Writing prompts straight from Ondaatje:
- I love…Write a sentence that is one long paragraph listing specific and (maybe) unrelated things. Read the first paragraph on page 133.
- I remember…Experiment with very specific things. Try for one line or at the most, a paragraph. Begin each section with “I remember…” Think about providing just the skeletal structure of the memory, not all the explanatory stuff. (Read page 174 and 175 for examples.)
- Write about a famous story about you (as a baby, child, teen-ager, worker, etc) that others get a kick out of telling. (Read page137.)
- Write one paragraph that tells the story “straight”—as in “Just the facts, Ma’am.” Now skip a line or two and write a second paragraph that tells the same story but now attempts to get inside the characters. Ground your flight of fancy in the real facts, but let yourself imagine the details of the scenery, the possible conversations, and the emotional consequences of the story. Read the train tunnel story on page 149 and the second telling of it on page 149-150.
- There is a story about (___________) I cannot come to terms with.
Write about an event or story that you can’t understand, explain, or resolve. It might be a story that leaves you uncomfortable, unsure, or unhappy. Read page 181-182.
- It is important to understand…. (Read Ondaatje’s explanation of the tradition of the Visitor’s Book at the resthouses on page 151).
- A paragraph that conveys the “now” of you writing in the present tense. Let this paragraph be your glance backwards, pondering the stories you’ve been exploring, the ideas you’ve been writing about. Read page 136:
“Now, and here, Canadian February, I write this…”
Now, and here, Albanian April, I write this….
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