Submitted by Kateri Kramer
Originally provided by Chip Livingston, a faculty mentor at the Mile-High MFA
Read “The Shared Space Between Reader and Writer: A Case Study”
Hermit crabbing is often used for moving a text/story into a pre-structured form. This idea of bending genre isn’t new, it started with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and some of Shakespeare’s plays. Edgar Lee Master’s classic, Spoon River Anthology is a great example of this as well. Hermit crabbing can consist of nearly anything, a quiz, a drug label, a prose sonnet, lists and so on.
Hermit crabbing is often used for moving a text/story into a pre-structured form. This idea of bending genre isn’t new, it started with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and some of Shakespeare’s plays. Edgar Lee Master’s classic, Spoon River Anthology is a great example of this as well. Hermit crabbing can consist of nearly anything, a quiz, a drug label, a prose sonnet, lists and so on.
- Find a short story, an essay, or a poem that isn’t working. Pull out 14 lines and write each on a different index card or slip of paper. (You can also use 14 lines from different pieces, or from some of your favorite writings).
- Using your 14 lines for the basis of your eventual 14 paragraph/section/stanza new work, imagining each as part of a paragraph (some paragraphs will only be one sentence). Work and rearrange them in the way that makes the most sense. Write new sentences to be placed before and/or after them to fill out the blanks.
- Rules: The new paragraph HAS to begin with the word/words/phrase/something in close proximity of the phrase in the paragraph/stanza before it.
- An example, "Standing Still," by Mile-High MFA faculty mentor Chip Livingston, is attached.
| chip_livingstons_standing_still.pdf |
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