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A creative friend of mine
(okay, fellow writer and Pencil Tips
blogger Jacqueline Jules) suggested I share some writing prompts from a book of
mine, My Best Friend, the Atlantic Ocean
and Other Great Bodies Standing Between Me and My Life With Giulio, a novel premised upon a high school freshman’s poetry journal
from her English class. (Did I really just describe the book in fewer words
than make up the title?) So, here are a few ideas from the missives of my
protagonista, Delia:
Describing her teacher’s
efforts to get his somewhat “blocked” students to produce SOMETHING, Delia
writes, “He told us we should not feel ‘constrained’ by trying to make our
poetry ‘fit into a structure’ as we write it. That to become good writers we
need to ‘release the words and let them flap about on the winds of our
creativity.’ He says the best writing comes from free writing about anything
that inspires, and that later we can edit the writing down to its most ‘vital
essence.’ And that, he says, will result in good poetry.” Delia responds well
to this and has much fun with “flapping words.”
In other journal entries,
Delia writes about how the teacher has the students using some unlikely sources
for poetic inspiration, such as cellphones. He has them write out their text
messages: “so boi wut up?” one student offers as a first line, noticing a
similarity to rap or “fly” when he sees his texts set up as verse. The students
also get an assignment to look to popular media, specifically advertising, to
find uses of poetic devices. When one student passes a note calling the whole
idea bogus, sarcastic Delia responds in her journal: “Read zines and watch the
tube for homework? Yeah, sounds awful.”
There are other ideas that
could be plucked from this short novel, so you may want
to give it a read. Admittedly, looking to fiction for teaching ideas is sort of
like asking a cartoon character for advice, but, hey, whatever works! Lots of
libraries carry this book (and its prequel, which also has a ridiculously long
title, much to the chagrin of librarians who have to catalog the things), and a
BN or Amazon search should turn up cheapo used copies, far-too-expensive new
ones, and reasonably-priced eBooks. I’ve yet to see a person reading these
books without at least a few snorts of laughter, so you can always pass your
copy along to a kid in need of a smile. (And I’m happy, always, to answer
readers’ questions. There is an email link on my website.)
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