9780415317856_the_routledge_creative_writing_coursebook

www.ATIBOOK.irThe routledge creative writing coursebook 90for ideas. The persona you choose may mean you need to do some research, about thecharacter, his or her background, place in history (if appropriate), culture. The followinginstructions might help you to get started:Write about what interests the persona you have chosen has. Enter his or her world,way of thinking and speaking. Listen to what he or she has to say, and write it down.Who is he or she speaking to?Your persona is remembering something—an event, long ago or recently, that had agreat impact on him or her. He or she describes it, reflects on it, and remembers it inclose detail, again with an attitude. What happened?Now your persona is looking into the future. What does he or she fear, hope for,believe will happen?Explore some or all of these directions in a poem that catches the rhythms of thisperson’s voice.Note: an exercise involving Browning’s poem appears in Rob Pope’s TextualIntervention, (Pope, 1995:15–30) as follows: ‘Translate the whole poem into aconversational idiom with which you are familiar, presenting the results on a page or at alive reading.’ You might also experiment by changing the circumstances, class, role, ageand relationship of the speaker with his ‘duchess’. For other suggested ideas aboutinterventions see Chapter 4, Exercise 3 and Chapter 6, Exercise 9.3 Narratives. You can tell a whole story, or you can just reveal important moments insomeone’s life and link them together. (Examples are: Sylvia Plath, ‘The RabbitCatcher’, Elizabeth Bishop, ‘The Burglar of Babylon, Tony Harrison, ‘Long Distance’.)If you wish, use some of the following ideas to get started:Tell the story of a person who lived in the past and who may not be very well known.Research a turning-point in his or her life. Write a poem that goes into detail and aims tore-create and visualise the events and states of mind he or she is experiencing. Tell astory of a person (real or imaginary) who is known to your readers. Choose a moment inhis or her life and show what happens; for example, when Little Red Riding Hoodcatches sight of the wolf. Angela Carter’s ‘The Company of Wolves’, in her collection ofstories The Bloody Chamber, gives her version of this encounter. See if you can catch asense of the girl’s attitude in poem form.4 Transmitters. The idea of this exercise is by focus and concentration to bring to lightnew sensations and perceptions about the world, perceptions influenced by yourunconscious fears, desires and dreams. (Examples are: Ted Hughes, ‘Pike’; Sylvia Plath,‘Cut’; Thom Gunn, ‘Hampstead, The Horse Chestnut Trees’.) The aim might be simplyto describe something—an object or scene through the window or inside a room. Tryvarious approaches—use a voice for the thing you describe, for example. It may be thatyour poem is about something else altogether—the object you chose has become ametaphor.5 Portraits. (Examples are: U.A.Fanthorpe, ‘Olive’; Philip Larkin, ‘Mr Bleaney’; Jean‘Binta’ Breeze, ‘Grandfather’s Dreams’.) Some of the following might be points fordevelopment:Describe a real or imagined meeting between you and the person concerned.Think of an object you associate with this person. Describe this object as if it were himor her.Think of something he or she often says/used to say.