Peer Workshop on “Collage and Commentary in Deborah Miranda’s Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir”

Bring your rough (or polished!) draft in any genre to a free-flowing discussion inspired by Wendy Call’s master class on Deborah Miranda’s Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir. Writing prompts to consider as you create:

• First: You will need 10 index cards (or similarly sized pieces of paper).
• Second: Please don’t read ahead in this exercise! The process will work better if you do the steps one at a time, without looking ahead.

Take your first five cards. On each card, write down one thing you were obsessed with as a child—before you were eight years old. Anything goes, from the macabre to the silly to the embarrassing. Really, this is first-thought-best-thought. Jot down whatever comes to mind. Set those aside.

On each of the next five cards, write one thing you are currently obsessed with. If you have a project-in-progress, it would be good for those obsessions to connect in some way to that writing project. Otherwise, just write down whatever comes to mind. One obsession per card.

Mix up the cards in each individual pile, so that they aren’t in the order that you wrote them. Be sure to keep the “kid obsessions” and “current obsessions” separate. Turn each pile face down. Next, give yourself a little break. Go get more coffee, walk around the block, do some stretches. Anything to clear your mind. Or, come back to the exercise tomorrow.

Take a card from each pile and write about the connections between the childhood obsession and the adult obsession. What’s the relationship between them? Write for 15 minutes. Even if your first thought is, “There is no relationship between these two things!!” Just try your best. Freewrite and see what comes out. If, after five minutes, it’s still not working, feel free to turn over a second pair of cards.

Turn over another pair of cards and write for another 15 minutes.

Delve more deeply into the most interesting resonance you find between your childhood self and your current self, based on the freewriting you have just done.

This virtual class facilitated by Alison Meyers is streamed via Zoom.

Virtual Event | Admission Free
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