WTW: Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Exercise 1
"Make a list of all the sounds you're hearing in the next three minutes. That's easy, isn't it? You can write down your sounds in any way that feels comfortable to you. Simply set your timer for three minutes, and jot down as many sounds as you can hear."
Time is set for: 3 minutes
The hum of the speakers when they're not playing music. The high tin sound of the muted TV. Cars in red-shift/blue-shift along the highway, screaming rubber of 18-wheelers flying on toward the Netherlands, or Poland. The echo of Chris' voice, now, after he has gone to bed. Scratch scratch of my PaperMate Flexigrip on the page. My knee rubbing the edge of the book. Electric hum. Cars. Creak of the bed from the other room.
Exercise 2
"Pick a sound from your list. Write it in a column. Next to it, write three alternate phrasings of this sound. Do this for four of the sounds you wrote down."
Time is set for: 7 minutes
1. High tin sound of the muted TV
eeeeeeeee
whine of moving faces
high pitched ring
2. Screaming rubber
distant careening
18 bands of rubber scraping the road at high speed
casual sleepy screee
3. The echo of Chris' voice
hollow remnants
falling dust of
slowly descending vapor
4. Cars
mechanical grind
white noise
relentless drive
Exercises 3 - 12 (All displayed below)
3: "Divide the page into four quadrants. Select your four favorite sounds from the first list and and put one sound in each box. You can write your sound anywhere in the box."
4: "Put a color in each box. Follow your instincts."
5: "Jot down the link between between each of your four sound and color combinations."
6: "In each box, put a taste."
7: "In each box, put a personal memory."
8: "In each box, write the name of a country or a state in the United States."
9: "In each box, put a person. By person, I mean someone you don't actually know Confine yourself to non specific terms"
10: "Give each person an approximate height and weight."
11: "Give each person an occupation."
12: "Give each person a secret."
Box 1:
Sound: High Tin Sound
Color: Silver
Link: Tin is metal, metal is silver
Taste: Iron pill
Personal Memory: Frankie came home in a tour bus with his friend named Kenny.
Country or State: New York
Person: a drunk
Person's stats: 5'11, 200 lbs
Person's occupation: Odd Jobs
Person's secret: Bought drugs from shady people in NY, made fun of them afterwards.
Box 2:
Sound: Scratch Scratch
Color: Black
Link: Pen is black, ink on paper
Taste: Wasa Bread
Personal Memory: Long letters to sister on block-cube paper
Country or State: Connecticut
Person: shaking woman
Person's stats: 5' 5", 100 lbs
Person's occupation: Writing
Person's secret: Took ecstasy every day for a month, hung out with bad people.
Box 3:
Sound: Screaming Wheels
Color: Orange
Link: I pictured sparks and high friction
Taste: Brandy
Personal Memory: German autobahn in the middle lane
Country or State: Germany
Person: Silent face
Person's stats: 6'. 180 lbs
Person's occupation: Policeman
Person's secret: Doesn't like Americans.
Box 4:
Sound: Creak of the Bed
Color: White
Link: Sheets are white, dreams are empty canvases
Taste:Bise (meringue cookies)
Personal Memory: New Year's Eve, writing a letter to Caroline
Country or State: Vaals, Holland
Person: Girl lost
Person's stats: 5'7", 125 lbs
Person's occupation: Farming
Person's secret: She is lonely.
