Our author for March is William S. Burroughs - a founding member of postmodernism. His 1959 novel "Naked Lunch" was experimental and broke literary traditions of style and form.
March Exercises:
THE WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS EXERCISE
Record encounters you have during a day (or days) whether they are on vacation, at work, climbing Mt. Everest. Break them down William S. Burroughs style. Divide a sheet into 3 columns - one column will contain simply an account of the events, what happened. Second column will present your memories, that is, what you were thinking of at the time - memories that were activated by the encounter. Finally, the third column gives quotations from any book you are reading at the time of the event.
As you collect all aspects of these encounters you will build up plenty of material to work with. They may trigger an idea or turn into a piece of work. You may want to cut up, move them about or splice them with other pieces of literature.
CUT-UPS
Pick and write down five random sentences from anywhere - book, newspaper, magazine, etc. Mix them up and splice them together in some way to make a new, coherent paragraph.
DIALOGUE CLUTTER
Imagine two people bumping into each other and starting a conversation, whether it is in the street, at a wedding, a funeral, or whatever. Write dialogue between the two people, avoiding any meaningless clutter. Think about why their meeting might be less than small talk. Be sure that each line of dialogue pushes the action forward and/or develops character.