Best. Syllabus. Ever.
March 19, 2015 § 6 Comments
In a recent residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts (great place, check it out!), our workshop leader had us do a daily exercise from cartoonist Lynda Barry: Divide the paper into four sections, label them Did, Saw, Heard and leave one open for a picture. In each quadrant, note down things we did, saw, and heard – and draw a picture.
It’s an exercise in observation, it’s fun, it’s a good free-write to get started on the page, and after about day three I stopped worrying about the quality of my drawing.
The exercise comes from Lynda Barry’s actual syllabus for her class at the University of Wisconsin, a nonfiction-driven cartooning class. And Barry’s whole syllabus, in more or less the form in which she issued it to her students, is also available as a book. Check out some selections from Syllabus over at Open Culture – maybe there’s an exercise you’d like to do, with or without a class.
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Allison K Williams is Brevity’s Social Media Editor.
Allison, what a funny thing to open Brevity and see this post. I just spent time with Syllabus during my early writing time today. I am going to use this exercise with my writing group next week. We doodle in that group, and some people hang back on doodling because of the worry you mention. I am curious to see if this will nudge them past that worry. xo Suzi
Nice post.. 😀
Reblogged this on EAT ME and commented:
Lynda Barry is AMAZING
It was on my back burner list of things to do. I’m turning up the heat on myself. Thank you!
Reblogged this on The Satanic Puritan and commented:
The long lost art of note-taking is still alive and well.
Reblogged this on Kelly McQuain and commented:
I love Lynda Barry, and as I prepare my syllabi for the fall semester, it’s a delight to revisit her work and use it as a way to make me rethink my own teaching methods.