Exercise: The Segmented Essay in Five Paragraphs
- Write a paragraph of pure description of a place you once visited. Try to appeal to all senses. Avoid interpreting or telling the reader what something means. Instead, make the prose visceral. Strive for ten to twelve sentences.
- Compose a short letter to a person who might be surprised to get a letter from you. It might be the crossing guard from your elementary school. It might be a friend you had in high school you haven't spoken to in years. It might be a relative you despise. Whatever the case may be, write a short letter to that person. Strive for six to eight sentences.
- Write a paragraph of dialogue between you and one of your parents (or some other important authority figure). The dialogue should be something from your memory that sticks out, an important moment in your life, a time that is clear demarcation between then and now. Do not interpret the dialogue; don't tell readers what it means. Just write it.
- Describe a favorite childhood toy. Use sensory language. Strive for six to eight sentences.
- Write a description of the home you grew up in from the perspective of leaving it. Write about the last time you saw it. Make you readers see the home as you saw it then, leaving. Again, do not interpret or tell your readers what to think. Strive for specificity. Avoid abstraction.
When you're finished typing (or writing) all of these paragraphs, put them away for at least twenty-four hours. Then, print out the entire document and take a pair of scissors to cut the paragraphs into five separate blocks. Working alone or (preferably) with another writer, move these blocks around, reading the essay aloud each time. Pay attention to the unintended (or perhaps intended) connections. Look for unity. Look for incongruity. Pay special attention to the silence--what you're not saying, what you might be leading up to saying. Revise the essay accordingly, writing more or less as you see fit. Keep the segments, however. That's the whole point of this exercise--to see how these images and narrative work in juxtaposition.
This is a useful exercise for mining the subconscious. You might be surprised at what you wind up with. If you find that you're happy with your work, be sure to submit it. Are you a Georgia high school student or undergraduate? Then submit your work to Pegasus!