3 Minute Pen Painting Exercise

At the OutlawPoets Yahoo Group the writers partcipated in a quick project.

This group is a band of poets that have been together for about eight or nine years now. The site is quiet at times, but then it suddenly bursts with enthusiasm and creativity.

We have kept this group small, but many of the poets now have moved on or are highly involved with Facebook and Twitter; however, a few of us stick it out on the Yahoo Groups, now an old fashioned style of communicating.

I wanted this exercise to be an Abstract form of Haiga.
Perhaps we can call it the 3 Minute Pen Painting.

Whatever the name, each writer relaxes, takes a breath, picks up a pen, chooses a blank page, sets a timer for three minutes, and then writes whatever comes to mind.

Writing stops at the end of three minutes. The writing product will have a few lines that can be put into any form. Since this exercise is designed for abstract poetry, the jotted lines may be used just as they are written; sometimes the lines need to be tweaked and moved around. The lines may also be put into a more traditional form.

I think it is Tim Russel who used this type of method to create haiku using the senses.

I learned to do this writing technique many, many years ago when I began writing, in a writing course.

It is pretty basic stuff. Originally we had to do it for five minutes and if you have the time go for the extra two minutes, but three minutes seems to work fine for the study of short verse.

If the first attempt is all over the place like mine was recently, with TV on, kids arguing, radio in another room, outside distractions -- I had very little focus and my thoughts went everywhere -- then the writing may need editing.

It is good to have a setting that you are normally in, but sometimes I have to eliminate some of the media, and focus on a particular subject, and do my three minutes.

I used this process to write"Eating Sushi with Borrowed Chopsticks".

Since the deadline for submissions had passed, I have included just a few participants from the two days we had time to do this exercise.

After completing the exercise, put it into a nice format, and add some style of abstract art that depicts it. I like the feel of the composite art connecting with the different ideas expressed in each person's grouping of words to come through the.

If you would like to try it out, stop into the Yahoo OutlawPoets or try it on your own and send it in to:

     3minutepenpaintingexercise@poetrywriting.org

Karina Klesko, Sketchbook Editor