Word Ladder 🖋️ 🪜 ⚡️

Jeff Tweedy's recipe for unexpected verbal connections

Today’s Moment comes from Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song, which we can’t recommend enough. You don’t need to write like Tweedy or even attempt to write a song, but today we’ll show you a way to have fun and surprise yourself with language.

What will I need?

1. Writing tools - pen, paper, or your favorite digital tool

2. Timer (you can use the one on your phone)

3. Your current environment for inspiration

Steps:

1. Set a timer for 5 to 15 minutes – how long is totally up to you.

2. Divide a piece of paper into two columns.

3. In one column, write a list of ten verbs linked to a specific profession (like teaching, medicine, law, real estate, trucking or farming).

4. Scan the room around you. In the next column, jot down ten nouns representing objects you can see.

5. Next, draw lines to connect noun and verb pairs that don't typically go together.

6. Write a poem where each line incorporates one of the pairings.

7. Click the “heart” button for this post to track your progress and let us know you did this one.

8. If you’re up for it, share a snapshot in the Substack chat!

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Tips, Guidance, Inspiration, and Science

Want to keep going?

1. Involve a group! It's a fun exercise to do with your family, a group of friends, or in a classroom setting.

2. Try it at different times of the day or in different rooms to get fresh nouns.

3. Challenge yourself by choosing more abstract professions for the verbs or using less common items for the nouns.

Help! I’m stuck!

1. Remember, this exercise is about having fun with words and creativity, not about producing award-winning poetry.

2. Don't be afraid to stretch the meanings of words or consider the verbs and nouns as metaphorical.

3. Think outside the box. Maybe the noun 'lamp' and the verb 'diagnose' could lead to a line about 'diagnosing the light' in a situation.

4. If you're having trouble getting started, just choose a pair and write a sentence around it. The rest will follow.

What’s the science?

Writing can help regulate mood. Fink, L., & Drake, J. E. (2016). Mood and flow: Comparing the benefits of narrative versus poetry writing. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 34(2), 177-192.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Thanks to Wilco singer Jeff Tweedy for this one. Check out How to Write One Song and his fantastic Substack, Starship Casual.

"Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean." - Theodore Dreiser