Our author for June is Maya Angelou.
Angelou was an autobiographer, poet, dancer, screenwriter, actress, film director, honorary professor and civil rights activist. Her primary work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) broke new ground, challenging established ideas of what is considered autobiography. She used fictional devices to illuminate her work. Like a writer of fiction she takes the most intriguing and entertaining elements of three or four people from her life and merges them into one person. And her plot structures do the same.
EXERCISE 1 - A Composite Character
Think of the other people in this writing group. Write a brief description of their key character traits. Take the most interesting traits from each of them and fuse them together to form a new character. Write a character profile of your new composite character. Have fun and play nice!
EXERCISE 2 - Childhood Shoes
Write a short piece inspired by a pair of shoes you remember from your childhood.
EXERCISE 3 - Word Associations: Character Traits
Write down four words that you associate with the character type: KILLER. Then write four words that you associate with the character type: NUN. Then think about them from a different angle and write down four more words that are new and unexpected associations with that person. Finally, create two more character types and create the key and unexpected associations.