[AF] The Writing Territories

Fletcher's Writing Territories

You can CLICK HERE to see a big fat list of questions that might help you start thinking when you get stuck.  Also, notice how that teacher has taken ONE of her writing territories ("Living in Manhattan") and mapped it out into several new topical directions. 

Likewise, any one of the following topics in my writing territory could be expanded.  This is a list I could work on for a solid year and still have stuff left over to write about. 

Madeline -- what she is teaching me; the evolution of our relationship; how she shaped me into who I am today; watching her grow and change

farming and gardening -- how it speaks to my imagination, but how I fail at it so spectacularly; the dozens of lessons I find in the dirt and in growing things and in dying things; the drought; dirt -- I am super interested in dirt these days

Hank -- the nicest dog I've ever known; his sweetness, his anxiety; his extreme handsomeness; his eagerness to please; his funny personality; his destructiveness

California -- my home state; the drought; the fires, the freeways, the crowds; beaches and parks; its beauty and its trouble

teaching -- writing with students, reading what students write; reading with students; talking about ideas; talking with students; getting to know teenagers; listening to teenagers

my #52 pie project -- what I've learned by taking up pie baking as a hobby

technology -- its place in our lives; the way it is shaping our social interactions and our thought processes; the inevitability of technological change; how unprepared we are for these changes; how deeply asleep we are

memoir stuff -- scenes from Spain and Morocco; growing up with the DoD; losses; alcoholism; heat; isolation; independence and beauty and adventure

my sister, who is now 70, and living in another state

aging -- experiencing first-hand the changes that age brings; marveling at my body; living inside a youth-oriented culture with an aging body; feeling lucky and feeling cursed at the same time

what I notice when I walk my dog around the neighborhood; what I imagine

what I am reading right now; books that have stayed with me; stories and characters that have just skimmed the surface of me, the forgotten ones, and the others that have sunk deep roots

my book club friends; how reading with people shapes your understanding of people

learning to think about food and cooking differently when in my 40s; developing a new palate in midlife

letters I would love to write to people I admire

ANOTHER way to expand the writing territory is to experiment with GENRE. 

For example, let's say I want to write about sleep (and I do).  Look at all the ways that genre will enable me to explore the topic of sleep: 

With my genre list, I can decide to:

• write a personal account about sleep
• write an informational article about conditions that are conducive to good sleep
• write an ode to sleep, or an ode to my bed, and ode to my pillow or my secret Dora the Explorer pajamas
• write a children’s story about the sleep fairy
• write a persuasive appeal to students to turn off their electronics by 8:00 pm so they can have two hours of quiet time (read, listen to music, draw) before sleep at 10:00
• write a letter to the Sandman
• write point/counterpoint about sleep and homework
• write an advice column about sleep disorders and how to fix them; “Dear Sleepyhead” or something like that

Devote TWO FULL PAGES of your notebook to thinking about your writing territories. If you fill the pages and have more to say, just keep going! Be sure to put your Writing Territories into your Index to make it easy to find and work with.