Wet Ink

At a recent conference, we were given this list as a prewriting topic guide. After we read over the ideas, they asked us to pick the one that matched our birthday month. (I didin't follow the rules. I didn't want to write about a free trip. Facial tattoos seemed more interesting.)

1. Describe the biopic of your life. What events will this film feature? What actor will play you? Explain your choices.

2. Write a letter to President Trump advising him for a successful presidency.

3. Hostile space aliens invade your community, and you have five minutes to vacate your home. Your family members are safe. What items would you pack? Explain why these items are important.

4. Identify one characteristic that you like about yourself and explain why you like it.

5. Introduce your reader to your hero, and explain why you admire this person so.

6. For what, if anything, would you be willing to fight or even die? Explain.

7. Write a story or narrative to prove or disprove the following statement: Altruism is a myth; humans are basically motivated by self-interest.

8. What is one skill that you would like to acquire? Explain the value of your chosen skill, and explain why you would like to learn it. (Fun hint: you may choose a superpower.)

9. Someone just have you a free trip. Where would you go and why?

10. Help! I woke up with a large facial tattoo! Write this story.

11. What character from a book or movie would you most like to be? Explain why.

12. Describe the best year of your life, and explain why this year trumps all others.

Next, we had three minutes to write using the Wet Ink Strategy. Acts of Teaching, by Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Eddie Wilson explain: "Wet-ink writing derives its name from the days when writers dipped their quill pens into ink, and wrote until the pen went dry before dipping it in again...its purpose is to allow the subconscious to sneak in an idea" (p. 9). We pretended to write fast, so as to finish before the ink dried or ran out.

Here's my sample:

Wet Ink

The deep ache and surface sting wake me. Mottled blood-ink transfers to my palm when I reach to feel the source. Stumbling to the bathroom, my consciousness fades into dis-associative horror. Blackness creeps to the periphery of vision, spotlighting a freshly inked dragon’s head. Emerging from my ear, filling the side of my face with iridescent green scales, his emerald eye leers at the apple of my cheek. Bio-luminescent flames erupt over my lips and to the other side of my face. Invisible most of the time, they only appear when my mouth fails to enunciate my thoughts. Roiling, bubbling, or steaming depending on the intensity of emotion or repression, I’ve come to recognize the Cheshire appearances that expose with archetypal colors the intimate secrets I formerly concealed. Yet, can anyone interpret the flames? Throughout the day, those who stare only see the dark lines still ringed with red edema and whisper aghast at why a woman would choose to mark - to disfigure- her face. No one bothers to translate my soul, of who I am behind this accidental facade.

Thanks to Lucy Seward, Heights High School, Houston Independent School District for a great session at Abydos, 2017.