Recently, in my Fiction Writing class, we experimented with the techniques of phrase manipulation. This is a valuable tool for any writer, and one that many people will do without thinking.
Basically, it is the technique of altering a base phrase into other sentences, sometimes forming a more unusual wording, sometimes changing the meaning altogether. Then you can do any number of things: add words; change them; take them away; substitute them for something else — the possibilities are endless!
Here’s an example of what we were doing.
I started with the phrase trying to escape reality, which became:
to escape the reality of trying
escaping to try reality
trying to find reality
dying to find reality
trying to escape the unknown
trying to imagine reality
planning to escape the world
trying to hold on to reality
failing to escape fact
trying to escape a false reality
trying to escape reality’s wrath
And on and on and on until the end of time… Or until you find that perfect, evasive phrase. Whichever comes first.
Phrase manipulation is a highly entertaining and challenging thing; I encourage all you writers to have a crack, because sometimes those tweaks can result in a masterpiece. A fine example of this is a poem by Australian poet Myron Lysenko. I’ll leave you to bask in the awe of his creative phrase manipulations and brilliant twist of poety. Enjoy!
Under The Tree
They stood
under the big tree
and talked slowly
Under the tree
they stood
and slowly talked big
The big tree
stood slowly
and under they talked
They stood big
and slowly talked
the tree under
The big tree talked
and they slowly
understood
Lysenko, 1998
- Love The Bad Guy
