Challenge Mode: Write using prisoners case- no letters with ascenders or descenders.
Prompt from last week: Found Names Character Sketch
Our assignment was to find a name, fictional or otherwise, and use it to create a short character sketch. The personality and traits of our character would develop solely from the name itself, and the context in which we found it. We ended up using names we found in homework articles, old books, graffiti, broken signs, and other mediums. The characters that came out of these 'found names' were varied, and most even seemed to take on some characteristics quite different from their own authors.
Teachable moment brought to you by Jenn! Restricted Writing!
This is one of Jenn's favorite techniques when she gets into a writing rut. To put it simply, restricted writing is any writing done to conform to a set of rules. A sonnet or a haiku would count as would acrostic poetry. We discussed lipograms in more specific detail. Lipograms are written by choosing to not use words that contain one or more specific letters. Jenn wrote her character sketch in this form as an example. We also discussed and read a few passages from George Perec's book A Void which dances around the letter E but never uses it. It is rarely possible to simply substitute words for synonyms when attempting a lipogram. This forces the writer to use different words and modify sentence structure as well.
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