“Construct a poem as if the words were three-dimensional objects to be handled in space. Print them on large cards or bricks if necessary.” – Writing Experiments by Bernadette Mayer
Bernadette Mayer’s Writing Experiments
* Invent a new form.
* Make a pattern of repetitions.
* Do experiments with sensory memory: record all sense images that remain from breakfast, study which senses engage you, escape you.
* Meditate on a word, sound or list of ideas before beginning to write.
* Write what cannot be written; for example, compose an index.
* The possibilities of synesthesia in relation to language and words: the word and the letter as sensations, colors evoked by letters, sensations caused by the sound of a word as apart from its meaning, etc. And the effect of this phenomenon on you; for example, write in the water, on a moving vehicle.
* Eliminate material systematically from a piece of your own writing until it is “ultimately” reduced, or, read or write it backwards, line by line or word by word. Read a novel backwards.
* Attempt tape recorder work, that is, recording without a text, perhaps at specific times.
* Get someone to write for you, pretending they are you.
* Attempt to speak for a day only in questions; write only in questions.
* Exercises in style: Write twenty-five or more different versions of one event.
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