Swapping Realities

One of the things that fetters writers is their own heads--the vocabulary we're most likely to call to mind to say something, the ways in which we think of things, and the ways we would consider stating an idea--can all be expanded by just borrowing a like-minded friend for a few hours.

My friend Matt and I did this at a cafe one day, to interesting effect: We sat for 15-20 minutes, just writing down random words that came to mind. We got very expansive, and really aimed to locate unusual nouns and verbs (and a handful of modifiers) in the recesses of our minds. Then, we swapped lists, and started crafting poems using some of the words from the other person's list. There was no requirement to the process, except that a few (or many) of the words be used, esp. those surprising and somewhat outside of our own immediate realities. The result? Unexpected poems, and unexpected avenues of thought.

Your assignment: Grab a few friends and try the above experiment--it's good at a cafe, or after a bottle of wine, when the mind is well-lubricated and willing to stretch a bit more. Or, if you're looking for a list right now, I'll give you a little bit of my reality right here:

beacon
buoy (noun or verb)
bog (again, noun or verb--many of these will be interchangable)
neatness
bankroll
cleric
incorrigible
tender (noun or adjective)
bracket
sunder
cricket
dilly-dally
shuck
pulse
rev
symmetry
cluster
indoor
shrivel
chaff
rigged
boil
boss
spared
pedal
parcel
fanned
flotsam
creep (noun or verb--heh)

that should be plenty for now. Use as many or as few as you like; start yourself off with one or two words you would ordinarily never use. If you have to look any up, I highly recommend Dictionary.com & its sister site Thesaurus.com; the latter, in particular, turns up loads of words from which to be surprised and delighted.

Dani