The power of verbs . . .

Okay, I'm an aging rock 'n roller, so old rock 'n roll song lyrics resonate with me. Even if, at the time, I found them a bit self-consciously cosmic. So, perhaps, I had an old Who song in mind last night when I came up with what turned into a very interesting way to kick off  the maiden class in an essay-writing course I'm teaching for J.M.U.'s Life-long Learning Institute.


Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

Now, please, as one who's firmly in touch with her inner Popeye, I long ago gave up indulging in the kind of navel-gazing introspection such a question implies. But then I wasn't teaching an introspection class, I was teaching a writing class. And as a writing exercise, I found that "who am I" can be a very productive question to address.

It was, by the way, a loose, fun bunch of people gathered in the WMRA conference room last night. At the beginning of class, I asked everyone to tell me what they hoped to get out of our five Monday nights together. One popular goal was to learn to say what they had to say, only shorter. And more clearly. And more vividly.

Anyone who writes seriously, with any kind of writerly discipline and regular time commitment, quickly learns the power of verbs. Verbs are what you are saying; everything else is decoration to be applied judiciously, deliberately, with restraint. Yet it seems to take time to develop enough confidence as a writer to leave verbs alone.

It was with the power of verbs in mind, that I tried something last night I'd never tried before in a class. First, I read my standard bio to the class -- the two paragraphs I send out when I'm giving a speech and whomever I'm speaking to needs something for their program.

Next I read five, two-word sentences that I thought best described me. I am. I love. I think. I move. I write.  

So, I asked the class, which gives you a better feel for who I am, the bio or the five, two-word sentences?

The sentences won unanimously.

So then, with great head scratching and head shaking, each person in the class wrote their own five, two-word takes on who they are.

The results were astonishing in their variety and insight. A post-sentence-writing poll showed that most had felt quite exposed by compressing themselves into verbs.

I think of this five-sentence drill as an exercise in Extreme Writing. Try it yourself. Try it with friends. Let me know if you find it as interesting as I did. And as last night's class did.