animal-writing prompts

[excerpt from animal-writing introduction]

ANIMAL-SURFACES

goal

write with visual media (photography, sketches, comics, taxonomy, etc.)

questions

what paths does your eye follow?
what is the focal point of your attention?
what is being communicated? a story? a symbol? a feeling?
what will happen next? what happened before?

strategies

try to order the path of your eye’s movement into a narrative. if your attention is brought to a particular detail repeatedly, how could that detail be related to other details? what is the relationship between the visual media and your writing?

examples

Static Dynamic Gradation by Damon Stanley

To spread jewel-green out from the center,
We have had lines: the corn and the wheat
Demarcated from one another—the occasional
Lake or patch of forested ground. Plato once
Offered a uniformity of color as a definition
Of shape, indicating this as the model virtue
Would have to follow, if anyone were to give
An account of it. Lately, my aunt offers an account
Of her chickens, going one, two, three (as another
Platonic dialogue, the Timaeus, begins) and halting
Before the usual number—my brother and I having
Broken one hen's leg, chasing it from the coup.
That night, laying down having not eaten, walnuts
Fell from the tree onto a tin roof, their unburst
Payloads later for the most part green and inedible.
In his account of the aftermath, Victor Gegg writes
“There were no real, complete bodies, only bones
Stuck together by a sort of jelly.” Similarly, in arguing
That reason and pleasure were valuable not singly
But only together, Plato describes “a commingling
Of mountain glens,” ignoring that, in the Homeric
Originally, this phrase marked the uproar of battle.

more resources

The Far Side
National Geographic
Cleveland Museum of Art
animals that looked at me
Where the Wild Things Are
65 Bugs
peel
some photos
[your resource]

ANIMAL-NOISE

goal

write while listening to animals, songs about animals, or songs by animals…
some of my favorite songs in the playlist are ‘Moth Like Me’ by Gorilla Toss, ‘Birds’ by Death Grips, ‘Andy’s Chest’ by Lou Reed, ‘The Hanging Garden’ by The Cure, ‘Breaking Bread’ by Matmos, and ‘Big Fig Wasp’ by KG&TLW

questions

what noises draw your attention and why?
what lyrics draw your attention and why?
how could the rhythm, patterns, and effects translate into your writing?
what do the sounds remind you of and why?
how do the sounds make you feel and why?
what other aspects could inform your writing?

strategies

try to write something short based on one aspect of a song, or a particular lyric; then, reflect on what you just wrote and try to write something based off of that — a phrase is more than enough! continue writing like this until you arrive at something unfamiliar from the source material.

examples

untitled by puddlethumb

eitherway my brother knocking down winter’s empty beehive winter’s empty
sun filling the suburbs with Jesus Christ’s complete love molting into
green lions curl your legs into a gold throne your emaciated
lion spreading out into an empty field an encompassing feeling with clarity
with five wounded suns knocked under boundless snow…

my brother and I resting under the protecting dogwood reaching
empty our pink hands like antennas through cloudless eyes
winter’s guillotine-sky pressing your thin black wings against
my palm we crush Jesus Christ’s thorax in a fig pit folding his words
from excess inside our shed inside the empty beehive rattling sun

more resources

animal-writing playlist — what songs would you like to add?
go outside! my favorite place to write is among the glacial boulders of the Chippewa creek
[your resource]

ANIMAL-MEMORY EVENT-HORIZON

goal

write about your experiences with animals as a human animal

questions

what experiences with animals are significant to you?
how did you respond to the animal and why?
what are your surroundings?
how did you perceive the animal? how do you perceive the animal now?
how did the interaction change you?
how could the animal have perceived you?
how could your predispositions/ to the animal have impacted your interaction?
how could you place this interaction in a larger context?

strategies

try to recall a concrete scene of interaction, a succession of scenes, or many disparate scenes.
try to list out your animal encounters (particularly the ordinary, strange, terrifying, joyful?), thinking of how you acted, or reacted, then ways you could have interacted

examples

taking it apart in fascination by puddlethumb

outside the inside
of his gardenhead:
it’s raining ‘in’
oneself: empty
palm’s shadows:

when inhaling ‘what roots
Alex’d cut’, camel cricket, arched
as the verb of God’s vehicle, recoiling,sprung
like a Trouble-bubble over his shoul-
der’s nerveless into shadow
of corner’s edges;

water shrieks
in stainless pan:
it’s raining
outside of itself:
knot breath through
cornered light:

when meeting gods
in his Safety Closet, Alex caught
his splinterbreath, light-knotted -
catches a/his cricket in ‘what he scoop-
scatters his dog’s dryfood’;

catch palm-
ridge against
mom’s knife:
it’s raining
outside of
oneself: stain,
tearing lips
pinkly:

whenever taking apart anything
- like gum -
go for the seams&edges;

blade catches
palm-ridge:
cricket salivates
against emptied:
rain through
any shadow’s
interior:

when mincing mom’s ginger,
Alex sees it’s ‘leg-
antennae’ caughtunder
pink-lip of the emptied peony candle;

these are god’s
fragile lungbranches:
empty ‘what’s
against’ contained:
shrieked,hollowing
across candle’s
shadowless:

when slip,sliding
cricket&container counter-
edgewise catches
it's foothook funny - offtwisting;

skyhollow
shrieks metal:
branching,lunges
through god-
fragments: gather
ginger over
cut palms:

when transferring
candeled-cricket to hollowed
palm, Alex caught ‘what it’s
not to be oneself’;

it’s raining
outside of
god: hollow
sky by folding
empty: cut
god across
emptying skies:

when delivering cricket-partial
towards deliverance, Alex
took,taking it apart ‘in’ fascination.

calf by puddlethumb

   bowing to snapped corn
stalks drags calfhair
     hip against hickory-bark
exhaling stillness bows
   blackcoat dragged against
cornstalks exhaling calf over
  hickory-stillness bowing
      to snapped joints
            still dragging mud
exhaling against
mother’s-hips black dragging
  cornstalks snapped over
                                      a bowing calf

more resources

your gardenhead and garland of past-present lives!
[your resource]

ANIMAL-MACHINE

goal

write something to counter an animal agricultural industry narrative

questions

what animal agricultural advertising have you encountered?
where and in what form is it presented?
what is the advertising’s narrative, theme, messaging, or goal?
what imagery is used and to what effect?
who is involved in the advertisement?
how has advertising affected your understanding of agricultural/farmed/domesticated/industrial animals?
in what ways is your life similar/different to the lives of these animals?
how does the communication of the animal agricultural industry attempt to govern our habits?
how do you respond to and engage with advertising?

strategies

try to write your own advertisement against the animal agricultural industry
try to use the imagery of an animal agricultural advertisement against it’s narrative. where are the cracks or seams of exploitation that the advertisement ignores, covers up, or alters?

examples

returning dissimilarly (walking past Cliff’s Meat Market in Carrboro, NC) by puddlethumb

dawning the turnstile spins with tomatoes!
little faces break into smiles

rain tonguing curb-gravel — in the shopfront
window, watch yourself watching mosquitos

hover striped landing-gear
proboscis plunging moonarched veins?

local bands flesh electric-poles cozy;
see your tongue sit like rain in a pretty bright case.

smiling, the butcher unlocks Cliff’s front door’s
mouth as children test-ride pink & white

bicycles spitting mud through parking-lot adjacent
moon sheds itself marrowless.

more resources

[The Language of the Slaughterhouse]
‘Meat with Integrity’ Radio Ads
Food Marketing
Digital Advertising & Technology
Meat Advertising in the 1950s
What Can’t Milk Do?
Meat Marketing: The Power Of Advertising On The Need For Meat
Meat Advertisements and their Techniques
The Big Beef with the Meat Industry’s Advertising Tactics
This is how the dairy industry lied to the world
[your resource]

ANIMAL--MOVEMENT

goal

write while watching the movement of animals, the motions they are moved by, the movements imperceptible to you, and how you move in response

questions

how do the animals move?
if you are watching a video, how is it filmed and why? if any, what music?
how would it feel to be in their bodies? in their movement?
what are you unable to see?

strategies

try to record small details about animals in your immediate surroundings, or walk somewhere unfamiliar to you
if watching a film, try to use the motion of the camera as a guide for arranging or disarranging the details you gather, perhaps focusing on a particular detail as a symbol

examples

excerpt from [cattle] by puddlethumb

fill the fields
with cattle the fields
are emptied of cattle
the cattle are emptied
of fields the fields are
emptied of fields the
cattle are emptied of
cattle the fields are
emptied and the
slaughterhouse is
filled the cattle are
efficiently emptied
and the supermarket
is filled we are
sufficiently filled with
others we are emptied
of ourselves there
are hidden rivers there
are hidden doors walk
through this door in
this river of fire walk
through this empty
motion this is the
motion of the fields
this is the motion of
the slaughterhouse this
is the motion of
the supermarket and
they are the motion

of capital this is proper

starve them for 24 hours
before their bleeding
this is property proper
a proper motion by
preparing the head
prepared itself and
particularly bisected
belonging to itself
ambilimbed properly
moving along the
head both rounded
the head itself
an amphitheatre
displacing the response
from its origin without
memory a rigid blooming
proper calving restraint
cut cut cut

more resources

Balthazar
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Bambi - Mother's Death
THE FLY ( 1958) Head Scene
Direct Action Everywhere: Inside the Harris Ranch Slaughterhouse
VR
Films: Planet Earth, …
[your resource]

ANIMAL-THEORY

goal

questions

strategies

try to …

examples

… by …

more resources

…
Master Dogen
Dr. Matthew Segall: Physics of the World Soul
Pierre Joris: Nomad Poetics
Thoreau: Walden
Julian Langer: An eco-egoist destruction of species-being and speciesism
[your resource]

ANIMAL-WRITING

goal

write with examples of animal-writing

questions

what animal-writing has been most significant to you?
what did you think was successful or unsuccessful about a particular example?
how does the writing portray animals?
how would you describe the form of the writing?
what language is used and why?
how do animals relate to other aspects of the writing?

strategies

try to focus on the intensities of your writing process. where are you writing? what are you using to write? what limitations could you place on your writing? (word choice, structure, punctuation, perspectives, writing material, craft decisions: repetition, metaphor, line breaks, etc.)

examples

yezo garland by puddlethumb

village under
snowhill
over snowmelt

deer scattered
through fieldsnow

path against
forest drifting

crossing seabirds
over snow-
ridge cleared

folding water
where fruit gathers

standing in night
with trees

clearing
stride

through
trees staring
family

more resources

…
transcribed poetry & etc.
[your resource]

ANIMAL-[...]

goal

questions

strategies

try to

examples

… by …

more resources

share a prompt and we’ll add it!
write to betweenthehighway@gmail.com