Word by Word

A new writing exercise for a new year. This one is all about taking it slow and was inspired by Amy Hempel. Invite a few friends to join you, and when you’re done send copies of your work to each other via snail mail, also slow!

I’ve been a fan of Amy Hempel’s for a long time, not just her fiction but also what she has to say about writing. I’ve been carrying this quote around with me since I first read her Paris Review Interview.

Writing conducted at the sentence level has always made perfect sense to me….There’s no method. There’s no formula. If you really proceed a sentence at a time, if you pay attention to the sentence you just wrote and look to it for the clue for what to do to the next sentence, you can inch your way along to what may be the story.

The Exercise

Start by choosing a noun and a verb from the lists below. Construct a sentence or a line of poetry around these two words. Let the next sentence, or line, be informed by the one that comes before it.

Take risks. Don’t self-censor. Continue, word by word, sentence by sentence, or line by line. Write slowly, carefully. This exercise is the opposite of free-writing.

Noun choices

• day
• year
• decade

Verb choices

• add
• subtract
• multiply