Here are Sondra Perl’s Composing Guidelines, the exercise we walked through together in class today (9/10/18):

If you want to try out the longer version or self-timed version, you can visit this link.

One thing I wanted to point out: Throughout the guidelines, Perl mentions “felt sense.” Felt sense is a tricky concept to explain and understand, as it refers to an individual “ah-ha!” moment that we experience when we feel that an idea is right. Focusing on your felt sense helps you understand the physical setting needed in order to be productive in your writing. It also helps you see your ideas and your writing as part of a larger web of understanding and communication. …That all sounds pretty fuzzy. It is fuzzy! Felt sense is experienced differently by all of us.

If you’re interested in this, and if you found the exercise helpful: Here is the introduction and first chapter from Perl’s book, Felt Sense: Writing with the Body, which gives some more explanation. Below is a video of Eugene Gendlin, a phenomenologist who Perl cites often in her work, explaining his view of focusing and felt sense. (Yes, this is a SUPER old recording! But don’t let the 70s-tastic background scare you away. 🙂 )