EXERCISE 001: THE LIST
Lucky writing stuff
Welcome to MONDAYS ARE FREE! We’re excited to be a source of writing exercises for you and to get started on this DAY 001! We hope you tell your friends, loved ones, pets, plants, neighbors, and anyone in your community who may have an interest in joining us. As we get started, we encourage you to spend a little time on our “about” page to learn more about who we are, why we’re doing this, and what to expect. Ok, ok! Let’s go!
List all the items on your writing desk. If you happen for some reason to keep a tidy or spare writing desk, list all the items nearby (do you have things pinned to the wall or a bulletin board? A stack of books? A piece of driftwood? Lucky writing stuff?) Or if you don’t have a writing desk, you might do your refrigerator or medicine cabinet or, sort of a la Philip Lopate, everything that’s in that drawer where you throw everything. The only real requirement is that whatever you choose, list EVERYTHING!
Notes from janan:
For examples of this type of writing, see the lists of writers Brian Dillon and Susan Sontag, among others. Here’s Sontag’s list of beliefs, list of likes and dislikes, and list of rules for parenting.
And here’s an excerpt from Brian Dillon’s book Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction, which begins with a list of essay topics. In this book Dillon concludes his entry (essay!) on Lists with a little snippet of a Georges Perec essay called "Notes on the Objects to Be Found on My Desk," which is kind of where this exercise comes from. Thanks Georges Perec! Thanks Brian Dillon!