A writing exercise in repetition

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I’m in the middle of reading Melissa Febos’ Body Work: The radical power of personal narrative, in which she dissects the criticisms and assumptions surrounding memoir to reveal a genre that is urgent and necessary. As someone who loves to read and write memoir, I’m finding it incredibly validating and insightful. And since I’ve been spending way too much time reading instead of focusing on some upcoming deadlines, I’m going to borrow from Febos today.

In Body Work, she shares an exercise she recently presented to workshop participants: to write the story of their sex lives in five sentences in five minutes, with whatever style and form feels appropriate. She then asked them to do it again. Five completely different sentences about their sex lives in five minutes. And then again. And Again. By the end, it sounds like her students were a bit exhausted and annoyed. But they had also broken through some of the scripts we so comfortably turn to in life to reveal more honest writing by the fourth draft.