Larry M. Coleman

One of the more interesting things about starting grad school has been being forced to do writing exercises. When I come across one in a book (and writing books seem to be required by law to have at least one at the end of every chapter), I think, “Yeah, no, not doing that.” It’s for the same reason that I don’t do writing prompts: I already have more things to write about than I’ll ever have time to get to. I don’t need an exercise to give me even more.

But when you’re in class for a grade, “Yeah, no,” isn’t an option, and I’ve actually found many of them more useful than I thought. But this week, we did one in class that I like so much I’m putting it down here so I can refer to it in the future. I think it will help you look at your writing in a different way, too, which is really what Fiction Inspiration Fridays is all about.

It takes less than 15 minutes, but it’s something I wish I’d heard about when I had to come up with a pitch for my first novel. I’m going to rewrite my pitch using this exercise soon. I don’t know where the exercise came from, and I don’t know if it has a name, but I call it the “Pink Elephant” because of its surprising effect at the last stage.

So, here goes. To set up, do this with a piece of paper and a pen/pencil. Don’t do this one at a keyboard. You’ll see why in the second step.

First, set a timer for 3-4 minutes. No more. Then come up with the 10 words that best describe the ideas in piece you’re working on, which for me is The Wind and the Shore, the book I’m writing specifically for Harvard. You don’t want to give yourself more than a few minutes. You want to be pressured to find the ones that stand out the most, which should be the ones that come to mind first.

Second, take that list of 10 and organize them in any manner that seems logical to you. It could be a chain, a branching tree, a Venn diagram, a cloud, whatever. 3-4 minutes

Third, take those 10 and write a single sentence with all of them in it. 3-4 minutes

Finally, write a sentence that describes just as much but uses none of the words. 3-4 minutes

Total time: 12-16 minutes

Here’s how mine came out:

My result for the second step was a sort of diagram where the setting is at the core, then the two characters’ big attributes rested on that, then the themes they shared revolved around that shell in a clockwise fashion. Like I said, yours can look like anything that makes sense to you. No one else has to see it.

The magic happens in the fourth step. When you can’t use any of the words, you have to look at it from a different angle. You have to be less lazy, and that little bit of extra mental energy repays you tenfold. The third step was a regular pitch, where as the fourth one was a pitch I wish I’d written.

That’s why I call this what I do: when someone tells you not to think of a pink elephant, naturally the first thing that pops into your head in a pink elephant. In this case, not being able to use the main words made the sense of the book clearer than it would have been.

Try it out. I think you’ll find the results worth it, and I say that as someone who usually hates exercises. Enjoy, and happy writing!