waking up the writer every day
Pat Pattison is a professor of music and songwriting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He recently gave a two-day seminar in Vancouver, in which I participated.
In his book, Writing Better Lyrics, Pat Pattison writes of “the Art of the Diver,” by which he means the act of diving deep within oneself to find one’s own unique writing voice. He says the proof of your uniqueness lies in the sense memories you’ve been storing all your life, and that the best technique he knows for diving is “Object Writing.”
In Object Writing, seven senses are employed, the usual sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, as well as what Pattison calls “organic sense” and “kinesthetic sense.” Organic sense is awareness of inner bodily functions, such as heartbeat, tension, pain, breathing. Kinesthetic sense is described as the “sense of relation to the world around you,” referring to the body in physical space, and the alteration in experience that happens when you’re moving or dizzy or inebriated.
Object Writing is a ten-minute exercise, as follows:
“Pick an object at random and write about it. Dive into your sense memories and associations surrounding the object. Anything goes, as long as it is sense-bound. Write freely. No rhythm, no rhyme. No need for complete sentences. Use all seven senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, organic and kinesthetic.”*
The best time for Object Writing is first thing in the morning, the purpose being to open the “writer’s eye” for the day. The exercise should remain sense-bound, completely related to the senses; it is not necessary to keep on the topic of the original object, but can be almost free association. Let it go where it will, and roll through the senses.
Object Writing should be done for 10 minutes only, with a timer set; when the timer goes off, stop immediately. "Writus interruptus." Frustrate your writer; the next day you’ll go deeper faster. Overwriting will only serve to reduce motivation.
The purpose of Object Writing, then, is to open the writer’s eye each day, to develop the ability to “dive deep” quickly, and to prepare you for whatever other writing you do; it is not a substitute for that other writing. Pattison claims that writer after writer (professional songwriters) has told him that Object Writing has been their single most useful tool in the writing process.
The following is an example of my own (unedited) Object Writing, my object being an island off the coast of Ireland:
Little Skellig
chugging roar of the engine as we pound across the tops of great Atlantic breakers, sun breaking through the storm clouds that soaked us minutes before, shedding raingear, the heat is instant. Rhythmic slow kathunk in my stomach, bracing myself with my feet, upper body swaying with the others. Fighting off nausea, just a touch of it like I need a great big gulp of fresh air and a good belch to clear it out. But this is nothing but fresh gulps, and no belch will come, so I fight it, clench my belly muscles, hope we get there soon. The only breaks to the long horizon are the two Skelligs - the tips of slate mountains thrust up from the seabed, scraggy, layers, sharp inverted Vs. As we approach the first, the smaller one, we start to slow, thank god says my stomach, and the white cliff of the shoreward side takes focus. Bird shit. It’s a cliff of bird shit, and the birds! They started to join us as we neared their roosts, great gannets, slender gulls, the occasional puffin, skirting the crest of the waves. The gannets mostly, circling, swooping above our heads, like dogs on a walk, running out and away, then back again to check on us. The cliff front closer, a seething of birds, the surface appeared to be liquid with them, moving, shifting, sparks of birds bursting out from them. Then our driver cut the motor, and the sound! the wail of thousands of them calling, chirps and cries amid the constant whine of them, filling the boat, filling the cliff
(all quotes) Pat Pattison. Writing Better Lyrics. Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. 1995.
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Excellent and informative article. I've heard of Pat Patterson and his workshops. I live North of Boston and wrote a few lyrics. This exercise sounds really worthwhile. I will definitely try it. Thanks for posting this.
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Yes! I hope you don't mind I'm already married to several people.
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ooh this just reminds me of the time i went to the shops it was a twenty minute walk and i had to focus only on the senses and not think and breathing and as though you are an alien sort of. and then when i went to bed on the night i had the most marvellous lucid dream i ever had.i sort of was in the kitchen and knew i was in a dream.i got scared though it was too real. i could never be a ghost it would be too scarey.
thanks for all your encouragement you are so oooo nice and will you marry me
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Sorry, I'm quite attached to my books, and keep cycling through them. You could try your local library, though. Some of mine I found in second-hand bookstores. There seem to be new books on writing coming out all the time. Maybe you could ask for one or two as a gift, some time.
Interesting that you mention dancee, in light of another comment above that compares writing practice to dance practice. Weird for me to turn to this page after so long and remember how people argued with the idea of the time limit and other "rules". I should have just said "talk to Pat Patterson!"
I don't do much Object Writing any more, though I did for 6 or 8 months, every day. It really turned my writing around. Now I'll do one occasionally if I feel my imagery needs a brush up. I seem to need to change my practice, to keep myself challenged. I always practice though - doesn't matter what the exercise.
Thanks for reading these offerings. I appreciate it.
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Good. So my new job is object writing, and I start tomorrow. Thanks for the interview.
Really, I can't wait to try this. I find that the arts come in twos many times, and my other practice is dance - which is a lot like writing when it comes to practicing and performing. I agree with you that writing (dance) takes practice, and all the time spend sweating in the practice hall doing the same silly excercises over and over make it possible for one to go to the drum circle (or club, or post a poem) and gather an audience in a circle around one, improvising one's art. Sure, it's made up as it goes along, but there are years of doing a few precise steps over and over backing it up.
I read your other column and enjoyed it equally as well, as it said what I think just in your words instead of mine. I'm just wondering when the next one will be available. I'll have to make a list of the books you suggested, as well, although I hardly buy books, the right ones seem to come - so if you own any that you can part with, I'll give you my address. The English chair at my school just moved and gave away nearly all her books, so I may have some to swap.
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great advise.
Wonderfully done. This is an interesting writing exercise. I am sure I can get up 10 minutes earlier to give it a try.
thanks for this look into another's writing style.
John -
some of the stuff people write when they do things like this is so surreal and trippy - it's lovely - the ten minute rule contradicts the freedomspasms idea a bit i guess, but nobody really follows those time limits anyway which is fair enough because they're borderline "dr phil"esque i think - i think the "DON'T RHYME" stuff is a bit strange as it goes against the idea that rhyming accidently is just really natural as the words will triggger each other so that often it is more free and unforced that not doing so... but, but - has to be rules or the book would be rather short i guess. it's such a good way to focus and prepare before trying to write something more sharp and together - i guess writers use techniques like this the same way musicians might use scales and whatnots to warm up. I'm not sure how a writer can be in touch with the organic sense when they're writing - heartbeats pulse footsteps and blah blah and yet avoid rhythm because they go hand in hand but "how to write" things always confuse me. That Little Skellig explosion you wrote's gorgeous - it just bursts - AND it says "mostly" inside it. Horray.
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Excellent!!
Thankyou for this! We need all the help we can get. This was helpful.Freedom of expression comes after sticking to a form a rule a postulate then you free yourself in guidance. Thanks a lot. Even in form we free. -
This is good idea. I agree with it but this website has a tendancy not to err towards the idea of practise/development - many people here just write lots of poems that always contain the development needs, hoping one day they will 'vanish'.
It is one of the problems (and you can see it in the comments here too!) that with poetry, unlike sports, dance or any other craft/art, people are reluctant to follow 'set rule excercises' ... they always want to change them. Not every poetry excercise is wild and free; writing with impose rules is a strenghtening skill; it makes you better when you do write freely. I'm not sure why there is this attachment to not letting time-tasks, word limits and 'rules' into exercises (not POEMS, exercises!) - you wouldn't have a dancer at grade 3 saying "I don't think I'll do my 50 pas de chats today, I'll do 46 because I'm an artist!!" - because it is clearer to see that making good dance 'look' effortless is in fact the result of training. Well, guess what - making good poetry look free and effortless is in fact the result of years of practise.
Someone once quoted Sylvia Plath to counter this suggestion when I critiqued their work; in fact, Plath wrote with a disctionary and thesaurus always by her side. That is where those brilliantly 'impulsive' words come from ... she knew the secret that it must reach the reader, and this doesn't simply mean splurging unedited words onto a page.
Edited on Nov 23, 5:15 because 'typo'. -
I've been thinking about this, and the one thing I do disagree with it the set 'time'.. at least for myself.. If I stopped at ten minutes.. well ..odds are it wouldn't do much for me. Most things come spur of the moment or not at all, I don't often push things .. just to see if I can 'create'.. I do exercises in my own way, not by anyone else's set of rules.. that said however.. I do try to listen when others offer advice and I make an effort to read about what is considered 'good or bad'.. In the end.. though no matter how I do, it won't matter how well I write if what I write holds no interest for others..
~~Lisa -
Thanks for posting this, it's a neat idea.
I generally write in rhythm and rhyme. I do it in a two step process, first a draft of the idea and images I have, and then I start on the poem. I think this first draft is a little like what you are talking about, but not nearly as disciplined.
Your exercise seems more like a morning meditation with a pen in hand. It sounds great, though I may not try it. I'm already guilty about not meditating.
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I am most definitely going to give this a try! Thank you so much for posting this!
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I see what you're saying, but I doubt that would hold true for me; I often don't pay attention to time.
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Yeah, Danna, I've gotten that kind of response, too, but I've been thanked more than cursed so I'll just keep doing what I do. It's the drive to teach, to help, I guess. Please keep sharing your skill; if you make a difference for just one writer, it's worth it.
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BlackKnight, Pattison's view is that if you don't stop at ten minutes, you'll use that as an excuse not to write the next day ("well, I did half an hour yesterday, so...."). The point is to get frustrated by stopping, so that your writer's voice is nattering at you all day - THAT's when you produce your real writing.
Pattison also suggests you save the "gems" from your object writing in a file, for use in future songs/poetry.
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Wow, this sounds really interesting! When I took a creative writing class last year, we did something like it, only there was no real time limit and it wasn't in the morning. Hmmm...I may have to try this!
Thank so much for posting such helpful information for us all. 
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this is great it helped and all i think that i might try to do this when i get writers block and try to release that.Thanx for poesting this i liked it and it's very informational. thanx a lot. I really want to try to become a better writer and i really didn't know how.
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So glad you posted this. I hope that it helps people.
I have gone to school for four years now to learn how to be a better writer, and when I try to tactfully point out poetic faux pas to people, they either become offended and stalk me, telling me over and over again how wrong I am, and then click on my features just to waste my points, or they completely disregaurd what I said, like this IM I got today:
thank you so much for the Bitter yet true comments you made on my piece.
but the capitals, are just my style, and i dont think i'll listen to anything you said because i write the way i want, and thats that...
I guess I make the mistake of thinking that since I am always trying to improve my writing, that other people want to do the same.
Sorry, hun, I got off on a rant, but I am glad to see that I am not the only one on AP who is concerned with becoming a better writer. Thanks for posting this.
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Wow, interesting concepts. I might just try it out. It may help me in English class, too! Thanks for this. Bookmarked!
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thanks for posting this, i'll bookmark, read and possibly comment more later. should be interesting.
~Kate -
Wow, thanks for sharing this! What a great thing to share! It's so informative. It's definately being bookmarked and printed out (if you don't mind) as it is a great reminder and a useful way to get in touch with ourselves. Thanks again. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. And well worth the time and money spent. ~Michelle~
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This is really great advice. As I am from Vancouver, I really wished I went to this lecture. Unfortunately, I haven't been very active in trying to garner attention for my work. However, I'm trying to change that -- hence my prolificy on this website. If you are aware of any other writing events in Vancouver, please try to make me aware of it. I'd like to expand my horizons quite a lot. And I think the best way of doing that is by simply sharing ideas.
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I might just try this, but I'm a rather impatient person; I'd probably write past the timer anyway lol. Once you get into a rhythm, you just don't want to stop, and when you do, even when you think you've exhausted every idea and emotion and thought in your brain, the moment you stop, you feel a whole new crop of ideas, emotions and thoughts coming up and you know you just have to keep going.
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insightful reading
Awesome information here! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. I am going to have to try this method. I seem to be just plain speechless and writeless these days... Major writers block.
And I always love to get insights on people in the literary field that have impacted others. Looking forward to checking Pattison out a bit more.
Blessings and *stomps -
Very good and helpful advice. I think this was a really great column that we could all benefit from. Excellent.
Elisabeth -
This is a very good exercise. Did it in college, and learned more with it than any English or Literature class I ever took. Good write. Patricia
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hmm thanks for posting this... This is a so much help....
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and I recommend all three of his books . . . maybe you don't need to reinvent the inclined plane . . . I mean . . . -
try his website:
members.aol.com/ptpattison/lyricpages/index.html
Pat has been teaching songwriting (the lyrics end of it) for 30 years, and is a master teacher. He also writes songs professionally, mostly in Nashville from the sounds of things. He's a lovely guy, too, and very approachable.
Your course sounds like a riot. (I like to let unconscious forces guide my teaching too - ahahahaha.)
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I think we are playing snap here: it's great to read all this, because it's exactly what we are doing here in Scarborough. I run two course units in songwriting which came about purely through demand. Students wanted songwriting, all the way through their degree, so that is what they get. The thing is, nobody here has any idea about how to go about teaching it, so we all make it up as we go along. The enthusiasm is amazing. We have a philosophy/sociology graduate in his 50s, major Cohen fan and brilliant writer; a guy from the Lebanon who grew up in war-torn Beirut; a blind guy who is so full of ideas and music that you forget he's blind; a Swiss guy who does translations of French lyrics; folkies, bluesmen, metal-heads, and the whole thing is quite unlike anything I've ever taught before. This week we did random lyric-writing from newspaper cuttings - where you take assortments of phrases and let your unconscious forces guide the way in which you assemble them into a lyric. Which is very much how I designed the course. But hey: a course is only ever as good as the people on it.
I'd like to chat to this Pattison guy: I don't know the book, but we are writing a book at the moment, half me and half a technology-oriented friend of mine - and it would be nice to know what is happening across the Atlantic. I assume you're ahead of us in things like song-seminars and the like.
Of course you know how much I relate to your seabird pieces, though I still like to think that Bempton has a greater gannet population than Little Skellig, though I may well be wrong.
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well if Zara, SotM, and h8 like it (oh, yeah, and kerouac? who's he?) there must be something to it, beefing up powers of observation and description at the same time. If I ever develop a sense of discipline...
Thanks for sharing,
Brian -
a *must* read
this is probably one of the most useful writing aids i've ever come across, zara. sounds like it was an amazing seminar. and you've done a wonderful job of writing up this article -- this is a piece that definitely deserves a bookmark.
btw... the glimpse you share of your "exercising" just further confirms why you're one of my favorite authors here -- lovely! -
Good write, very interesting Good write, keep writing because this was an amazingly written piece which was interesting and introduced me to a new method of writing
All the best,
Pozo
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hey, you, me and kerouac...
Edited on Nov 20, 7:33 p.m. because 'sp'. -
good stuff, i do things similar to this.. kerouac had similar ideas.
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Sound advice it seems to me.. It seems useful to get in touch with how things/objects imprint on us .. in every 'sense' of them. I've done that using a word, and once in a while with an object like a keychain, a bit of paper .. the color of the sky but I've never made a regular daily practice of it.. I liked your example.. I think it added to the topic well, and gave a little clarity to what one might expect if they were to go and take a workshop or class...
Thanks zara
~~Lisa -
informative
enjoyed reading through this and taking in all the information...a nice exercise too. thanks for sharing this - it is cklear, precise and informative. a good examplke of writing you included as well. -
Very interesting zara! This is certainly worth sharing and passing on. Thanks for the informoation. I don't think any of us are so good that a little suggestion here and there would hurt us any. I know I certainly am not!
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I can agree with a lot of this.
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Lovely little cliff notes on writng techniques. I love to blindly stick my finger in a dictionary, and then open the page to where my finger is, and write a poem about that word. It helps builds discipline, allows one to write about unfamiliar subjects, and improves spur of the moment needs to write to meet deadlines, of which I have so many, I fear I am a ghostwriter...at least in spirit...lol..Artis
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wow! this is sooo cool, and very helpful, i thinks i shall bookmark this for later use... Thanks for posting!
~Cordelia~ -
sorry, can't claim "writus interruptus" - that was Pat's. He's the one with the charming sense of humour.
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WOW!!!!!!
Thank you for sharing that wonderful information with us all!!
I am DEFINATLY going to try this!! I have been trying to improve my writing skills, and had no clue how to do it! (well, write duh..) but how will i improve if i don't know how to start! And you really answered my question!!!
Thank you soooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!
*hugs*
~*~*~*~Little Poet14~*~*~*~
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awesome extercise idea...i've never thought of doing that before. Thanks!
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Very interesting. I bookmarked this for the future when I become frustrated. No doubt it will be sooner then later! Thanks!
~Christy
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This is a great idea! I've been looking for exercises to improve me as a writer.
I like the idea of first thing in the morning, to open the "writer's eye" for the day.
I shall try this in the morning. Thank you for the column!
Writus interruptus. LOL
You have a charming sense of humor!
Paris
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