Hello, and welcome back to STEM Tuesday’s Writing Tips and Resources. I’m Stephanie.
The intersection of trees and writing is a well-traversed one. I’ve been meaning to write about it for years, to really analyze the motif across children’s literature. Trees are symbolic of many nouns… people, places, things, and ideas. At least for me, trees invoke feelings of magic, wonder, stability, and safety. I feel confident in surmising the same is true of others; otherwise, why are they so prevalent in these writings?
As an English major, Sigmund Freud captured my attention because of his essay The Interpretation of Dreams which in my humble opinion—along with The Uncanny—remains his most relevant work informing literary analysis. In the former essay, he explored the significance of dream-elements in proportion to each other. In terms of story (the supposed dream), and in service of the writing craft, how could his insights become writing exercises? That is, if Freud gave writing prompts about symbolism and metaphors, what would they look like?
Writing Exercise 1:
Freud wrote, “What is clearly the essence of the dream-thoughts need not be represented in the dream at all” (322). For this prompt, write a story about a tree without using the word tree. You may use any other tree-related words (branch, roots, etc), but nothing including the letters T-R-E-E in that order. After making a solid effort for at least 15 minutes, what did you find about the exercise? After pushing past the initial frustration of the task, what then? How did avoiding the word “tree” lead to a deeper exploration of it?
Writing Exercise 2:
Freud also wrote, “What appears in dreams, we might suppose, is not what is important in the dream-thoughts but what occurs in them several times over.” To reiterate more simply, not everything in the dream (or story, in our case) is of equal importance. The symbols that recur frequently or intensely are of higher significance. If you’ve never tried a controlling metaphor, one that lasts an entire story, now’s your chance. What does your tree represent? Take your tree story and look for places to reinforce your meanings. Meaning-making requires the discarding of the unlike qualities in favor of parallel groupings, so only bring up details that reinforce, not contradict, your metaphor.
Now if you’ve made it through my Freud-inspired prompts, you’re a trooper. This next one comes from a much more kidlit-friendly source: Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine.
There’s an old saying about forests and trees—that it’s easy to lose sight of one when focused on the other. To me, this is exactly the trick of storytelling: coordinating details and plot, scene and summary, moments and eons. As writers, it’s easy to get caught up in the metaphorical branches of line editing. But losing sight of the canopy is a consequential mistake. A story made entirely of descriptions of leaves isn’t going to cut it, but neither is a story full of faraway woodlands. To write well is to control pacing and distance.
Writing Exercise 3:
(Revision.) Take a passage of at least four consecutive sentences—any volunteer sentences will do—and revise it two ways. First, slow the pacing to a leaf-level, microscopic exploration of a moment. In painfully minute detail, describe everything. Try to triple or quadruple the number of sentences. Next, speed up the pacing while still retaining some semblance of the details from the original, but building the story out with explanation or context. You can be equally verbose, but the pacing must be quicker.
So, what did you think of today’s prompts? For more writing tips and tricks, check STEM Tuesday’s archives and/or visit me at StephanieWritesforKids.com.
Best,
Stephanie Jackson
With published work in Cricket magazine and the online poetry journal Dirigible Balloon, Stephanie Jackson writes everything kidlit: poems, articles, and board books through YA. In addition to holding an English degree, she regularly attends writing retreats and bookish events including Storymakers, WIFYR, and the Books For Young Readers Conference. She’s been a member of 12×12, Inked Voices, and other such mentoring groups. Current professional affiliations include SCBWI, The Author’s Guild, and NCTE. Personally, her hobbies include genealogy research and teacherly things. She’s a stay-at-home parent of four kids ages 5-14, and plans to teach ELA in secondary schools.
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