v.e.r.b.a.t.i.m. games

Here's a list of writing exercises (many, but not all verbatim originals). This page is heavily under construction, and will soon be linked to the archive. For now, scroll down to see descriptions of the activities.

v.e.r.b.a.t.i.m. home

A to B to C
Acrostics
Advertisements
Being the Person
Caption caption
Character Dialogues
Diary Entries
Dominoes

Dreams
Editing Exquisite Live Things
Ephemeral Grab-Bag
Exquisite Corpse-ish Haiku
Fake Poems/Real Poem
Fortune Cookie Add-in
Fortune
Freeform Meeting
Freeform
Grid Poems (Aloud, by line; or on paper, by word)
Haiku Translation Gam
Horoscopapillon Spring
Instruction Manuals
Instruction Poem
Instructions for Use Spring
Interesting/Boring Word Mad Libs
Jazz squares (what was this, again?)
Lawn Object Dialogues
Lawn Objects
Letters from Home
Letters to Leslie
Line Grid Poems
List Sonnets
Lists
Matt's triangular game -- Matt?
Memory Game
Miscellaneous Poem
Miscellaneous Stuff Spring
Miscellaneous Wemon and Menn
Monk's Dream Date Unknown
Object in Another Country
One-word Exquisite Corpse
Pantoums
Persona/Lipogram Haikus and Translations
Personal Ads
Point of Insertion, Version I
Point ofInsertion, Version II
Point of Insertion general description
Professional Objects
Psychic question and answer game (Mike)
Renga
Roussel's sentences -- Matt?
Secrets
Seven Minutes In Heaven Verbatim orgy at Mike's house
Spin the Bottle poems (same as lattest?)
Stock Genre from Random Auction Pieces
Taboo Poems
Translating English into English
Two Character Exquisite Corpse
Using all the words in a poem to write another poem (Bernadette er exercise -- what's it called again?)

Yet to be tried

  • Pull out words from source text; pass; define words; reinsert definitions. Do this recursively?

Activities with Descriptions:

A to B to C

Acrostics
Someone gives out a word or phrase. Everyone writes one word for each letter in the phrase which also starts with that letter. Then everyone writes a line for each letter of the original word which also begins with that letter.

Advertisements
Imagine you work in advertizing. Pick something to advertize, or have somebody else pick something for you. Make a poster for it. Hang it on an imaginary telephone pole. Then notice another ad on another imaginary telephone pole. Fall in love with the person who made it. Write them a love letter. Imagine now that you are the person that somebody else has written a love letter to. Write them a rejection letter.

Being the Person
This is where we pretended we were someone else and wrote a poem about where we came from.

Caption caption


Character Dialogues
Everyone writes a setting on a sheet of paper, passes it; we write one character description, pass; another character description, and pass. So each person has a setting, and two characters. Each person then writes all the lines of character #1 . We pass again, and the next person fills in all the lines for character #2 .

Diary Entries
One person proposed a date for a diary entry and then we passed it around for succesive entries (interesting to note that there were only three people present).

Dominoes

Dreams
Someone starts a dream, the next person keeps going.

Editing Exquisite Live Things
We passed around pieces of paper, writing on each until someone said "STOP", aiming to continue the piece taking shape on each paper. The responsibility for saying "STOP" passed around the table clockwise, while the papers passed around counterclockwise. Then, each person took one paper, and "edited" it into a coherent piece, adding, subtracting, and rewriting as necessary. After that, we condensed each piece into exactly words.

Ephemeral Grab-Bag


Exquisite Corpse-ish Haikus
In which we folded over each successive line and indicated which parts of speech were contained, i.e. [adj][noun][verb][noun], then passed to next person. These were based on what we could understand of a wandering poet’s poem, which he had just recited at our table.

Fake Poems/Real Poems
We each wrote a line, which was then folded over and hidden. At the bottom of the page we wrote a corresponding line (corresponding in meter? in meaning? intended to suggest where the poem was going? antonyms? We all had our own interpretations). The papers were passed. The exposed lines formed the "fake poem," while the hidden lines were the "real poem." To quote Blonde Redhead, "Fake can be just as good."

Fortune Cookie Add-in
We either brought or made fortunes and then added one word in between each word then passed, then did it again.

Fortunes

Grid Poems (Aloud, by line; or on paper, by word)


Haiku Translation Game
Each player wrote a haiku; the papers were then passed. The next player either translated or continued the haiku, aiming to eliminate all words used above. The process was repeated, eliminating all words in previous stanzas

Horoscopapillon


Instruction Manuals
We played a little game that one might call instruction manuals . It consisted of A) Writing instructions/directions/recipes/users manuals and B) Writing of what happens when a narrator or other character follows the instructions written in somebody elses part A.

Instruction Poems ,
You write a line and then write the instructions for the next person to write the next line.

Instructions for Use Spring
Interesting/Boring Word Mad Libs
Jazz squares (what was this, again?)
Lawn Object Dialogues ,
Lawn Objects ,
Letters from Home
Letters to Leslie 2,
On 2, , in my [Leslies] absence, the members of Verbatim who were present wrote collaborative letters to me. I believe this was done by dividing pieces of paper into squares in which the participants could write a few words (no exact number specified). The papers were passed around the room and the letters completed in a connect-the-points fashion.

Line Grid Poems ,
List Sonnets ,


Lists
Everybody thinks of a title for a list and writes it on a piece of paper. Then the papers are passed around the table, and each person adds a few items that belong on that list.

Matt's triangular game -- Matt?
Memory Game ,
Miscellaneous Poem ,
Miscellaneous Stuff Spring
Miscellaneous Wemon and Menn
Monk's Dream Date Unknown
lyrics written to the rhythm of "Monk's Dream," a piano piece by Thelonius Monk. Julie Ebin, who proposed this exercise, also provided us with a scat transcription of it, which aided in our constructions of the lyrics.

Object in Another Country
We make three columns on the page. In the first, we make lists of "ordinary object." We pass the papers around haphazardly by throwing them around on the table. Each person, upon receiving a paper, fills in a box in either the second or third column. The second column boxes roughly follow the format "In [place], where [such and such is true]..."; in the third column, the object is defined.

One-word Exquisite Corpse ,
Pantoums ,
Persona/Lipogram Haikus and Translations ,
Personal Ads
We wrote personals ads to recruit writers for v.e.r.b.a.t.i.m. Then, in some cases, we wrote responses. We plan to actually place the personals ads in the Bay Guardian.

Point of Insertion, Version We Eat Our Words I,
Point ofInsertion, Version ,
Point of Insertion general description
Professional Objects ,
Psychic question and answer game (Mike)
Renga
Roussel's sentences -- Matt?
Secrets
Everyone wrote a short piece around a secret, without revealing what that secret was. We then took a line or two from each piece. Each person wrote from the first word in the chosen line, to the second word, filing in words so that it made some kind of poetic sense, then passed the papers. We continued this process, stuffing words in between the words of the original line, letting it blossom out into something larger.

Seven Minutes In Heaven
You pick two names out of a hat. Those two people go into the "closet" and write a poem (or, in this case, part of a poem) together.

Spin the Bottle poems (same as lattest?)

Stock Genre from Random Auction Pieces

Taboo Poems
You write a poem using a card from the game Taboo. You cannot use any of the words on one side of the card. Then, depending on your restrictions, you or not have to use all of the words on the other side of the card.

Translating English into English
Each person writes a little something. That little something is then translated by another person. And then again, perhaps. And again. "Translation" is loosely interpreted; the translator apply whatever rules or whims s/he sees fit.

Two Character Exquisite Corpse
We passed papers around adding two letters at a time. We were free to see what had been written before.

Stolen poems
Using all the words in a poem to write another poem (Bernadette Mayer exercise -- what's it called again?)