Humourous memories

This week is all about cheering people up, including myself, so I decided to make the genre about humour. 

The following is from Life Writing: a student e-workbook

Click on the link below for more information.

http://www.qwiller.com.au/e-resources/ebook/life-writing-e-workbook

What is it about?

We all have funny memories. Our lives are enriched because of the humour we create or appreciate. Often when we relay stories to others, we choose funny stories because we know that people enjoy being uplifted. 

To create humour, a writer can:

• upset expectations (what we think will normally happen)
• re-invent common sayings (clichés) and plays on words (puns)
• change and alter myths (stories about the origins of things)
• turn rules in life upside down
• change human ideas of reality (what is real)
• think outrageously
• make the familiar strange and the strange familiar
• day dream.

What you can do?

1. Think of a funny memory. Imagine you are talking to a friend and write a monologue reflecting on that humorous memory. Build the story up, as if you are telling a joke. A monologue is a spoken form of writing.

An example

Below is a memory of a funny experience with a dear friend (who incidentally could do with some cheering up this week). Hope the memory brings a smile to your face Jen.

My girlfriend Jen and I arrived at a quaint cottage winery in the Hunter Valley. We entered the wine tasting area. It had more of a sense of a family bar that the formal wine tasting areas of the larger wineries in the area. 

I was a bit nervous, never having been to a wine tasting before. I watched my girlfriend for guidance on protocol. She was experienced in such affairs as she worked for a wine distribution company at the time. She was the closest thing to an expert I’d ever come across apart from family members who could easily claim that title. 

I carefully perused the wine list, looking extremely serious, trying to cover the fact that I had no idea what the difference was between a sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay and a carafe. After a while I looked to Jen for suggestions. She pointed to one of the bottles on the bar, pronouncing the name of the wine perfectly to the bar tender. He poured us a small quantity of the drink, while telling us a bit about the wine - the size of the grapes, the length of maturation time, that sort of thing. 

I picked up my glass and I gulped the whole amount down. Jen let out a bit of a laugh as she pulled me away from the bar and whispered to me that small sips are the way to go. Apparently to let the wine linger in your mouth. Oh I replied. 

The bar man asked us if we’d like to try a red. Jen suggested a variety we would like to try. She told me that I now needed to clean out my mouth with water to prepare my palette for the next wine. I watched Jen pick up a small pottery cylinder in front her and take a swig, swishing it around her mouth. I too picked up a pottery cylinder in front of me, although it was quite a bit larger than Jen’s cylinder, and prepared to take a sip. 

It occurred to me as the container come towards me that the colours weren’t right. It was a mixture of reds and browns, but I disregarded the thought as the nature of the pottery. The smell wasn’t right either, definitely wine, but I thought that was the drink I had just had. So I continued to feign etiquette and gulped the liquid fervently into my mouth. As soon as the liquid touched my lips I knew what I had done. My natural impulse was to regurgitate the liquid back up in an act of defiant refusal to accept my stupidity. It spurted out of my mouth like a fountain, sending the patrons bowing down for cover. 

Despite my extreme embarrassment, all I could do was laugh. Jen was doubled over with laughter, holding onto her stomach with one hand the bar with the other. Me, standing there with the spittoon in my hands, eyes clenched closed, mouth wide open in laughter, sucking in breath at unnaturally long intervals. It took quite some time for Jen and I to compose ourselves. I could hear the bar tender and the other patrons laughing and relaying to those who missed it what happened, this making us laugh even more. 

When the bar tender offered us more wine to taste, we humbly declined.

Intergeneric fairytales

What is it?

This type of writing is when classic fairytales inspire your writing. 

It’s about drawing on aspects of classic fairytales and in your own narrative. Your piece of writing has a sense of familiarity as the  reader is able to recognise the characters, setting/s, storyline, for example that you have incorporated into your story.

What can you do

Think of a fairytale that inspires you or resonates with you. It may be the character, storyline, setting, themes or ideas that interest you. Just go with the first thing that comes to you mind.

Write a scene for a narrative that blends this aspect of the original fairytale into the story. 

An example

The following scene is inspired by the fairytale Hansel and Gretel. The scene is about the children preparing to go to their father’s house in a typical morning scene where the family get ready for the day. I have maintained the simplicity of the setting in the woods from classic examples of the fairytale and made the parent a single mother. In this story the children decide to go off the track out of curiosity rather than abandonment. 

The mornings are flippant, so my mother told me. The way I hung my head upside down over the edge of the bed and dangled my arms from side to side when I was supposed to be getting dressed for the day ahead. How my mother washed in the bucket, scrubbing vigorously the ginger soap up her arms, under her arm pits. The water splashing out suspended in the air before zooming into the rough mat that signified the washroom. Her skin shiny and sore, like a burn after months of healing. How my brother flew his imaginary airplane along the sparse furniture that occupied the single room in our cottage, leaping and bounding through the space, knocking the rickety chair that he caught with his spare hand just before it hit the ground. He held the airplane in one hand and chair in the other, still in anticipation.

‘Billy,’ my mother shouted. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’ 

Her hands flung the air about as she sighed. 

My favourite dress was neatly laid out on the crocheted red rug my grandmother hand made when I was born. When I wore it I rubbed the lace at the trim so purposefully, that holes like moth bites had grown over the years. Bits of lace hung down to the ground, I refusing to tear them off even though I tripped often. My brother already dressed. Always first. 

My favourite dress was neatly laid out on the crocheted red rug my grandmother hand made when I was born. When I wore it I rubbed the lace at the trim so purposefully, that holes like moth bites had grown over the years. Bits of lace hung down to the ground, I refusing to tear them off even though I tripped often. My brother already dressed. Always first. 

My mother helped me put the rucksack on my back and tapped me on the bottom toward the door. I joined my brother, facing my mother who leaned down in front of us. She cupped our chins with the palms of her hands and squeezed tenderly. ‘To your father’s now,’ she said. 

My mother helped me put the rucksack on my back and tapped me on the bottom toward the door. I joined my brother, facing my mother who leaned down in front of us. She cupped our chins with the palms of her hands and squeezed tenderly. ‘To your father’s now,’ she said. 

My mother, satisfied, stood up as we turned to the path leading from the door to the edge of the forest. I heard her good bye as we ran down the path with our bags jiggling on our backs.
My mother, satisfied, stood up as we turned to the path leading from the door to the edge of the forest. I heard her good bye as we ran down the path with our bags jiggling on our backs.

She rose from her squatting position and put her wet hands on her hips, the liquid dripped down her bare legs. She stood there till my brother delicately returned the chair upright, patting it a little, smiling nervously at the wall, avoiding my mother’s eyes.

‘Go and get dressed, both of you.’

He placed his rucksack on his back and moved toward the front door open to the wilderness. My mother wrapped a shawl around her body and moved about the cottage, tidying up evidence of breakfast. ‘Late for work again,’ she said. ‘To the door, Rose.’

I followed her gaze to my brother’s face as she intensified her hold on his chin. ‘No going off the path, do you hear?’ My brother’s head bobbed up and down in her palm.

My mother, satisfied, stood up as we turned to the path leading from the door to the edge of the forest. I heard her good bye as we ran down the path with our bags jiggling on our backs.

Free association writing

Yesterday I went to  the Starlight Wellbeing Expo at Bangalow and participated in the ‘Power of Play’ workshop by Barbara Brewster. My housemate has been sharing her ideas on ‘play’ and how she uses play in her counselling sessions and so ‘playing’ as a means of healing and a vehicle for creativity was sounding pretty good to me (email Linda Grace for more information on sand play therapy at lindagrace11@gmail.com). So I went along and had so much fun. Somehow the serious business of life has taken centre stage for me and I was reminded that the fun side of me would like a bit more attention! 

In this workshop we played around with language and so I was reminded of the free association activities I included in the Belonging Area of Study book I wrote for NSW HSC students. These ideas originally come to me from Hazel Smith’s The Writing Experiment. 

You might also like to check out Barbara Brewster’s website - www.barbarabrewtser.com. She is available for speaking or workshops. I highly recommend her. She is a wonderful presenter and embraces the spirit of ‘play’. 

What is free association writing?

When you write by free association, you write about ‘the first thing that comes into your mind’. This technique is good for exploring ideas in your subconscious and for playing with language. It can also result in an experimental text with many different meanings. 

Word association by sound

What you can do

1 Choose one of the following words related to belonging or not belonging. What words come into your mind that relate to the sound of each word? Write down as many as you can think of. (Alternatively create your own series of words.)

• inhabit

• affinity

• secure

• abandoned

• place

• comfort

• alienation

An example

Word: alienation

Sound association: always, natural, station, lean, alcohol, elation, alfalfa, light

Word association by meaning

What you can do

2 Choose the same word you used in the last activity, but this time write as many other words as you 
can think of that relate to the meaning of the original word.

An example

Word: alienation

Meaning association: alone, sadness, isolation, loneliness, separate, quiet, freedom, strange

Association by disassociation

What you can do

3 Choose the same word again, but this time write as many other words as you can think of that do not 
relate to the meaning of the word.

An example

Word: alienation

Disassociation: happiness, connection, jubilation, freedom, belonging, together, purpose, meaning

Combination of associations

What you can do

4 Now put all these ideas together by mixing the three strategies. When writing and combining the 
ideas, try to engage the audience by showing your personal beliefs about belonging and/or not 
belonging in our society. (Alternatively, come up with a different concept other than ‘belonging’ that 
interests you.)

An example

Word: alienation

Association combinations

together a purpose of freedom from alienation to belong to 

jubilation without the strangeness of quietness and sadness 

that connects meaning and prevents isolation natural light 

breath elation free from alcohol together always lean

Putting it all together

What you can do

5 Write a paragraph of about 60–70 words using a mixture of the word association strategies. From the 
previous activities, there should be some associations, sounds and thoughts related to belonging (or the 
concept you have been focussing on) that you particularly like. Draw these out in your writing and try 
to turn these ideas into a piece of writing. You may also incorporate traditional forms of writing. Try to 
incorporate your childhood memories, experiences, senses and fantasies that relate to your perception of 
belonging (or the concept you have been focussing on).

An example

There is a strange quietness in the kitchen at the back of this old house where I have lived since childhood. I join the dots of my life from jubilation to sadness to alienation. Empty beer bottles scattered on the floor. Alienation and quietness. Nobody is home. I am free to leave the isolation and lean toward the light.