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Beat The Blank Page Writing Exercise

February 2003

"A Room of Your Own"


An Example Poem       Submitted Work For This Exercise

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Instructions

  • Rooms stay in our memory - spaces where significant events occur. I want you to think of a room you once knew well but no longer have access to. Perhaps the room you slept in when you were a child, or the room you made love in for the first time.
  • Draw a sketch of that room, by which I mean a physical plan as if seen from above, rather than an artist's sketch, noting the position of doors, windows, fireplaces etc. Try and remember as much about the contents of the room as possible and add these to your sketch.
  • Spend about ten minutes on this process so that you build up a detailed sense of how that room was arranged.
  • Then turn over your piece of paper and freewrite for twenty minutes. By freewriting, I mean writing whatever comes into your head, allowing the words to flow, without trying to consciously direct them.
  • You may find yourself writing about the room you've been remembering, or memories that the room has triggered for you, or even something entirely different - don't worry about what comes out.
  • Look over your notes - have you surpirsed yourself? (always a sign that writing is going well). Do you seen any potential for developing the piece into a poem?

Purpose

  • Drawing the sketch plan helps to ground thoughts, rooting the writer back into a place and a period in their lives that was important to them. It encourages a focus on the specific and concrete.
  • The benefits of this approach can usually be seen in the second part of the exercise which often results in a rich and powerful retrieval of memory, whether the piece is about the room itself, or whether the room has simply acted as a sensory trigger.

Example Poem

The Afternoon Sun

This room, how well I know it.
Now they're renting it, and the one next to it,
as offices. The whole house has become
an office building for agents, businessmen, companies.

This room, how familiar it is.

Here, near the door, was the couch,
a Turkish carpet in front of it.
Close by, the shelf with two yellow vases.
On the right - no, opposite - a wardrobe with a mirror.
In the middle the table where he wrote
and the three big wicker chairs.
Beside the window the bed
where we made love so many times.

They must still be around somewhere, those old things.

Beside the window the bed ;
the afternoon sun used to touch half of it.

. . . One afternoon at four o'clock we separated
for a week only . . . And then -
that week became forever.

by Cavafy

 
Submitted Work For This Exercise
 
Send me your work! - I will put up the best pieces I've received inspired by each exercise. Please mark your e-mail 'A Room of Your Own Exercise'.
 
Thank you to David Keyworth for sending me his poem 'Indoor Games' inspired by this exercise. I enjoyed reading it and I'm sure others will too.
 
Other poems selected from those submitted by readers can be found on the Submitted Poems page 


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