A Crystal Ball of Creativity is inside us waiting to be
unleashed!
What new poem from this challenge is in YOUR future?
Cut-up creative writing essentially involves physically cutting up and rearranging an existing piece of writing into new creative forms. It can be a piece of your own writing, or someone else's.
For this exercise we will use a Chapter 4 excerpt from
Joseph Sheridan le Fanu’s novella Carmilla (1872) about the predatory love of a vampire (the title character) for a young woman (the narrator), and turn your cut up writing exercise
into a new poem. The excerpt is as follows:
Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure, renewed again and again; blushing softly, gazing in my face with languid and burning eyes, and breathing so fast that her dress rose and fell with the tumultuous respiration. It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, 'You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever'.
*** PLEASE NOTE – the words “ ardour ” and “ travelled ” are as they appeared in the 1872 novella. If you choose to use these words in your “ new ” poem, you can change the spelling then. ***
WHAT YOU ARE TO CREATE:
You are to create a 10 to 20-line poem of rhyme or free verse from the cut up words.
STIPULATIONS:
1} One-way to do this and tis fun is to print this excerpt out and cut out each word separately and mix up the cut up pieces up all the words. Pick a few words at random from your cut-up pile and begin to piece them together to form new phrases or lines. Don't worry about the original piece of writing; simply go with the ideas you get from choosing the words in this random way.
2} Continue to take one word at a time from the cut-up pile and add to your new piece of writing. See if you can use ALL the cut-up words and place them together in a way that forms a new piece of creative writing for a real challenge. However, it is NOT MADITORY to use ALL the words. If there are a few words you don't feel fit in, just leave them out.
3} You also can write the excerpt on paper and cross out words as you go. I prefer to do the cut up technique to really get into it and have a little fun with it.
FOUR IMPORTANT RULES TO FOLLOW:
1} YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE ALL THE WORDS!
2} IF THERE ARE WORDS YOU DO NOT FEEL FIT IN, JUST LEAVE THEM OUT.
3} YOU DO HAVE TO USE ONLY THE WORDS FROM THE NOVELLA EXCERPT!
4} YOU CANNOT ADD ANY ADDITIONAL WORDS OF YOUR OWN AT ALL!!!!!!!
REFLECTION:
WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR “NEW” POEM, read back your finished piece. How does it relate to the original piece (if at all)? How did your own thoughts and ideas influence how the new piece came together?
I hope you got some benefit from the exercise. Feel free to experiment and try different ways of approaching it. Being creative is all about finding new connections and new possibilities and seeing and describing things in ways, you haven't done before... and don't forget to have fun and enjoy your writing!!
tehehehe
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