March 11th, 2019

Writing From Objects: A Warm-Up Exercise

​by Cressida Richards

​HERE IS A SCENARIO:
​I have just gotten home from running errands. I’ve hung up my jacket, unpacked the grocery bags, replaced the paper towel roll, tossed the gas station receipt. I feel a sudden impulse to write. I am enthusiastic as I sit down at my desk and open my laptop. My mind is percolating with fragments of ideas, sound bites, little phrases. I open my word processor, see the blank page, and realize that I am... overly excited. My hands are shaking slightly over the keys, but they don’t know where to begin. I am not inspired—I am overwhelmed.

What went wrong here? I was trying to write cold. Writing cold is the act of writing without premeditation or preparation—and, for me, it is always a dead end. 

​In my experience, that strange sensation of over-stimulation is a direct result of deciding to write abruptly, while the mind is still racing. In the aforementioned scenario, my mind was still in the grocery store aisles, in the car, at the gas station—not at my desk. The solution? Instead of writing cold, I need to warm up. 

Now, it is important to note that while writing cold does not work for me, it can (and does!) work for some. For some, writing cold is the most authentic way to write; the writing produced is electric, brilliant and raw. If you are a cold writer, more power to you! If you aren’t, read on. 

I see it like this: while I am always a writer, I am not always ready to write. My best writing 
originates from a calm, focused state of mind—and this takes preparation. Along with some deep 
breaths, a technique that I often turn to is called writing from objects. What better way to ground 
yourself than to anchor your work to a concrete object? If you are not ready to make the abstract 
concrete, try making the concrete abstract... 

Here’s how: 

1 - Find an object in your home, garden, or, even better, from somewhere unfamiliar. The more unfamiliar the object, the better. Object is a broad term—it can be man-made or organically occurring. 

2 - Place the object in front of you, ideally in good lighting. 

3 - Spend a few minutes observing the object: look at it, turn it over in your hands, hold it up to the light, whatever feels intuitive to you. 

4 - Take a pen or pencil and some paper and describe the object as it is, in whatever form feels right to you. ​​(I recommend leaving the computer or laptop alone for now):

• What is the shape of the object? 
• What is the object made of? 
• How is the light hitting the object? 
• What is the object’s texture? 
• What is the object’s color?  ​

5 - Now try to describe around the object, keeping in mind that you are moving into the imaginary realm. Answer questions like:            

• Where did this object come from? 
• Who does this object belong to?
• How old is this object?
• What is this object used for?           

6 - Narrativize the object. Now, you are operating completely in the imaginary realm. Answer questions like:

• What is the object’s owner like? 
• What will happen to this object? 
• What will this object catalyze? 
• What will this object obstruct? 
• Begin your usual writing practice. 

7 - Begin your usual writing practice. 

Upon completion of this exercise, I feel grounded, calm, and creatively engaged. I feel that I have 
been inducted slowly into the creative writing process and am ready to begin my practice. Occasionally, the writing I generate with this technique is what I continue to work on; in fact, some of my strongest work has originated from this exercise. Furthermore, although I am a poet, I think that this technique can be beneficial to writers of all genres. 

To get you started, I have included images of some objects that I have previously used as 
subjects. While, of course, you will not be able to touch these objects, or hold them up to the light, 
I hope that they will inspire ideas for what you might use in your own warm-up writing practice. 

Let’s get writing.

Discussion: Let us know what object(s) you used for this exercise! Was there one in particular that generated a lot of ideas, descriptions, insights, or stories? Leave a comment below!

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​CRESSIDA RICHARDS holds a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was awarded the Class of 1940 Award for Poetry and has represented her University at the annual Five College Poetry Festival. She has been accepted to the University of Massachusetts Boston's MFA program and plans to attend in the Fall of 2019. ​She's currently an intern at Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop.