IRT at Home: Writing with James

Join IRT at Home for a week of writing with IRT's Playwright-in-Residence James Still! Watch an introductory video from James on our Facebook page and below you can find the prompts. Check back each morning this week for a new prompt, and feel free to share your thoughts as a Facebook comment or email our Marketing Communications Manager Kerry Barmann at kbarmann@irtlive.com to have your responses included on our blog next week. Enjoy!

***



DAY ONE
Hello! and welcome to IRT at Home and our first of five days of “Writing with James”. I’m glad you’re here and hope you’ll check in each day and do a little bit of writing as a way to engage, reflect, and have fun. Wait! Writing — fun? Yep, that’s the goal. Let’s approach these short writing exercises as opportunities to check in with ourselves, to be surprised, and to connect (virtually) with the IRT community.
As I said in the introduction video, these daily prompts are suggestions to help you write what you otherwise might not unleash. Give it a try (and try again) and go with it. I don’t have a lot of “rules” about writing that I’m going to impose here but I will suggest a few things to consider.
1. Don’t edit before your create.
In other words — don’t judge yourself in the process. There is plenty of time to criticize your writing. Enjoy the freedom of writing in the moment.
2 Breathe.
Seriously. Don’t forget to breathe. Are your toes clinched, is your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth? Let it go.
3. Be generous with yourself.
What else? Maybe you want to write in a notebook by longhand. Maybe you’re someone who prefers to write on a keyboard. Maybe you’re someone who thinks on your feet and would rather speak your writing into a recording device. That’s up to you. Be inventive. Be curious. Be present.
Today I want to write about TASTE.
I’m a lover of lists. You might begin by simply making a list of foods that you love (and foods that you hate). And as you’re making the list, you might remember something that happened connected to one of those foods like a specific family dinner, or watching your grandma make her famous cherry pie, or a potluck dinner where someone told you a shocking secret while you were sampling the most delicious quinoa salad ever made. For the young people out there, maybe your list of food reminds you of a school lunch and something that happened during that time — breaking up or getting together, a fight, a new friend. Or maybe it’s the story of a certain birthday that begins with the taste of birthday cake.
So TELL ME ABOUT TASTE. Tell me about foods that taste good, foods that taste bad. And tell me the story behind the story. Write from memory and write from imagined memory. Maybe you’re writing about something that really happened and maybe that evolves into a story of its own making.
Want to challenge yourself more?
Tell me how love tastes. Tell me how fear tastes. Tell me what’s delicious about winning an argument. Tell me how writing tastes.
Remember: you can write in any form. Write about TASTE as a poem, or a song, or a monologue. Write a short (or long) play about TASTE. Write autobiographically or make it all up. Tell me the story behind the story.
What tastes good, what leaves a bad taste in your mouth (literally? metaphorically?). What taste do you miss?
Don’t edit before you create. Breathe. Be generous with yourself.
TELL ME ABOUT HOW IT TASTES.

***

DAY TWO
Hello! and welcome back to IRT at Home and our second of five days of “Writing with James”. I’m glad you’re here.
For anyone who participated in yesterday’s writing, you might begin today by looking over what you wrote about TASTE. Read through it (I like to read aloud) and make a circle around any word or phrase that jumps out at you — something that intrigues you, something that you might want to know more about. Make notes in the margin. Draw a picture. Maybe your writing triggers other thoughts, ideas, feelings. Write it all down.
Today I want to write about stories we make up based on what we SEE. We are bombarded every day with images — sometimes those images are things we see out in the world, sometimes they are images of things we see on the screen of a device, sometimes they are images that haunt us in our dreams. Imagery is powerful because like a painting or a dance, it’s up to us to make meaning out of what we see. In other words, we’re making up stories all the time. We’re wired to make stories. Today I want to focus on that instinct to make meaning out of what we see and express that in our own writing. You know the old saying: a picture paints a thousand words. Today try and write a thousand words!
WHAT YOU’LL NEED: a photograph. This might be a family photograph, or something you find in a magazine, or an image from the internet. I urge you to choose a photograph that features a person. And it’s probably best if you don’t know that person. Don’t overthink the choice of a photograph. Choose two or three if that eases your worry about getting it right.

Got your photograph? Great. Now let’s look at the person in the photograph. What do you see? What are they trying to tell you? Listen to what they want to tell you. If there’s more than one person in the photograph, focus on one person in particular. What’s special about them? TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE. Where are they? Do they want to be there? What does the person’s expression tell you about how they feel? Can you look at the photograph and imagine what might have happened just before the photograph was taken? How did the day begin? What’s going to happen AFTER the photograph was taken? What is the person thinking about? What did they have for breakfast (and what did it TASTE like?). Does this person have a secret? Is there something special about this day the photograph was taken? What do they want to tell you? What are they good at? What makes them jealous? What makes them laugh?
Challenge yourself to write this in the voice of the person in the photograph. Write it as a monologue, first-person, give them their voice, let them tell their story.
Look closely at the photograph. Look again. Don’t edit before you create. Breathe. Be generous with yourself.
TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE.

***

DAY THREE
Hello! and welcome back to IRT at Home and our third of five days of “Writing with James”. I’m glad you’re here.
For anyone who participated in the past couple of days of writing, you might begin today by looking over what you wrote about TASTE or SEEING. Read through either or both (I like to read aloud) and make a circle around any word or phrase that jumps out at you — something that intrigues you, something that you might want to know more about. Make notes in the margin. Draw a picture. Maybe your writing triggers other thoughts, ideas, feelings. Write it all down. You think you’ll remember — you probably won’t. How many good ideas and stories are forgotten? Especially because stories rarely come fully formed which means that often we’re gathering fragments of stories, it’s a slow reveal… make notes. Scribble.
We never know what might inspire us, how we might be moved to write based on something that happens. Sometimes we’re inspired by the memory of taste. Sometimes it’s something we see. Today I want to explore story through things we hear.
As a warmup today, I encourage you to close your eyes and listen. Wherever you are — just listen to whatever sounds you might hear. The rattle of an air conditioner, a TV blaring in another room, someone singing opera from a neighbor’s window, a baby crying, a dog barking… or just the hum of the world. TELL ME WHAT YOU HEAR. Write it down. Practice listening. Write some more.
Now I want to use that skill — your ability to listen — and I want to think about overheard conversations and how that might be a springboard for story. If you’re like me and sheltering in place, it might be a difficult time to go out into the world and be an eavesdropper. Maybe there’s a conversation you remember overhearing you can draw on. Or maybe you open a book you have at home to a random page and borrow a couple lines of dialogue. Or maybe you want to use the following bits of conversation that I recently overheard:
A: Did you hear that?
B: What?
A: Shhhhh.
B: I don’t hear anything.
A: XXXXXXXX
B: XXXXXXXX
continue dialogue
Try and write at least 10 lines of dialogue for Characters “A” and “B”. Maybe you give names to them so that “A” is “Annie” and “B” is “Bobby”.
Do they know each other? If they do, how does that change the story that’s evolving out of the overheard dialogue? And if they DON’T know each other, would you need to rewrite the dialogue?
Here’s another twist: what if “A” or “B” is the same character from yesterday’s exercise where we looked at a photograph and you wrote a monologue in that character’s voice. What if that same character from the photograph is in this scene that begins “Did you hear that?”
How does the scene change if you add more punctuation and suggest that one of them whispers:
A: Did you hear that???
B: What --
A: Shhhhh….
B: (whispering) I don’t hear anything.
A: XXXXXXX
B: XXXXXXX
How does that change the scene? Does it change the story or only the way they TELL the story? Let it surprise you.
Do a third version and make more changes. You might enjoy the ways story can change simply by altering or cutting a word. What if you change the order of the dialogue? Or what if one of your characters starts sobbing (or laughing) in the middle of the scene… what happens next?
Don’t edit before you create. Breathe. Be generous with yourself.
TELL ME WHAT YOU HEAR.

​***
​
DAY FOUR
Hello! and welcome back to IRT at Home and our fourth of five days of “Writing with James”.  I’m glad you’re here.  How are you?  How are you feeling about writing?  Can you find ways to look forward to it rather than only feeling dread?  There’s no question that for me writing is a learned discipline, something I return to day after day as a practice.  It’s also a kind of meditation, a way to dance with all the feelings I’m having on any given day.  So… let’s dance!

For anyone who has been participating in this week’s writing, you might begin today by looking over what you’ve written wrote about TASTE, SEEING and HEARING.  Read through it (I like to read aloud) and make a circle around any word or phrase that jumps out at you — something that intrigues you, something that you might want to know more about.  Make notes in the margin.  Draw a picture.  Maybe your writing triggers other thoughts, ideas, feelings.  Write it all down.

If you’re following along, you’ve probably figured out that there’s a theme to our writing this week.  While there’s a lot to be said for surprise, I’m going to stick with my plan here and continue our exploration of story by writing through our five senses.  Today I want you to TELL ME ABOUT TOUCH.

Touch is both subtle and basic.  Touch is associated with our skin, and skin is the largest sense organ — it’s not in a specific place but is the entire body.  It also covers the extremes from hot to cold, from wet to dry, from smooth to rough, from soft to hard… and everything in between.  Think about the difference of being hugged and being slapped — both are a kind of touch but the feelings that follow are probably very different from one another.

Quick warm-up:  close your eyes and simply run your fingers along your arm.  How do you describe the sensations?  Keeping your eyes closed, lightly rub your hands together and note the sensations (and the STORY of the sensations).  Now rub your hands together more vigorously.  How does that change the feeling?  How does that change the story?  With your eyes closed, tap your fingers on your forehead, on the top of your head… does it make you think about RAIN?  Does rain make you think about a story?  Open your eyes and make some notes, scribble some thoughts.  TELL ME ABOUT TOUCH.

Here’s a reason to love the English language.  TOUCH is one of the five senses.  But BEING touched can mean a couple different things as well.  When we’re moved by something or someone, we might say that we’re touched; or when we feel gratitude we might say it was touching.  And we use the word “touched” to describe someone who seems a little mad or unhinged.  There’s also a religious and spiritual connotation to being touched.  It turns out that TOUCH is a complex word which makes sense given how complex the sensation can be.

Let’s do some free writing today about a time when something or someone touched you, a time when you were moved by something:  generosity, a piece of art, an experience that made you feel grateful for being alive.  Maybe it’s something your partner did or said, or something your child did or said, or something a parent or grandparent did or said… or maybe it’s a doctor who saved your life.  Maybe it was a surprise birthday party.  Or a love poem someone wrote you.  Maybe it was the tiniest act of care that mattered when you needed it most.

Let’s do this as a letter.  Yup.  An old-fashioned letter.  Write that person a letter and tell them what they did and why it mattered.  Maybe it’s a teacher who saw something in you when no one else did.  Or maybe it’s a student who inspired the teacher.  Maybe it’s your pet who loved you unconditionally.  Whoever/whatever it is:  write them a letter.  Tell them about a time when they touched you.  Tell them how it made you feel.  And if you want to get fancy, try to include moments of tasting, hearing, and seeing as well.  Write a letter that is full of your senses.
Don’t edit before you create.  Breathe.  Be generous with yourself.
TELL ME ABOUT A TIME WHEN YOU WERE TOUCHED.

***

DAY FIVE
Hello! and welcome back to IRT at Home and our fifth and final day of “Writing with James”.  I’m glad to have had this time with you.

If you’ve been dropping by this week, you know that we’ve been writing from our senses.  We’ve explored our writing through TASTE, SEEING, HEARING, and TOUCH.  That leaves the sense of SMELL.
 
Smell is fascinating because some people have such a strong sense of smell they’re able to turn it into careers.  Aromachologist, anyone?  Or how about being a sommelier and spending time learning everything about wines (including the study of their scents).  Then there’s the dream job of being a perfumer (but that also requires serious study of chemistry).  Anyway:  TELL ME ABOUT WHAT YOU SMELL.
 
The thing about smell is that it can powerfully trigger memory.  Have you ever been somewhere and caught of whiff of something that throws you back in time, back to a moment in your life?  That moment was probably full of story — heightened, intense, unforgettable.  It might be the scent of something cooking in an oven (a memory associated with childhood or a later romance).  It might be the scent of aging (a memory associated with your grandparents or a mysterious neighbor).  It might be the scent of falling in love (the way someone’s hair smells, the perfume/aftershave they wore).  Every one of those memories suggest story.
 
Let’s make a list of smells — both smells we love and smells we hate, smells we yearn for and smells that frighten us.  Write them down.  Keep writing.  Risk it being a long list of smells and scents.
 
Once you’ve written ten or more of them down, look at your list — start making notes and scribbles next to your list.  What are the stories of those smells?  What happened that made you love them or hate them?  What makes you yearn for them, what makes you frightened of them?  What’s the story behind the story? 

Keep writing.
Choose one of the smells and its story.  Rather than write “about” it — write INTO it… keep going back to the sensation, to the actual scent and how it makes you feel.  Let it be silly if it wants to be silly.  Let it be tragic if that’s what it smells like.  Write it as a journal entry.  Or as a haiku poem.  Or as a scene of dialogue between two characters.  How might this memory of smell be the crisis that drives a story?  How might this story of smell be what leads to forgiveness or closure?  Maybe you discover you’re writing about how love smells.  Or how regret smells.  Or how joy smells. 
 
Don’t edit before you create.  Breathe.  Be generous with yourself.
TELL ME ABOUT WHAT YOU SMELL.
 
Keep writing.
Keep writing.
Keep writing.
 
Thanks for spending the week with me.
And here’s a bonus:  some say there are actually SIX senses with number six being Intuition, a special instinct, or “knowing without knowing”…
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR SIXTH SENSE.  Tell me about a time when you knew something was going to happen before it happened.  Or make up a story where that happens to the character in your photograph from Day Two of our writing this week.  Or start with a brand new character.  Or maybe it’s a scene between the two characters from Day Three whose scene began with “Did you hear that?” — and make it a scene about their Sixth Sense.  You’ll be surprised how that might change the scene’s tone.
 
Or maybe it’s time for a nap.  Or a walk.  Or yoga.  Or dinner with family and friends.  One thing I’ve learned about my own writing:  I’m always writing even when I’m not writing. 
 
Thanks for joining me this week.  I look forward to seeing you at the IRT in the future. 
 
— James

---