Walk to Nowhere: Writing as Exploration
Adie Kleckner
Introduction
Writing is often used as a way of demonstrating knowledge, especially in the classroom. Students are asked to write about what they know and to organize and present this knowledge in a particular way.
But what if writing is reimagined as exploration or even play? What if the college-essay is closer to Montaigne’s essais then a prescriptive form or genre?
Some Context
If the quarter was a mix-tape (bear with me), this would be the first track: Something to set the mood, something playful, something that the rest of the tape will build on and re-imagine.
Prior to this activity, students will have:
- Read and annotated (through Hypothesis) Paul Lynch’s “The Sixth Paragraph: A Re-Vision of the Essay“
- Read and annotated an essay that does some essaying (I also choose one that uses outside evidence). I change this up, but here are some of my favorites:
- Ross Gay’s “Loitering is Delightful“
- Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue“
- Hanif Abdurraqib’s “On Nighttime“
Assignment
Walk to Nowhere: Writing as Exploration
Purpose
You are going to go for a walk.
This walk has emotional, psychological, and physical value (slowing down, getting out, breathing fresh air), but also is a way of practicing the physical act of writing as exploration and discovery.
Course Goal
- Compose work in a variety of genres, including but not limited to thesis-driven, college-level essays that synthesize researched sources (3,500 words minimum of formal writing, total, excluding revisions) by using the writing process.
Module Goal
This week we are re-framing/re-vision/re-imaging the essay. An essay is not just one thing. It doesn’t have to be 5 paragraphs. It doesn’t have to be about demonstrating knowledge.
What if the essay is exploratory? Kind of weird? Playful?
Antiracist Goals
Strict adherence to a particular kind of writing, in a particular way has long been a white supremacist value. This form of gatekeeping has been used to vilify and “other” those who are writing/speaking/creating outside the dominant culture. This assignment challenges those values.
Task Instructions
Step One: Go for a Walk
- Go for a walk. Bring something to write on and with–a piece of scrap paper and a pencil, a notebook and a pen, etc. If you can avoid using your phone, do so.
- Wander around a park/your neighborhood/a building. Try to not have a particular destination in mind.
- Let your mind wander. Notice the sights, smells, and/or sounds that you move around and through.
Note: Follow safe walking techniques–walk on lighted paths and/or in buildings that are lit and open. If you are more comfortable walking with a buddy, do so, although try not to talk too much. You don’t have to walk far to make this work; sometimes just walking down the hallway can bring surprising discoveries.
Step Two: Record your Thoughts
After your walk or somewhere along the way, write about your walk or something else entirely. Let your thoughts wander on the page just as you wandered on your walk.
If you aren’t sure where to start, here are some suggestions:
- Describe something you heard/smelled/saw on your walk in a really detailed way. Try to describe everything about it: color, shape, location, uses. You could even tell a story about it. How did it get there? What has this thing’s life been like?
- Describe your walk itself. Where did you go? How did you decide what path to take? What did you leave behind at home?
- Describe your thoughts while walking. What did you think about when you first walked out your door? How did this change as your walk progressed?
Step Three: Submit to this Assignment
Submit what you wrote. Feel free to edit/revise/expand, but you aren’t required to do so. Your submission doesn’t have to be in a particular format or style.
Completion Criteria
Submit to complete this assignment.
Download the Instructions
- Download the assignment as a Word File: Walk to Nowhere (.DOCX)
- Download the assignment as a PDF: Walk to Nowhere (PDF)
Samples of Student Work
This assignment is very much intended to be process (rather than product) driven. Eventually, I hope that the quality of the writers’ process will align with the quality of their product, but this isn’t an expectation upheld in the assessment or instructions of this activity.
Some writers create a list:
I’m finding a stick. Its cold and windy. The grass is wet and muddy. The smell of grass. Sun is setting. A car passing by and I’m moving to the side. Walking over several speed bumps. Half way through the walk it gets dark from all the big trees. Leaves on the ground. Puddles on the ground splashing as I walk by. Looking at the hill that I’m about to walk. After the hill my legs cramping. Opening the wet wooden gate door into my house. Feeling relieved.
Others are more poetic and perhaps “play” a bit more:
I take a deep breath and feel the cool, fresh air travel up my nostrils and do a parkour move off the top of my sinus cavity before sucking down my windpipe and into my lungs. I can visualize the shape of air travel like the shape of a cane. Filling my lungs completely over a count of four creates a sense of fullness that remains as I hold my breath for an additional count of four. I feel the air leave my body while I slowly exhale for a count of 6, using my abdominal muscles to push out any that might be
remaining. I repeat this cycle three more times. It lets me experience the world as it is, not as it should be.
Some writers wonder:
Looking up into the sky also makes me wonder about the entire world and the universe even. I think of how it must be magnificent in heaven. What could the angels be doing? What life must look like from their perspective. I think of what others may be doing at this exact moment as well, on the other side of the world. It makes me wonder where the airplanes are going. I wonder where the people are traveling to. I wonder what life is like for the birds that are flying around, and do they become sad like me when looking down at everyone on the ground? I wonder what it would be like to be able to have wings and just fly in the sky myself. I would want to go somewhere out in nature where there are beautiful mountains, many trees and rivers. I would spend my days off there with my love. We would sleep somewhere high up where we could have a fire lit, our view would be overlooking the beautiful nature all around us. If I could, I would also fly into space. Anywhere I could fly, I would go.\
Reimagining & Remixing
In future quarters, I’m hoping to try the following:
- Invite students to compose beyond writing. What would this look like if students had more freedom to write in other ways? A Twine game? A comic strip? An infographic?
- Guide students to “finding” their voice in their writing. In a subsequent class students identify lines, phrases, or words that embody how they want to sound on the page, then use these observations to revise their writing into something more intentional.[1]
- Replace “walk” with any other activity that allows for reflection and observation. Even better if students choose their own activity. This activity can then become the subject of a larger project and/or a longer conversation about the creative process.
- This is a remix of Felicia Rose Chavez's approach to voice work in the creative writing classroom. ↵
