LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE

THE BASKET EXERCISE

For poets, fiction writers, and writing students

Early in the semester, I present The Basket Exercise below to all-levels of writing students. Please try it and see what happens.

First, select an object from the basket on my desk*–or FROM THE PHOTO ABOVE. Choose something that “calls” to you. Then, describe the object by addressing all five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste. Please do NOT place the object into your mouth to decipher its taste. Just imagine how it would taste. (Your sense of smell might help you do so.)

Next, write about the object metaphorically. Avoid using “like” or “ as.” For example, “He or she (or an object) is the sun” (metaphor). Inserting “is like” changes the image into a simile.

Finally, write about a memory the object evokes. Be sure to include sensory descriptions and dialogue when you write about the memory. Enjoy!

*When a student has an excused absent the day I distribute this exercise, I allow the student to perform the exercise with an object he or she selects at home and writes about in his or her journal. Online students (and interested writers) may do the same. Thus, if none of the items interest you or if they’re difficult to decipher, please enjoy performing this with your “sacred” (or special) object at home.

Enjoy! And happy Spring. It’s finally arrived.

About Lindsey Martin-Bowen

On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.

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Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.

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This segment of “Lindsey’s Writing Practice” is sponsored by WordCrafter Press and The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder, by Lindsey Martin-Bowen – To be Released May 12, 2026.

Recently divorced Charli Erickson arrives in Boulder, Colorado during the 1970s—a wild time for that city—where she hopes to develop her “rock poet” talent and find the perfect mate. Instead, she links up with the imperfect Ched Lyons, a Boulder native who leads her in a multitude of adventures, including scaling a mountain and a 1,200-mile motorcycle ride to southeastern Utah. While she intermittently envisions a black stallion with blue eyes, who puzzles and enchants her, she also strives to make sense of its appearance.

 Through Charli’s snarky humor recounting her tales, readers will enjoy this Rom-Com doubling as a woman’s adventure story and may relate to scenes from the wild, zany era that followed the serious, revolutionary 1960s.

Available for pre-order now: https://books2read.com/The-Dark-Horse-Waits-in-Boulder