Category Association

Oct 13 2023

The art of association

Hi everyone,

Garrison Keillor’s reports from Lake Woebegone are gorgeous examples of writing by association. One subject leads to another and that to another until the writer and reader find themselves miles from where they began until, in the hands of a master like Keillor, everyone winds up back home.

Association routinely occurs in our own conversations. We start to tell something to a friend — say, crows in the yard. We hardly finish the first sentence before the friend leaps in with a story that your subject brings to mind — perhaps, the nursery rhyme, “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.” The friend interrupts himself with a different story, inspired by association with the first. That often leads to another and another until the first speaker can no longer find a way to finish what he began. The subject is now about Julia Child’s kitchen in the Smithsonian. There’s no way to get back to crows unless you’re as gifted as a Keillor. That form of association can be annoying or entertaining, depending on your frame of mind.

Association can also be put to work by any writer who picks up a pen, taps his teeth with it, and ponders what to write about today. At workshops I sometimes ask writers (or students) to write down a word and list below it ten other words or subjects that the word brings to mind. Next, pick a word from the list of ten, use it to start a second list, and again jot down ten words or subjects that you associate with the second word. Not satisfied yet? Choose something from the second list and make a third one. When you read what you’ve placed on the third list, you may be surprised at how far you’ve drifted from the first word you chose. That’s association. It’s also now a list of thirty possible ideas to get you started on something to write. The whole exercise doesn’t take any longer than to get from crows in the yard to Julia Child’s kitchen. And like good stretch socks, the subjects can fit a lot of needs: a poem, a story, or maybe a whole book.

Apr 22 2019

List #3 of writing by association

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I chose WEEDS from List #2 to start my List #3. Here it is.

List #3
WEEDS
nuisance
persistent
everywhere
green
tough
summertime
honeybees
gardening
spraying

From the 30 possible writing ideas on all three lists my favorite three are: honeybees, mud, and pond.

I can imagine writing about honeybees needing those blooming weeds we like to cut down for the nectar they need to stay alive. I know I could write a poem here. But I could also get into a nonfiction story (book?) about the honeybee. After all, it’s the most important insect humans encounter and the only one that produces food that we consume.

I can imagine writing about the many qualities and uses of mud: from pigs wallowing to riverbanks swarming with butterflies to women taking mud baths for their health. Hmm. Makes me think of the days when I lived on a farm and loved watching gigantic sows wallowing in mud, the air thick with flies and the gagging odors of uneaten slops. I might prefer those butterflies on the riverbank. Maybe a butterfly story.

But I can also imagine writing about a pond: bustling community on a summer day; covered with leaves in the fall; frozen over and skated on in winter; frog croaks of promise in spring. What about a story told by a pond describing its year? Or a 4-part poem? Or I could write a nonfiction story about the role ponds play on a farm. Or maybe get into the community that lives in, above, and around a pond. Wow!

What a decision! I just can’t decide right now. Give me another day. If you have been making your own lists, you may be struggling too. I promise to post my decision tomorrow. After that it’s going to take some time before I get back with you about what I wound up writing. If it’s a poem, I’ll post it here. Otherwise, the result will probably be between my agent and me.

Apr 19 2019

Writing by association

Hi everyone,

For years in my talks I’ve described how to use a method of association to help kids find things to write about. Write a single word on a piece of paper and below it make a list of nine other words and phrases you associate with it.

Choose something from the list and use it to start a second list.

When you have ten or so items on your second list, choose one of them and start a third list.

At this point, and probably in only a few minutes, you should have about 30 potential ideas to get you started writing a poem, story, or perhaps a nonfiction narrative. And it starts with one word.

I’ve decided to put this method to work. I’m going to show you what I’m doing as I do it so we can all see where it goes. Then I intend to choose an item from the total and write something inspired by it.

Try it with me if you’d like to. Who knows what might spring from the exercise. The word I’m going to use is FROG. Tomorrow I’ll post the first list. You can use FROG to make up your own.