November 17th, 2009 / 1:30 pm
 Craft Notes

Writing Prompt: Rot

16

(Image is a gelatin silver print made from expired photo paper by Alison Rossiter.)

Step one: go to your files and pull out an old, old draft of a story that has never been published and never been finished.

Step two: give it a brief reread to remind yourself what the heck you were doing.

Step three: beginning at an unfinished section, begin to rot the story. Eliminate all unnecessary words from the final sentences of unfinished sections first. Make the meanings of those final sentences as ambiguous as possible.

Step four: start to infect the finished portions of the story with the same sort of rot. Pull out words from the middles of finished paragraphs if they were eliminated by rot in the unfinished sections. Eliminating a word gives you a foothold in those sentences and allows you to rot nearby sentences, too, but only the preceding and following sentences.

Rot out the story slowly, and with care. This is not simply hacking and slashing away at an old story.

Bonus: Rot out an entire character.

22 Comments

  1. November 17th, 2009 / 5:37 pm davidpeak—

      yes. i love this.

  2. November 17th, 2009 / 1:37 pm davidpeak—

      yes. i love this.

  3. November 17th, 2009 / 5:38 pm mimi—

      Yes, this is good.

  4. November 17th, 2009 / 1:38 pm mimi—

      Yes, this is good.

  5. November 17th, 2009 / 5:42 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Thanks, David.

      I wonder, though, if this is more accurately an editing prompt instead of a writing prompt. I think the argument could go either way, though. I’m asking you to edit an old piece, but I think in the process, I’m hoping people find an entirely new piece of writing. So maybe it’s a Writing prompt, in that writing is something you do when you sit and put words on a page, but Writing is a process that also involves removal, editing, resequencing, intercomparing, etc.

  6. November 17th, 2009 / 1:42 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Thanks, David.

      I wonder, though, if this is more accurately an editing prompt instead of a writing prompt. I think the argument could go either way, though. I’m asking you to edit an old piece, but I think in the process, I’m hoping people find an entirely new piece of writing. So maybe it’s a Writing prompt, in that writing is something you do when you sit and put words on a page, but Writing is a process that also involves removal, editing, resequencing, intercomparing, etc.

  7. November 17th, 2009 / 6:04 pm Nathan Tyree—

      I will do this tonight.

      Going to use something very, very old.

      This should be fun

  8. November 17th, 2009 / 2:04 pm Nathan Tyree—

      I will do this tonight.

      Going to use something very, very old.

      This should be fun

  9. November 17th, 2009 / 6:28 pm thomas p levy—

      i am going to do this with some old poems

  10. November 17th, 2009 / 2:28 pm thomas p levy—

      i am going to do this with some old poems

  11. November 17th, 2009 / 9:25 pm mimi—

      Sins
      Wit
      Pomp
      Rot

      Step one: old, old and never.

      Step two: remind yourself you were.

      Step three: begin, begin first final possible.

      Step four: infect with the same sort of rot. rot allows you to rot.

      Rot, rot.

      snot
      slack
      slay
      nod

      Come

  12. November 17th, 2009 / 5:25 pm mimi—

      Sins
      Wit
      Pomp
      Rot

      Step one: old, old and never.

      Step two: remind yourself you were.

      Step three: begin, begin first final possible.

      Step four: infect with the same sort of rot. rot allows you to rot.

      Rot, rot.

      snot
      slack
      slay
      nod

      Come

  13. November 18th, 2009 / 12:19 am thomas p levy—

      this was harder than i thought

  14. November 17th, 2009 / 8:19 pm thomas p levy—

      this was harder than i thought

  15. November 18th, 2009 / 12:44 am Matthew Simmons—

      Would you mind posting a result or two? Anyone who tries it, actually. I’d love to see what happens.

  16. November 17th, 2009 / 8:44 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Would you mind posting a result or two? Anyone who tries it, actually. I’d love to see what happens.

  17. November 18th, 2009 / 12:45 am Matthew Simmons—

      I like this. Thank you.

  18. November 17th, 2009 / 8:45 pm Matthew Simmons—

      I like this. Thank you.

  19. November 18th, 2009 / 9:10 pm Eric Leuschner—

      I have an alternate process in the same vein:

      1. purchase an agar plate. open and place it in the window of whatever room you typically write in. wait overnight, then close and seal it the next morning. put it somewhere cool and dark.
      2. wait for several weeks until a significant mold culture develops
      3. dip your story or poem in a suitable body of fresh water. allow to partially dry.
      4. using a fine tipped paintbrush, dab mold spores on words in an attempt to achieve the same ends as Matthew’s writing prompt.
      5. allow to rot for as long as it takes
      6. make your friends smell it

  20. November 18th, 2009 / 5:10 pm Eric Leuschner—

      I have an alternate process in the same vein:

      1. purchase an agar plate. open and place it in the window of whatever room you typically write in. wait overnight, then close and seal it the next morning. put it somewhere cool and dark.
      2. wait for several weeks until a significant mold culture develops
      3. dip your story or poem in a suitable body of fresh water. allow to partially dry.
      4. using a fine tipped paintbrush, dab mold spores on words in an attempt to achieve the same ends as Matthew’s writing prompt.
      5. allow to rot for as long as it takes
      6. make your friends smell it

  21. November 18th, 2009 / 9:13 pm Jessie Carty—

      i will be trying this with a poem soon :)

  22. November 18th, 2009 / 5:13 pm Jessie Carty—

      i will be trying this with a poem soon :)