/9/14

Know Your Literary Journals: Chaffin Journal

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The Chaffin Journal is the literary review of Eastern Kentucky University. Perfect bound with a glossy cover (not like, crazy slick, but not super matte or desktop printed). Here is an example of poetry they've chosen...

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 9, 2014

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July 9: Rhymebank time! Today we'll be building our wordbank not based on the thesaurus but with a rhymebank. I have a little system I like to use, where I write the alphabet very small in the top corner of the paper and then use that as I'm going through trying to think of rhymes. I feel that testing...

7/8/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 8, 2014

   
July 8: Random name generator day! Today's exercise utilize Cornelius Zappencackler's Derange-o-Lab Pulp Sci-Fi Title-o-Tron to find a number of unusual combinations of words. They don't necessarily have to be used as a title, or in their entirety (some can be long) but write down at least ten word...

7/7/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 7, 2014

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July 7: Zigzag is, in my opinion a great word. First of all, two non-sequential Z's. But also add to our word bank zigzag's synonyms: jagged, oblique, diagonal, serrated, snaking, undulating. Now take a look at Scott Kreeger's amazing short story "Zigzag. Yeah." which was published in the New...

7/6/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 6, 2014

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July 6: Wordbank day! Having a good reservoir of unique words that you're familiar with is very helpful when you're looking for something to spark your brain along some creative path. Today look through synonyms (and antonyms) for: shudder, slide, anchor, and enhance. 1) Pick out at least ten words...

7/5/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 5, 2014

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July 5: Today we'll look at artwork by an amazing artist couple Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison. They have a large body of work and it is tremendous stuff. Fine art darkroom manipulation as opposed to photoshop wizardry, these artists make work which place the human subject in a surreal landscape, or...

7/4/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 4, 2014

   
July 4: Happy Fourth of July! Today think about Americana, the good the bad the fun the disgusting. Pick a few things that you associate with America and either recall an experience you had with it, or imagine one. If you're imagining something, make it something wild or at least unexpected. A few...

7/3/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 3, 2014

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July 3: Wordbank day! Today we'll be looking specifically at action words. 1) Get at least 10-20 words from some of your favorite action's synonyms, try grab, smack, lift, push, yank, spin and catch as a basis if you can't think of any others. We're looking for words that aren't absurd necessarily,...

7/2/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 2, 2014

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July 2: Today we'll look at a short poem by William Carlos Williams called "The Hurricane". Don't feel like you have to write poetry here, any sort of response is just dandy. The Hurricane"       by William Carlos Williams The tree lay down on the garage roof and stretched, You have...

7/1/14

Notebooking Daily Exercise July 1, 2014

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July 1: Today we'll build a small wordbank of interesting color words first, then exercise briefly. 1) Go to the thesaurus and find at least ten slightly (or quite) unusual or interesting words from the lists for: Red, Brown, and Purple. 2) Write ten phrases, lines or sentences utilizing at...