The Love Game
by Rose Lindsey
For this month’s Words to Write By, we’ll be taking an unorthodox approach to the standard writing prompt. This exercise can potentially be altered to work solo, but is much more fulfilling when done with a group of others, which these steps will be catering towards. I would personally encourage you to complete this exercise with three or four other people – particularly people who have their own drive for writing. Together, you all will be playing the “Love Game.” Don’t let the name scare you! There’s no expectation for anyone to fall in love over the course of the game; all that should emerge is an honest expression of oneself. This prompt is adapted from an exercise conducted by Serena Chopra in one of her classes, and I thank her for introducing it to me.
To start out with, give everyone approximately two to three minutes to generate a list of five images that, to them, represent the idea of “love.” Love is a term that is kept intentionally vague for the purposes of this exercise, and it is interpretable between people. If anybody asks what “love” means in this context, tell them it’s for them to decide. The key is for you to create a list of five essential images that are specific and honed towards your vision of what love means. As much as possible, avoid qualifiers or over-explanation; try to get the image extrapolated in as short a phrase as you can. This is an example of my personal list of five images, from the last time I practiced this exercise:
Space between the eyebrows
Belly buttons
Rapsy voice
Bundled blanket
Kisses on the forehead
You see how these images are descriptive and keen, but aren’t qualitative? The point of the list isn’t to mark why these remind you of love. It’s simply to annotate the associations you have.
Once everyone has their list of five images, on a separate sheet of paper, a separate screen, or a blackboard/whiteboard if you have one available to you, create a set of columns equal to how many people are participating. Then, go around the circle and have everyone list off their first image on their list. Assign each person their own column as you go along, and write down what the person names. Then, continue with the circle for the second, the third, until eventually, everyone has their own column with their own list of images that are associated with love.
Take a moment to read over what everyone has named, and then turn your attention to column one. Together as a group, begin naming qualitative terms that you might use to describe the love this person has painted through their five images. What does this love feel like, adjectively? For instance, for my list of five I shared above, my vision of love might be described as “comfortable love”, “tender love”, “intimate love”, “nighttime or morning love”. Does someone’s vision of love seem more romantic, more platonic, more familial, more nostalgic? What qualities are you seeing as key to their vision of love? Get loose and explorative with it, and give yourself a few minutes to fully name what you see in column one.
Once you’re done, move on to the next column, and repeat until all five people have their love explored.
This exercise accomplishes a few tasks. Firstly, it grants you the opportunity for further connection with other people, as you learn what their visions and expectations are in regards to love. Secondly, it generates a collaborative space where ideas and interpretations can ricochet off of each other. Thirdly, and most critically, it gives you a sense of how objective images can provoke the sensation of a subjective abstraction. “Love” can mean anything to anyone – but this exercise demonstrates that by honing the images you’re using to craft love, you can hone the emotional experience you’re hoping for your reader to have.
When the game is done, thank everyone for contributing, and then consider what you’ve conjured today in your writing and how you might move forward with it. Maybe it’s time to write a love poem?