What is a small stone?
A small stone is a short piece of writing that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment.
Why write small stones?
When we translate something into words, we need to pay more attention to it than we usually would. A few minutes of mindful attention (even if it's once a day) helps us to engage with the world in all its beauty.
To find your own small stones:
1. Keep your eyes, nose, mouth, fingers, ears & your mind open.
2. Notice something.
3. Write it down.
What does a small stone look like?
small stones are often written about ordinary things - birdsong, or a dark grey cloud. There are no strict rules for what makes a piece of writing a small stone, as there are for forms such as haiku.
Do I have to be a writer to write small stones?
No : ) The process of finding small stones is more important than the finished product – searching for them will encourage you to keep your eyes (and ears, nose, mouth, fingers, feelings and mind) open.Your short written piece (and learning to enjoy writing & the deliciousness of words) is simply a happy by-product of this process.
Where will I find small stones?
Small stones are everywhere, all of the time. All you have to do is pause and let them appear. You’ll know when you see one, because it will set off a small burst of feeling inside you. It might be that you really notice the ugliness of a piece of chewed gum on the pavement, or the beauty of a pigeon, or vice versa. An overheard snippet of conversation might strike you as amusing, or strange. Whatever you notice, you will be noticing it with fresh eyes.
How do I pick up my small stones?
The best way is to catch them as they occur, by carrying a note-book around with you and jotting down some notes straight away. If you don’t have any paper, the back of your hand will do. If you don’t have a pen, play around with some words in your head and hold onto them until you can catch them on paper.To begin with you might want to write down as much as you can observe. When you’ve written down everything you can think of, you can go through what you’ve got and choose the words that seem to get you close to what you originally noticed. There - a small stone!
How do I polish up my small stones?
Polishing small stones is secondary to finding them in the first place, but it can be fun! These tips will help you to polish it up until it is as perfect as you can make it:
* Have you used precise words? Was the berry red or was it scarlet?
* Is every single word necessary? In a short piece of writing, every word must earn its keep. If it doesn’t add anything, take it out!
* Have you shown us something or told us something? It is usually more effective to describe something and let the reader draw their own conclusions, than to ‘spell it out’. Rather than writing ‘the sky was beautiful’, show us the sky.
* How does it look on the page? Do you want to use a title? How do you want to use capital letters and punctuation? Do you want to break up your sentence into shorter pieces and put them underneath each other? Fiddle about until it looks right.
* What does it sound like when you read it out loud? Does the rhythm please you? Do you stumble at the same point every time? How do the words sound next to each other? Fiddle about until it sounds right.
There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions – part of being a writer is discovering your own unique ‘way with words’. The important thing is that you take time to consider them, and do some tinkering. This tinkering should be fun – be playful.
What do I do with my small stones?You might just want to keep them in a notebook. You might want to send them to your friends or post them here at the Writing Our Way Home community. You might want to start your own blog. Or you might want to submit them to my blogzine, ‘a handful of stones’, which publishes a small stone every day.
What next?
You can get into the small stone habit by signing up for Kaspa's seven free small stone prompts. You can also read more about small stones (and Lorrie with pea-green eyes) in my free e-book, How to Write Your Way Home.
Examples of small stones
tulips: upturned spanish skirts in poster-paint yellow, raspberry ripple, virgin white, purple-brown
He asks for the order seven times. Two small sausages, two fish and three chips. He's stopped from putting the plastic bag where it will melt. He smiles at his mistakes. He wants to get it right. People get impatient, despite themselves. 'He's a good kid really', the owner says to the customers, and we all feel better.
lime-green periscopes of fern rise through the dead
towels and shirts and pillowcases show me the shapes of the breeze
bluebells hover above ground, a mist of spring. dark greens, the snap of twigs. at the exit of the woods the fields drop away. in the bowl of the vista, neat rows of poplars blaze orange.
we sit outside in the first warm-enough sun of the year. we drink our tea. there is a small slug in the grass. kaspa pulls two white hairs from my head.
*
Photos by nemo.star & pascal via Creative Commons with thanks.
