Hans Erik

Have you ever looked at clouds in the sky with a friend and been completely amazed that they couldn’t see the “turtle” floating by?  I mean, there’s it’s head, there’s it’s shell and that wisp right there is it’s tail.  Right?  But they couldn’t see it.  That’s because every one of us is a unique individual.  There has never been, nor will be, in the history of the world, someone who thinks, feels and perceives the world exactly like you.  Many beginning writers worry that they don’t have anything original to say but the truth is, you have a world inside of you that is uniquely yours and the key to that world is your senses.

Object writing is an exercise that enables you to dig deep into your senses.  It works like this:  Pick an object, at first it must be a real object, something you could touch or hold.  Then write about that object with as many of your senses as you can.  Most of the time when asked to describe something we use just one of our senses: sight.  But the purpose of this exercise is to activate all of our senses.  How does it feel?  Rough? Smooth?  How does it smell?  Does it make any noise?  What would it sound like if it were dropped? What would it taste like?  (I know that seems silly but it’s not).  And to your five senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell I’d like to add two more for you to write with.  Your sense of motion, both inside your body and out, and your sense of emotion.

Let your mind wander.  There is no where you can’t go.  The object is really just a starting point.  Pushing the shovel into the ground the first time as you begin digging into your experiences.

Example

Here’s an example of what I came up with for the word car:

A car comes sighing toward me.  Chipped radiator grill like a broken tooth grin.  Rubber tires grip the road tight.  They have to be able to haul that weight up the hill.  Probably a half- ton of steel and rubber and aluminum and plastic.  Amazing to look at a car engine running, to see all that rubber, iron and steel churning, and to think that tiny explosions are happening several times a second inside that black hunk of engine block.  All those tiny explosions adding up to enough power to send this thing up the hill by my house.  Sucking gas into itself to explode.  Drinking gas to spit exhaust.  The slight aluminum taste of exhaust in the air when a bus passes you.  A trail of bitterness in it’s wake.  Faint waves of grey smoke that choke me, my esophagus closes and I’m forced to cough just to be able to breath again, my eyes water.

How did I go from a car to choking?  Strange.  But that’s the beauty of object writing.  Its 100% you and where you’re particular experiences take you.  Let’s look at the sense information for car.

Sight:  chipped radiator grill,  black hunk of engine block, faint waves of grey smoke

Sound: sighing, churning,

Taste:  aluminum, bitterness

Touch:  (oops, didn’t quite get to that)

Smell: smoke, exhaust

Motion: grip the road tight, haul, churning, explosions, sucking gas, drinking, spit exhaust, choke me, my esophagus closes, cough, my eyes water.

Emotion:  (maybe) choke me

So there it is.  Heavy on the motion because for whatever reason my mind went with the motion of cars.  I completely left out touch which is too bad, there are a lot of textures in a car; the fabric of the seats, the smooth paint etc.  So now it’s your turn to try.  Just one rule:

10 Minutes-No More, No Less

Most people can commit to something for 10 minutes a day.  20 minutes, a half hour, that’s pushing it.  The other benefit of keeping your object writing down to 10 minutes is that an amazing thing happens when you cut yourself off in the middle of an idea.  It’s kind of like when someone turns off the stereo in the middle of a song, that song might play in your head for hours.  The same thing happens with writing.  You will be stuck in your writer’s mind for hours after, just sensing and perceiving, and by all means, write down the fragments that come to you throughout the day.

Every Object Writing should follow this format:

Good luck and many days of inspired writing to you!

• How to Write Lyrics Here's how to write lyrics that stand out and shine for the listener. Here are some tricks to grab your listener and make them want to hear every detail of your songs lyric and music.Come up with an interesting idea that all people feel. Listen to all the conversations around......
• Mining Your Metaphors: Writing Lyrics in Veins “With the jungle cats, lions and tigers, leopards and cheetahs For gazelle you get chased like a zebra, they blaze cheeba-cheeba And dominate the weaker on the street Hungry bellies only love what they eat and it's hard to compete When they smile with your heart in they teeth” -......
• 7 Lyric Writing Tips By Molly-Ann Leikin by Molly-Ann Leikin, Songwriting Consultant: I've written poems and I've written lyrics. I've learned if you can do one, you can usually do the other. As a poet, I've enjoyed the pure creative process, and the occasional publication of my work. But I've never made a dime writing a poem.......

• Psychic Doing: Vision You can also try a vision exercise. What we will look at is self directed vision. If you have a stronger sense, it makes sense to use it and use vision to supplement it if you need more clarity. So with vision...the same exercise as feeling, only different focus. Exercise:......
• How The World's Cheapest Car Is Bad For Your Wallet India's Tata Motors just unveiled its 100,000 rupee car today. According to today's exchange rate, that works out to $2,551 which makes it the world's cheapest car. Its a small car, with a 624 cc engine and seats 4 adults comfortably. (If you've ever sat in a rickshaw, you'd have......
• Modern Magic I see Carl Jung as having been an excellent scientist, a definite peer to Einstein. Though their focuses were different, their understanding of the minds role in the world was the same. Basically, they were modern wizards, and they weren’t motivated by proving their faith in the materialistic world. They......

Related posts:

1. Ways to Add Imagery to Your Lyrics
2. Tapping Into Your Musical Side – Writing Song Lyrics
3. Mining Your Metaphors: Writing Lyrics in Veins
4. Lyric Writing Tips For Natural-Sounding Lyrics
5. 7 Lyric Writing Tips By Molly-Ann Leikin