Language games
Link du jour: Language Is A Virus, a compendium of poem-generating (and prose-generating) games. Found via the sidebar at Say Something Wonderful. I’ve been having trouble starting any new writing projects of late, and I can already see myself trying many of these experiments. For instance, these, from Bernadette Mayer’s 82 Writing Experiments:
30. Structure a poem or prose writing according to city streets, miles,
walks, drives.44. Write a soothing novel in twelve short paragraphs.
49. Attempt to speak for a day only in questions; write only in questions.
72. Write a work that intersperses love with landlords.
Or these, from Jonathan Mayhew’s 16 Writing Experiments (with apologies to Bernadette Mayer):
7. Stage elaborate contests (sestina contests, memorizing contests, rhyming contests).
12. Invent a private slang (a la Lester Young); attempt to get as
many people as you can to use the words you coin. Don’t use these words
in your writing; rather, conceive of the invention of this language as
an independent poetic activity.15. Invent an imaginary city, complete with geography, history,
architecture, prominent citizens, etc… Keep a sort of "bible" of all
the information you compile. Then write poems set in this city.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have slang to coin and soothing novels to compose.
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